Purchasing Property In Hurghada – Legal Aspects Looking at the Laws and Regulations in Egypt

Rick Magliano

Freehold properties are available in Hurghada and if buying from a new development, often prices are set with no room for negotiation. However, if purchasing property in Hurghada from a resale, there is often room for negotiating on price.

A lot of Egyptian property owners/ developers prefer ‘cash’ payments which is more beneficial to the buyer as it often means a discount on the sale of around 5% and/or can include longer term credit arrangements on repayments.

Once you have paid for your property in Hurghada in full and been validated or registered by signature of the validity process, you will receive a Green contract which is the contract given to you by the Egyptian courts. This only applies with Freehold properties.

When purchasing a property in Hurghada, buyers must know that there is an extra fee known as ‘buyers commission’. This is an additional charge made by the Agent handling the transaction on your behalf and is normal procedure. The fee can range from between 1.5% to 5% depending on the region.

On deciding your purchase on a property in Hurghada, you will need to start the process of recruiting a good Egyptian lawyer.

Contracts with the Lawyer should always be in both English and Arabic and usually at this stage there is a deposit required.

The deeds to your property in Egypt are assigned to you at the land registry office and the cost of this per property is maximum 2000,00 EGP, about 175 Sterling (As of June 2008).

When you purchase property in Hurghada you must have an entry visa as this is needed to complete the residence procedure in Egypt to give your lawyer power of attorney to go to court on your behalf and register your property. You must also apply for residency Entry Visa which are usually valid for one year.

When purchasing property in Hurghada,there are two procedures, firstly a full registration and the second to choose the Signature of validity process. Registration of a property gives you maximum security under Egyptian law.

However, even in the areas of Egypt where foreigners can purchase freehold, signature of validity can be used instead of registration.

Whilst all of this information may seem hard to digest, it really is much simpler than it sounds. If it was a difficult process, then there would not be such a huge investment here in Real Estate Hurghada from foreign investors, which is growing year by year on a large scale.

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