The New Urban Communities Authority will start providing utilities for "Bayt Al Watan" Project after closing the door for applying for the project. Eng. Amin Abdel-moneim, Vice Chairman of NUCA, stated that NUCA will determine the plots that will be provided with utilities after the deadline. He added that NUCA wil deliver the plots next January, as scheduled, refuting rumors that the Ministry of Housing declared that delivery would be in December. More»

Six of October Development & Investment (SODIC) – (OCDI.CA) has refuted the news that Lebanon’s Solidere International has paid EGP 160 million so as to settle their current disputes over a piece of land spreading over 250,000 m2. SODIC noted that the above-stated sum had already been paid by Solidere as per signed contracts and without any intention to end the current disputes between the two companies. SODIC added that the arbitration lawsuit filed against Solidere as the latter did not fulfill its obligations as pursuant to the agreement signed between the two firms in June 2008 on Sheikh Zayed Project. SODIC said arbitration procedures are confidential. SODIC announced on September 12th that the company has started adopting the legal procedures against Solidere International. It said the company has submitted a request to Cairo Regional Centre for International Arbitration (CRCICA) for terminating the contract signed with the Lebanese company. SODIC said filling an arbitration lawsuit against Solidere because the latter has breached the agreement signed between the two firms in June 2008 on Sheikh Zayed Project. More»

Ministry of Housing will hold an auction next month for selling a number of plots with spaces ranging from 1000 to 10,000 m2. The plots will be used for commercial, educational, health, and administrative purposes in New Cairo. The Ministry is also preparing for offering plots for investment in New Cairo. These plots range from 5 to 1000 acres and will be announced in auctions. This was stated by Eng. Kamal Fahmy, Chairman of New Cairo Apparatus, who added that committees  have been formed for determining the number of plots that will be offered and their estimated value.

Project delays were to blame for Arabtec's second-quarter loss, the Dubai builder's chief financial officer said on Tuesday, predicting the company would bounce back soon as contracts in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi hit the bottom line. Arabtec, Dubai's largest listed contractor, made a second-quarter loss of 11.6 million dirhams ($3.16 million), its first quarterly loss since the emirate's property collapse and debt crisis in 2009. "The reason (for the loss was) the delay in major projects starting," Ziad Makhzoumi, chief financial officer told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai. "I don't think you will see it again in the near future because the big projects (including) in Saudi Arabia have now started ... If you ask me when will we have more predictable results, it will have to be next year onwards." He did not say what had caused the delays or give any other details about the projects. A consortium including Arabtec, Turkey's TAV Insaat and Greece's Consolidated Contractors Co won a $2.9 billion contract to build a terminal at Abu Dhabi's airport in June and is also bidding for other related projects. More»

The Ministry of Housing, represented by the New Urban Communities Authority will hold a session next Thursday chaired by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Communities, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The session aims at presenting the results of a conclusive report on the "construction environment and housing indicators,"  given that the Ministry of Housing seeks to cope up with the global orientation towards employing information and knowledge in the decision-making process. The Urban Planning and Development Authority has announced forming a new public department, entitled  "Urban Observatory" for providing decision and policy makers with information and indicators about the status of urban development in Egypt. That would help in evaluating the national development policies by launching an integrated network of urban observatories. In a statement issued today, the Authority added that the results of the above-mentioned report have been applied on  seven economic centers including  Cairo, Aswan, Tanta, Ismailia, Minia, Assuit, and Aswan. He also pointed out that these results include basic and specialized indicators that reflect the level of urban communities development in these cities. More»

Dr. Tarek Wafiq, Minister of Housing and New Urban Communities, stressed on the need to increase the consumption efficiency of Suez Canal, by establishing a logistics zone, to provide services for ships or others. Wafiq revealed that the official documents of this project will be presented to the cabinet in two weeks, in addition to holding a meeting with Suez Canal Authority to discuss the project. He added that it will be entitled "Al Fairouz" city, with a capacity of one million people. He also called for redrafting the institutional framework of Suez, including the institutions and organizations working in Suez Canal and Sinai, in addition to thinking of various alternatives for establishing cooperation between these institutions. More»

Dr. Tarek Wafiq, Minister of Housing and New Urban Communities Authority, said the Housing and Development Bank (HDB) plays a significant role in offering apartments to young and low- income groups. He also highlighted that the bank has financial and human potentials allowing it to effectively participate in establishing the social project that serves a large number of citizens. This was stated during the Minister's meeting to the bank's headquarter. Fathy El-Seba'ay, an accountant at HDB, give the Minister a complete account of the bank's current projects, financial status, and future plans. More»

New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) will launch 20.000 non-traditionally built apartments at the social housing program by the beginning of next week. These apartments will follow the same terms of the traditional apartments, but with some differences taking into consideration the nature of these apartments. Eng. Amin Abdel-Moneim, Vice Chairman of NUCA, stated that  the construction of apartments with non-traditional building materials is considered a new experience for the Ministry of Housing, given that they involve different technical issues. He added that the Housing and Building National Research Center will be responsible for considering the technical issues when opening the envelopes. The role of the HBNRC is to evaluate the materials used by the companies involved in the construction of these apartments, in addition to checking the appropriateness of the materials for use based on the cost and implementation speed. Dr. Ashraf Hussein, Director of the Planning and Project Management, noted that NUCA's new terms include that the companies should give a presentation on its construction technique, the product, and researches to guarantee the product's appropriateness for use. Given that no such projects were implemented before, the companies will assume liability for the product, he added.

Six of October Development and Investment (SODIC)-(OCDI.CA) in a statement issued today, announced that Egyptian PM decided to refer the company's grievance to minister of justice. The grievance is to dissolve the disputes around a plot of land in New Cairo City. It will be discussed by the ministerial group. The real estate committee, at Urban Communities Authority, has decided before to cancel allocating the plot of land, which is in New Cairo City. More»

"Bayt Al Watan" project experiences a number of crises, including the facts that the project's prices are higher than the prices of the nearby plots,the unstable political situation and lack of security discourage immigrant Egyptians from applying for the project, in addition to extending the deadline three times  due to the people's desire to preview the project themselves. The repercussions of these crises can be manifested in that only 40% of the project or 6.000 plots have been reserved since the project was launched 7 months ago. On his part, Eng. Adel Hussein stated that the project will be delivered next December, as scheduled, pointing out that the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) has held tenders for providing the  utilities. He also noted that the utilities will be finalized in the 5 cities of the project within two months. More»