Real estate in Egypt (Cairo, Sharm, Hurghada, Marsa Alem): real prices, rights of the parties, contracts, usufruct, courts

Every year we have more and more cases in which the plaintiffs are foreign clients who wanted to invest in real estate in the resort towns of Egypt. These are really attractive places, especially Sharm El Sheikh, where you can easily and carefree spend the winter, basking in the sun at an air temperature of +25 – +28 degrees Celsius.

Our advice to everyone who wants to buy property in Egypt:

1. Do not fall for any advertising, and even more – for the persuasion of your recent Egyptian friends who will advise a cool object
2. Check prices in the general market, what prices are offered by companies or local sellers. Ask a local to meet or call to find out the price, and then say that the buyer will be a foreigner. They should not change the prices for objects.
3. Go to the first meeting with a lawyer to accurately fixate the price and immediately receive all documents for the object
4. Choose ready-made facilities, choose almost completed complexes where people are already walking (if we are talking about a new complex). If you choose a long-term construction, find out the history of the company. To do this, you can always contact us, our lawyers will conduct a study.
5. If you have opted for a particular object, give the contract of sale to our lawyer for a detailed check. We will definitely protect your interests before signing the contract.
6. Do not flatter yourself on the terms prescribed in your language, they may differ from Arabic. The Arabic version rolls in court. Also check the contract with our lawyers or hire an interpreter.
7. Try to buy ready-made objects for cash and even ask for a discount for transferring cash.
8. In unfinished properties with an installment system, remember that until the property is built finally, and you have received the final documents and keys, you should not be billed for the maintenance of the compound.
9. We do not recommend taking apartments, chalets, villas of the Usufruct type (lifetime tenancy usufruct system), in Egypt, on the basis of the law, the ownership of such an object remains with the buyer for 99 years or until his death. So it’s a lifetime lease. If only you are satisfied with all the conditions, then again we invite you to check the usufruct contract for the purchase of this property. After the death of the buyer, the object will not pass to the children or grandchildren, it will go back to the company to the seller.
10. Do not forget that when you buy an apartment – electricity, water, gas meters must also be rewritten in your name.
11. Register your contracts of sale in court – this is the procedure for verifying signatures. Ask for advice on the registration of your contracts.

Actions for the acquisition of real estate in Egypt are declared by law and are reflected in the Civil Code (Law #131, Art.1948 # 210). If the Seller refuses for any reason to document his actions on the sale of real estate to the Owner, then according to the law, the Owner has the right through the court to obtain the right to document the purchase on his own and act in the same instances as the Seller. This fact is applied only within the framework of this procedure, called the Green Contract (Green Contract).

It follows that:

1. There is a convenient way to control the transaction for the sale of real estate in Egypt. The parties must comply with all the items listed in the Law on the legalization of purchases in notary departments, registration authorities, as well as all other units from the legal list in the Law
2. There is another way to force the seller to act on the basis of the Law and complete the entire list of documented actions for the transfer of property. This is a way in which you yourself have the right to act on behalf of the seller, if he, in turn, refuses to complete the entire procedure.

Both methods lead to the same results with only one difference: the first is without a court order, and the second one is on the basis of a judge’s decision.

In accordance with the above, everyone who wants to go through the procedures for registering real estate in Egypt must complete the following steps:

1. Notify the notary office (Shagr Elakari) of the intention to act and form a request about it.
2. Register the right to property in a special form after completing all the necessary actions with the contract for the sale of an apartment (villa, house, land) in Egypt.

The Buyer receives a very important advantage – he has the right to his own protection against everything illegal at his own will or at the will of non-performance of tasks on the part of the Seller. For example, sometimes agencies or sellers of real estate in Egypt offer the same properties to many participants, replacing one contract with another in order to obtain excess profits or fraud when buying property in Egypt. The last accepted contract for the sale may serve as a legal obstacle to the completion of the transaction. This is done to obtain the full rights of the seller to the land or apartment.

In this way, foreign citizens who bought apartments in Hurghada (Sharm El Sheikh or Cairo) for their own safety must notify the notary office about the start of the procedure and receive a request number in order to protect themselves by law. If all the steps for real estate registration are carried out correctly and on time, then the law will always be on the side of the buyer: carefully study both versions of the sale and purchase agreement and even what is written in small font, hire a specialist lawyer to represent your interests in the transaction. After the registration procedure is completed, you have a very strong legal protection, in which neither the seller nor the agency can claim your property.

We offer services for conducting transactions for the purchase of an apartment in Egypt, as well as for resolving issues of fraud, incomplete objects, non-completion of objects on time, non-return of funds and other issues in court.