I keep coming back to Egypt.
Why?
– The weather is AMAZING
– It is ridiculously affordable
– The airports are very well connected
– There is so much to do (The Nile, Pyramids, amazing snorkeling/diving, superb beaches)
– It’s fun (bars, clubs, etc)
Last time I did a whole report on real estate in the massive new capital city that the Egyptian government is building, and I also wrote an article on Cairo real estate itself, but this time around I went to check out the Red Sea.
What I found were amazing high-end compounds that are extremely safe, well-maintained, where everyone speaks English, with an international airport nearby, and affordable international schools. Some of them are also entirely dollarized with regards to real estate.
There were also affordable luxury developments being sold for less than $1,000 per m2.
The best part is that if you invest just $300,000 in any such real estate, you can qualify for Egyptian citizenship.
In your application you can include:
– your underage children
– your spouse or up to 4 spouses if you are Muslim
“Why get Egyptian citizenship? It’s a horrible passport”
Yes, the Egyptian passport is a bad travel document. But for us Westerners it provides us with a unique diversification angle. Sure, the Turkish citizenship by investment program is more interesting, but Egyptian citizenship provides investors with a call-option on further Africa rapprochement/integration.
At the end of the day, you are not getting Egyptian citizenship for yourself. Let’s face it, if you have a Western passport an Egyptian passport will mostly just be a good bar story.
However this is a legacy play. You are doing it for your children and grandchildren, especially as this citizenship gets passed down the generations as long as the newborns get properly registered at an Egyptian embassy or consulate.
What will the world look like in 30, 50, 70 years? Will your grandchildren be happy to have full access to a massive economy with a growing population? Will this be their escape plan from ageing Europe and North America? Will this be their gateway into growing Africa? Nobody knows. But it’s an interesting call option.
Obviously this program is for people who can afford to lock $300,000 in Egypt for 5 years, with the understanding that getting money into Egypt is always a lot easier than getting money out of Egypt.
And yes, it will be a volatile ride. There will be war in the region, there will be coups and rumors of coups, there will be revolutions and the odd terrorist attack.
It’s the Middle East. If you can’t handle it, stay away from it 🙂
As for non-Muslims wondering what it’s like spending time in Egypt. There are many churches as 10% of the native population is Christian. You can find English, French, Italian masses and services. There are many international schools in English. Alcohol is easy to find. English is also relatively widely spoken.
As a matter of fact, there is a substantial year-round European expat community on the Red Sea.
It’s objectively a great place to spend Winters, or even to live full-time with children as the international schools are of high quality with Western teachers, are affordable, and more traditional than in the West.
You can contact Hany and his team about the Egyptian citizenship by investment program or to invest in real estate on the Red Sea.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
Services in Egypt:
Other articles on Egypt:
- Citizenship by Investment in Egypt
- Why the Egyptian Citizenship by Investment? Deep dive with the Egyptian government.
- Making a Real Estate Investment in Cairo, Egypt – a contrarian play
- BREAKING NEWS on the Egypt Citizenship by Investment: all Real Estate now allowed
- Now is the time to pull the trigger on Egyptian Citizenship
- Investing in Real Estate in the New Administrative Capital of Cairo in Egypt
- The New Administrative Capital of Egypt. Why, What, and how?
If you want to read more such articles on other real estate markets in the world, go to the bottom of my International Real Estate Services page.
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Transcript of “Red Sea real estate in Egypt with free citizenship”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, everyone. Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m on the Red Sea in beautiful Egypt, and I wanted to make this video to address some of the misconceptions that people have with regards to Egypt. Because whenever I post content on Egypt, whether it be for real estate or the citizenship by investment program, I get so much hate from people. But actually, Egypt is a very nice place to live if you know where to go to. And this, for example, right here, is a very nice place. We’ll go into detail about it.
But today, we’ll be looking at this development, which is really pure lifestyle. We’ll also be looking at a development in town nearby, in Hurghada, which is a bit better for rental income. Then we’ll be looking at affordable luxury, which is about $800 per square meter for nice apartments with swimming pools, the whole deal. And then we’ll be looking at a potential capital appreciation place. Hany here, I’ve been working with Hany for a while. He has a law firm that specializes in helping foreign investors make investments here in Egypt as well as obtain residency and citizenship, which you can get by just investing $300k in any real estate here in Egypt. Hany, when we first talked, I remember you kept saying, you have to go to Hurghada, you have to go to El Gouna.
HANY: Exactly, exactly. Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: My Egyptian friends were always saying this as well. Why?
Why visit El Gouna
HANY: Okay. As you can see, this place is like one of the best places you can stay in. It’s having beautiful beach. You can see the different texture in the sea. It’s a beautiful place to do snorkeling, to do water sports. The development we are in now is one of the best in Egypt. The developer is called Orascom, and they are a multinational company that has developments in Switzerland, in Oman, in Egypt, in Montenegro, many locations, in Grenada, even, for the citizenship program over there. And of course, in Egypt, they are one of the largest and most luxurious developers in Egypt.
Quick background about the city we are in. It’s called Hurghada. It’s 450 kilometers from Cairo. And it has its own airport, and it’s one of good airports in Egypt. The current capacity of the airport is around 7 million visitors per year. However, this capacity will increase within the coming two years to be almost 13 million visitor per year. This is the capacity what they can receive in Hurghada. The population of Hurghada is almost like 130,000 people. They are living here, but we are receiving almost around 1.5 million to 2 million tourists per year to this city alone. The tourists who are coming here, some of them are tourists, some come for residential tourism. So they stay, they live here, they bring their kids to school.
There are multiple schools here, by the way. There are some British schools. There is a German school, French school in Hurghada itself, so there are a few schools that international community can actually live here. There are a lot of activities you can do. There is golf courses, scuba diving. You can enjoy the beach. You can do a lot of things, go to Safari in the desert, so a lot of things you can do, and you are not going to be bored living here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, I just spent a week here on vacation before us shooting this. And look, it’s very comfortable. Essentially, think of all the negative points about Egypt. Remove them. This is it. [laughs]
HANY: Yes. And about that, by the way, if you noticed, security is everywhere.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Not that it’s needed, really.
HANY: Exactly. But everyone is coming here to enjoy their time. Still, security is important, and they take it very serious. For foreigners and Egyptians who are coming and living here, they are enjoying their life because they don’t feel scared. You can see the cars they are opened in the street, so no one is scared that they can get something, like, stolen or something negative that can happen. By the way, most of the rich Egyptians, like, celebrities, businessmen, and people who has wealth, like, high net worth individuals, let’s put it this way, they come here, and specifically to this development, so that they can enjoy their time. And as you said, it’s a lifestyle location.
This is a 3.7 kilometers development, so it’s massive. 4,700 units already developed and delivered, more than 4,000 coming up, so you can imagine the magnitude of the place.
Tour of El Gouna
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. We’re here in one of the many marinas. There’s, like, I don’t know, like, five, six marinas here.
HANY: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But before we go on and discuss this, I just want to mention the weather here on the Red Sea in Egypt, because it’s essentially every day like this. Every day it’s warm, there’s not a single cloud. And when you compare this with other destinations in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, and southern Europe, etc., or the Caribbean, there’s great weather, sure, but for at least four, five months of the year, there’s rainy season, the skies are gray, there’s a lot of rain, etc. But here, this is literally a place where you can live all year round and have this sort of weather. From a lifestyle point of view, it’s quite unique.
HANY: Yeah, and people living here, they call themselves The Goonies.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah?
HANY: Because they are living here in El Gouna, they are getting their kids to schools, they can work remotely, they can enjoy the weather, as you can see. The scenery, everything, all the facilities. And by the way, there is a very nice nightlife at night, so you can see this place at night is glowing.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And there’s also a lot of bars and–
HANY: Restaurants, everything.
LADISLAS MAURICE: nightclubs. They bring in, like, famous DJs, et cetera. You could tend to forget you’re in Egypt, in many respects, it feels like Europe.
HANY: Yeah. By the way, there is the Gouna Film Festival, which is like a spectacular event that happens every year. Celebrities from all over the world come and attend it. You can Google this. And it’s one of the most interesting events that happens here. Having said that, during the whole year, you can still enjoy your day on the beach, and at night, you can have your nightlife, go to clubbing, everything.
Schooling options in El Gouna
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. I want us to discuss the school system, because it’s a prime concern, essentially, for people who move to such places, it’s like, are the schools good?
HANY: Yeah, there is three schools. One is British, one is German, one is French. The most popular one is the British one. They are teaching the British curriculum but in the same time, I wouldn’t say, like, very, very liberal, like the American way, still it has the conservative way of raising your kids. If someone is conservative, they can also move here.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And a lot of the teachers I saw, because I met some of them at one of the beach bars, they’re actually from the UK, from Australia, from Canada.
HANY: Yes. This is a typical lifestyle of someone who wants to move here. He has or she has her job in the morning in the school, and then at night, she can or he can enjoy his life like a tourist, let’s put it this way.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Because I have an increasing amount of clients from Western countries, they’re looking to leave because of the education of their children. They don’t necessarily agree with some of the policies. And when we discuss some options, actually, Egypt is a surprisingly good option for such people. It’s easy to get residency. And these schools are quite good, and they’re not too expensive. Like, how much are we talking in terms of tuition?
HANY: For the British school, it’s around $1,800 per year for the primary, and then it goes up to $4,000 with the later years, but it’s even less–
LADISLAS MAURICE: For great quality education.
HANY: Yes, yes, yes, perfect. It’s as if you are in the UK. Oxford curriculum, everything is there.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Like, just this in itself would be a compelling argument to move here. Also, the internet is quite fast. I’ve been uploading some videos, downloading stuff, etc., haven’t had a problem.
HANY: There is a complimentary internet in this city.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Really?
HANY: Did you notice?
LADISLAS MAURICE: No, no, I didn’t know.
HANY: There is a complimentary. Wherever you go, there is complimentary internet.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Cool. I was just in an Airbnb.
HANY: And it’s a fast one as well.
Buying real estate in El Gouna
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. So, yeah, very decent place to work remotely. Now, in terms of real estate, so we’re looking at roughly $300,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, so it’s, like, far from cheap. We’ll go check out other developments, they’re a lot more affordable, but that’s pretty much the market price here. It’s like a very specific market.
HANY: Yes, because, again, this is a lifestyle location. The project is attracting people who are not particularly looking for pure-pure investment, so it’s not commercial. But it’s more of a people who wants to live here and say they are living in Gouna, for example. It’s kind of a lifestyle, like, when you are living in Beverly Hills, or you’re in San Tropez, or some. This is, like, the Rolls Royce of Egypt.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. It’s pretty much the most luxurious development in a country of 110 million people. It’s quite–
HANY: One of the luxurious developments, because there are some other luxurious developments also in the Red Sea, but I don’t know if we’ll have time to show everything.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. What’s interesting about El Gouna specifically is that it’s a dollarized market, so essentially buy in dollars, you sell in dollars–
HANY: And you rent in dollars as well.
LADISLAS MAURICE: And you rent in dollars, so you avoid all the drama around the Egyptian pound. It doesn’t mean that taking your money out once you sell is easy. It depends. In Egypt, it’s always these regulations change on a regular basis. But by buying real say here, you’re essentially buying a dollar asset, which is a lot safer in many respects. Having said this, I had a chat with the rental department yesterday, and we’re doing all the numbers, and the rental yields are not particularly interesting. You’re looking at between 2% to 4% growth, 4% if you’re lucky. It’s more like 2% to 3%. Essentially, you just kind of cover your expenses. If you put it on Airbnb or the long-term market, you cover your expenses a little bit more.
You don’t come here and invest for rental returns. That’s not the objective. The objective I see here is lifestyle if you want residency, or if you want citizenship and a dollar asset, you just buy whatever, one-bedroom here, and in five years’ time, once you can sell, then, hopefully, you should have at least the same amount of dollars, if not more. It’s a safe way to–
HANY: No, you will definitely get more. Just to clear things up, the prices, when Gouna started, like, let’s say, 10 years ago, because I have the financials of this and we have the graphs, so the prices were around $2,000 per square meter, between $1,800 to $2,000 per square meter. Now it’s between $4,600 up to $5,300. Even with the devaluation, even with everything that is going on, over 10 years time, you double your money. Another thing, it’s not just the $4,000 or the $5,000 per square meter, we have also very interesting private villas with prices up to $6 million. It depends, what are you buying and why are you buying, and are you planning to stay in it, are you going to furnish it? But in general, again, it’s one of the most expensive locations in Egypt.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. All right, fantastic. Now we’re going to go to the city of Hurghada. We’re going to jump on a cab. It’s like, what, 25 minutes away, roughly?
HANY: Exactly, yeah.
Overview of Hurghada development
LADISLAS MAURICE: And we’re going to go have a look at a development where the rental yields are a little bit higher because it’s in the city and a lot of foreigners like to stay there.
HANY: Okay. This is another example of a development in the heart of Hurghada downtown. It’s actually one of the few developments that you can find in this place. It’s directly overlooking the beach and the sea. It has a direct access to the beach as well, with a private beach. It’s 200,000 square meters. The prices, I would say, between $2,000 to $2,800 per square meter. There is a payment plan over two years. And then if you do something, like, for the citizenship, let’s say, and you need to pay directly, so you’ll get a 10% discount on the price that you’re making, which automatically makes for you, what, like, 5% more when you do the rental thing.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Essentially, the key selling point is the location, it’s in Hurghada?
HANY: Sure, sure, sure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Cool. Great. Now we’re going to go check out one of the apartments and do some of the numbers in terms of ROI.
Hurghada apartment tour and investment case
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Okay, so we’re in this apartment. We’re just going to go through, again, this is not a channel where we do property tours, but yeah, two bedroom, two bathroom. How many square meters net?
HANY: It’s 137 square meters. And this is like a typical two-bedroom apartment in Hurghada. However, the view here is way better than in downtown.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. And it’s important to note that in Egypt, the square meters are typically in gross.
HANY: Gross.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So, net, I’d say, about 100 square meters net.
HANY: Yeah, something like that.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool.
HANY: Two bedrooms, two bathrooms.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. The view is really nice, we’re going to go check it out in detail. The finishings are what they are. This is a product mostly for Europeans, correct?
HANY: Yes. Most of the people who are buying in such type of compounds are Europeans, Germans. Germans are the top buyers here. And then you have the British, Russians, of course, the wealthy Egyptians, or Egyptians living outside of Egypt and they want to have, like, a retirement place to retire in the future. Again, the community is pretty much good. In general, in Hurghada, the community is good if it’s in those types of projects and developments. The payment plan I was mentioning downstairs, so here, it’s $275,000. You can do it over two years. However, if you do a cash discount, you get a 10% cash discount.
LADISLAS MAURICE: About $250,000, so $2,500 a square meter, net. And then if you’re doing the citizenship–
HANY: If you’re doing a CIP, then you can go to buy this one and buy another one.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Actually, the next development, which is–
HANY: Yes, the next developer that we’re going to see.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Essentially, El Gouna is a lot more luxurious. I’d say, percentage wise, more wealthy Egyptians are staying, though a lot of foreigners live there. Here, the skew is more towards Europeans.
HANY: Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Also, I came here yesterday and I sat down with the rental manager, because this compound has a whole team, just like in El Gouna that manages your rentals, whether long-term or short-term, and we’re going through all the Airbnb bookings. And the Airbnb bookings, essentially, their occupancy rate is a lot higher than in El Gouna because it’s just so much more accessible from the airport. And typically, tourists who come here for a week or two, they just want to be in Hurghada itself. So the rental yield, roughly, you’re looking at 5% to 6%, roughly, gross?
HANY: 5% to 6% yes. Still also in dollars, you can get the money in dollars as well.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. The rents here were in euros and in dollars, yeah.
HANY: Yes. Basically, if you are in a coastal city on the Red Sea, you should expect your income to be in dollars.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, which is a big change from Cairo, where it’s really Egyptian pound-denominated.
HANY: Yeah. You can get also Egyptian pounds here. If there is Egyptian family who’s coming here, you do the same thing. It depends who’s coming to rent, what’s the season, if it’s a peak season, or, yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, great. Okay, so this is just one of the offerings. Great. Now we are going to go check out the affordable luxury development.
HANY: Exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, let’s go.
Affordable luxury development in Hurghada
HANY: Now we are in a company called REKAZ. We work with them for a few years now, and they’re one of the trusted companies we work with. Ms. Mila is going to show us the project, the amenities, everything about the project. And I think she can take it from there. So, please.
MILA: All right. Let me first to introduce the location of our project. We are located in south area of Hurghada. Actually, it’s the site of luxurious resorts such as Sahl Hasheesh, Makadi Heights, and Soma Bay.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. I was vacationing before in one of these this week, in one of these resorts here, and then there it’s all luxury resorts, and the city is just moving in this direction.
MILA: Yeah, exactly. It’s like only two minutes from the gate of Sahl Hasheesh with this high class resort. We are 15 minutes from the airport by direct road, not through the city, and we are just four minutes walking distance from the largest shopping mall in Hurghada, Senzo Mall. Let me show you the master plan of the project. It’s 40,000 square meter and it has 255 units in the project. Our main concept is creation maximum of privacy for every resident of Lazuli. How we do it? We added private outdoor areas to all our apartments. It’s private gardens or private rooftop terraces. And also you can have private swimming pool or private Jacuzzi. Let me show you example of one of the units.
For example, this one in the largest one, it’s even more house than apartment. It’s 135 square meter plus 53 square meter garden, two bedrooms, two bathrooms on the ground floor, with two entrances, one entrance through the building and one private entrance from the garden. Such type of unit, it costs around $100,000. And also, you can have a payment plan or you can have a cash discount.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Payment plan is interesting. Can you talk about the payment plan?
MILA: Now what we offer is 10% and five years payment plan, or 20% and six years payment plan.
LADISLAS MAURICE: In Egyptian pounds?
MILA: In Egyptian pounds or in euro, dollars, it’s possible.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Look, these payment plans in there, we discussed this with Hany when we did the video on the new administrative capital, what’s interesting is that it’s a way to short the Egyptian pound. You essentially get a fixed price in Egyptian pounds that you gradually pay over five years. And as there are devaluations, which always happens in Egypt, then the amount you pay in the currency–
HANY: You locked the property price.
LADISLAS MAURICE: just goes down and down. I have a few clients, they did this a few years ago, and now they’re paying practically nothing. They agreed on eight-year payment plans. If you want to short the Egyptian pound, this is the way to do it. For citizenship, you need to make the investment upfront, right?
HANY: Yes, which will get you also a discount.
LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the discount that you offer for upfront payment?
MILA: Twenty percent.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Twenty percent, okay. Essentially, we’re looking at, you said 130, the unit, but that’s gross, so it’s like 100 net plus a garden of 50, so it’s like $1,000 a square meter over five years with, like, a nice garden, or upfront, $800 a square meter, and this is essentially what you get. Obviously, you need to pay for the pool and, like, the furniture and stuff like that, but in terms of overall value, this is quite compelling. I can’t think of too many markets right now in the world where you can get a nice apartment close to the beach, close to an international airport with flights to all over Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, where you pay $800 a square meter, and there are swimming pools, and I think there’s a co-working space.
MILA: Co-working space, we have it, and clubhouse, and we have court for padel tennis as well.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. And you also have the rooftop units where you can have a Jacuzzi up there, a swimming pool. I mean, $800 a square meter is, again, I can’t think of too many markets in the world that offer that level of value. And you even have some cheaper units as well, some, like, things for, like, $30,000, if I remember correctly?
MILA: Not $30,000, I think now, yeah, we have some studios, but just a couple of studios in the line of condos, first line. But yes, we do.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Look, Hany, how much is the two– Okay, so citizenship is $300,000?
HANY: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So theoretically, for $300,000 you can buy one of these entire town houses?
HANY: Exactly.
LADISLAS MAURICE: With three apartments, probably–
HANY: And you manage them.
LADISLAS MAURICE: another one or two of the apartments, so you get a whole bunch, which I think, for citizenship is interesting. Because also, one of the issues that people need to be aware of is when you invest in Egypt, getting money out of Egypt is not always easy. Right now, it’s not too bad, because there was the devaluation, and capital controls, and forex controls that mostly been removed. But at times, in Egypt, there are capital or forex controls. So it’s easier to, after the five years of your citizenship, you sell one unit, you get $100,000 out, and then after a while, you sell another unit, $100,000 out. It might be easier to do it this way than, suddenly, selling one thing in one go. That’s just in terms of strategy. What about the residency by investment? Because that’s the citizenship, $300k, boom, citizenship–
HANY: Yeah, residency, it’s a different model and it’s a different law. Basically, if you buy a property with $50,000, you get one year. If it’s $100,000–
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, but renewable?
HANY: Yes. $100,000, you get three years. And if you invest $200,000, you get five years.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. But renewable as long as you keep the property?
HANY: Yes, of course.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. Essentially, you can buy one of these units for $100,000, if you’re doing the five-year plan, and then this gives you a three-year residency?
HANY: Yeah, if it’s $100,000. But there is a technicality here that the property needs to be registered in the registrar.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Is it registered in the registrar?
HANY: Not yet because it’s off-plan.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.
HANY: It doesn’t, typically, fit for the residency but this fits perfect with the citizenship program.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Okay, so residency would be this once it’s actually built?
HANY: Yes.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. All right, fantastic. I think this just gives an idea of the sort of value that you can get here in Hurghada. Look, it’s not on the beach like the other two developments we saw and the next one we’re going to see, which is, obviously, a negative, but taxis are super cheap around here. You can get an Uber, Uber works, or you’re just, like, you’re literally just $1 away from the beach.
HANY: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Sure, you’re not on the beach, but you’re $1 away from the beach so it’s not too much of an issue, I’d say. Even for European retirees or people that want to, you know–
HANY: Or, even for rentals, it’s perfect also for–
LADISLAS MAURICE: I don’t know. I don’t know. You think it’s a good rental?
HANY: Yeah, sure.
MILA: Of course, it’s very good. And moreover, we’re going to have a property management in the project. We’re going to help those tenants maintain the property.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Look, would I go into Egypt aiming to make an investment for rentals? Personally, I would not. Especially in this part of Egypt, because it’s so dependent on tourism, and tourism in Egypt is very volatile. Each time something happens in the Middle East, Europeans are scared of coming, etc., so it’s just it’s up and downs. I see this as just great value for money and a decent way to get the citizenship and great lifestyle, and if you want to rent it out and make a bit of money on the side, it’s fine. But in terms of committing numbers, it’s a bit hard in Egypt when it comes to tourism stuff. I don’t know what your thoughts are.
HANY: Again, it’s going to be something worldwide. When Corona happened, it was everywhere.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But Egypt just gets hit harder each time.
HANY: Everywhere was. Greece was hit, Italy was hit, all the countries were hit. But now, the numbers are normally growing. We are targeting 2025 to have 15 million tourists. For this year, they are almost twelve-and-something million, which is 2023. But even Hurghada is targeting to get almost three to three-and-a-half million in 2024. For 150,000 people living in a city and receiving 3.5 million, this is the amount of tourists coming to Cyprus the whole year in their best season.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, it’s true. Look, and the reality is, you’re only paying $800 a square meter, so you can rent it not too expensive, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find people. But yeah, in terms of what the rental rates are, project delivery is, what, in two years?
MILA: Two years.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, we don’t know. But yeah, great value for money. That’s how I see it. Now we’re going to go see another project which is more geared towards capital gains, correct?
HANY: Yes, yes. Sure.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, cool. All right, fantastic.
HANY: Thank you.
Mishap with developer
LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s see this. Hany, what just happened? [laughs]
HANY: [laughs] Well, the developer didn’t want us to discuss the pros and cons of the place.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Actually, the developer was fine with the pros. [laughs]
HANY: Yeah. But we try to be as honest as possible, and we try to say the truth as much as we can. Out of respect to our audience, we decided not to shoot the place because we have some point of views that they didn’t like.
LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs]
HANY: But it was, like, obvious, like a sun. I have also my point of view, which is opposite to yours. This is something that we can agree on but bottom line is, they were not allowing us to do this video.
LADISLAS MAURICE: They were nice. They gave us a car ride out of the development. [laughs]
HANY: Yeah. [laughs]
Capital appreciation plays in Egypt
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. Anyways, we saw three developments, I think, that show a bit of the range of what you can get here, which is important, it’s about showing the range, not specific developments. And again, like, I think the Red Sea of Egypt is a destination that people just don’t fully understand when it comes to lifestyle point of view, especially when you combine it with an interesting residency by investment program, even more so the citizenship by investment program. It’s like you put $300,000 in any real estate in Egypt. If you want, you can mix it with– Like, people who really want to diversify, they can get an apartment in, like, New Cairo, where it’s going to be steady capital gains, with a steady rental income, not very high, but very steady. They can add a little bit of, like, new administrative capital. We did a whole video on that for just speculation. It’s like, it’s pretty cheap there.
The President wants the capital to become, then, definitely, there’ll be very interesting capital gains to be seen. And then you can mix it here with a lifestyle property, etc. Egypt is huge. It’s 110 million people. This here is only a five to six-hour bus ride from Cairo, so it’s very accessible, and it’s a 45-minute flight from Cairo, so there’s going to be more growth in this area. And I can think of stupider things to do in life than putting $300,000 in, generally, deep value real estate, especially like the third one, that was really deep value.
HANY: Debatable.
LADISLAS MAURICE: In what sense?
HANY: Because the price over the years increased not because of the reasons that you think. It’s because of the reasons that is coming from the domestic demand. Again–
LADISLAS MAURICE: A lot of domestic demand.
HANY: Yes. I sold this particular apartment, 2010, $17,500.
LADISLAS MAURICE: The one here?
HANY: Yes. Now they are offering it for how much, 7.2 million. This is like–
LADISLAS MAURICE: $150,000.
HANY: $150,000.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. It’s kind of, like, I made a lot of money on my uranium stocks. You probably don’t want to buy them from me when I sell them. I feel that’s kind of the last development that we saw. Well, the one where we didn’t get to go into, or the one that we rather got kicked out of. But the one for $800 a square meter, I mean, that’s good value.
HANY: This is out of the question. My point of view is that, and also, I might agree also with your point of view, historically, people made money. They are not also stupid to sell with this number, specifically, if they are already selling. so they don’t have a problem. The other thing is that your point of view might be also valid in a way. You see the future, and you kind of saying, okay, the price increase would not match this. This is something we have to get the crystal ball and see what’s going to happen. Again, my experience is different from your experience, so let the people decide what they should do.
El Gouna apartment tour
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, cool. In any case, look, it’s an interesting country with these programs. Hey, so right before going to the airport, we decided to shoot a quick little video of an example of an apartment here in El Gouna. Hany, because there are two ways to purchase here in El Gouna. You can either go for the primary market directly from the developer, but you can also go for the secondary market, which is a bit more of a murky market. Can you elaborate a little bit? And then, in the meantime, let’s just walk around and see the apartment.
HANY: Basically, you can buy something that is from the resale. Could be from people who purchased few years ago, something like this. And so, it could be a one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment. Let’s say, this is an example of a one-bedroom apartment. The one-bedroom apartment will have an average of $300,000. The thing is that if you are buying from the secondary market, you are going to pay in cash, one time, one payment. It’s different from buying from the primary market, from the company, let’s say. Because with the company, you might have a payment plan, you can stretch the payment plan two years, and sometimes, it’s even more. If you have your money now ready, I would go for a ready property resale market. Could get a good deal, immediately move in. You can rent it immediately, by the way.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool. I agree with you, I see a lot more value. Because when you look at the primary market here, it’s these new buildings, they’re nice, etc., but they’re a bit further away, and you need to hop onto a tuk-tuk to make it to the marina or to the beach.
HANY: Just for the payment plan.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Here, these buildings are a little older. This is, what, 15 years old, this one here, roughly, something like that, 15 years old?
HANY: Yeah.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But the Marina is literally just–
HANY: We are inside.
LADISLAS MAURICE: We’re in the marina.
HANY: In the marina.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You just don’t have a marina view, but we’re in the marina.
HANY: There is more prime locations, but it’s going to be more expensive, almost the same size, one-bedroom, two-bedroom. The average for a one-bedroom is going to be three hundred plus fifty-something like this. For a two-bedroom, you can see something around $450,000. It depends again, if you have the view, if you are not having a view, the size of the property. Now, by the way, because it’s an old property, so people customize their properties depending on their personal preferences. It can be two-bedroom but the guy converted it to one-bedroom and so on.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Cool, okay. Essentially, if you want value and lifestyle when you go for your Egyptian citizenship by investment, you can get a one-bedroom like this. It’s $300,000. It gets you, your family citizenship. You are literally on the marina. All the restaurants are there. And at the next marina, you have all the nightclubs and bars, so you’re close to all the action but far enough that it’s not loud. You just don’t have the view, that’s it.
HANY: You can have a view but with a premium.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, with a premium. Yeah, if you just want to hit $300k, you just kind of like you’re there. Okay, cool. All right, fantastic.
HANY: Thank you very much.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. Again, if you’re interested more in the secondary market, then definitely get in touch with Hany.
HANY: Thank you very much.
LADISLAS MAURICE: All right, let’s go to the airport.
Hurghada outskirts development
HANY: Let’s go. Okay, so you see here all of this new construction and all of this area, you can get something here for $20,000, $25,000.
LADISLAS MAURICE: You can buy almost an entire building for, like, citizenship?
HANY: Yeah. The thing is that those buildings, they are built by local developers, like, individual contractors. It’s not like a master developer or anything. There’s schools here. You see, little bit further over there, there are more prime locations. Not the same quality of finishing, but at least you are very close to the beach with very reduced prices. So yeah, two-bedroom would be something around $50,000 to $60,000.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look, and again, like, it looks kind of all right from outside, but inside these buildings are horrific, the quality is really, really bad.
HANY: It depends. Some of them are semi-finished, so you need to do the finishing by yourself, or the contractor that you’re buying from is going to add an extra, like, $7,000, $8,000 and finish it for you depending on your specs, could be a little bit more. But again, it’s around schools. This is, for example, one of the schools. There was another one we just passed by. And there is a whole neighborhood inside, if you can see.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look, the rent for these, I don’t know, one-bedroom apartment there would be like–
HANY: It’s quite cheap.
LADISLAS MAURICE: $100 a month, something like that?
HANY: I would say, yeah, around $200, $250 a month.
LADISLAS MAURICE: I think it’s less, because our videographer who was filming yesterday, she was in the center, well near the center of Hurghada, in a local area, she showed me her apartment on, I asked her pictures of it, nice, remodeled, $200 a month. I think here in the outskirts, probably $100, $150.
HANY: Probably less. Yeah, probably less.
LADISLAS MAURICE: But to be clear, these are absolutely not investments that we can recommend to foreigners.
HANY: No. No, I wouldn’t recommendation.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Because you’re just dealing with local tenants, like, really–
HANY: Yeah, you will be paid in Egyptian pounds. And I wouldn’t go for international buyers to do something like this.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And it’s problematic tenants. You can see, there’s, like, literally, space everywhere, so, like, they can build endlessly. It’s like slum lording.
HANY: No, I wouldn’t go there.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah.
