Egypt taking steps to rehabilitate its informal housing crisis

Posted on August 11, 2020

Ashwa’yat,or informal housing, are expanding out of control. The government is now looking to provide the inhabitants of these regions with affordable homes as part of the escalation of informal settlement rehabilitation projects. As part of this rehabilitation projects, the third phase in Southern Cairo residential complex, Al-Asmarat, was inaugurated on 12 July Al-Asmarat has 7,440 fully furnished units, including educational , health, social , religious and entertainment facilities. The units are allotted at low, long-term rentals of EGP 350 ($22) per month, while the actual construction cost stands at EGP600,000($37,607) per unit The project’s third phase, which covers an area of 65 feddan and is worth investments of EGP 18bn ($112.713m), was completed within 18 months. The first two phases of the Al-Asmarat were rolled out in 2016 after a construction period of two years, and collectively consists of 10,980 units with an overall cost of EGP 1.6bn ($100.278m). The eventual goal is to ensure that the Al-Asmarat housing complex would be inhabitable for 100,000 citizens who were previously living in informal housing areas.