Egypt real estate prices to keep rising says Hisham Moustafa

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, the CEO and managing director of Talaat Moustafa Group Holding, said residential prices are tied to the real cost of land and construction, not to short term hype or oversized profit taking. That math, he argued, makes declines unlikely while contractors and developers face higher inputs and rising execution costs.

Speaking in a phone interview on the television program Al Hekaya, he described developer margins as relatively modest and warned that selling below cost would quickly squeeze new supply. He said price reductions would not make sense for companies that still have to replace inventory at higher costs.

His comments come as Egypt’s property market continues to draw buyers looking for a safer place to park savings, even as financing remains limited and many transactions rely on installment plans offered directly by developers.

Moustafa said demand remains strong in the upper end of the market. He pointed to what he called robust January performance across the sector and highlighted a burst of sales by his own company. He said a resort development in Sharm el-Sheikh sold out within 24 hours at the end of December.

He added that his group recorded about 13 billion Egyptian pounds in sales during January, including roughly 1 billion pounds in a single day. He said that represented a sharp increase from the same period a year earlier, a sign that buyers are still committing despite rising prices.

Ready to move in homes, he said, are particularly unlikely to become cheaper because replacement costs are climbing. In his view, that dynamic supports resale values, since owners who sell now may struggle to buy a similar unit later without paying more.

Moustafa pushed back on talk of a slowdown in secondary market activity. He said unit transfers inside his company have been increasing, which he described as evidence that buyers continue to trade properties, move between projects and take profits when timing suits them.

Cash buyers, he said, have an advantage because they can avoid interest charges and lock in current pricing before the next round of cost increases filters through the market. He said prices for newly launched units six months from now are likely to be higher than today’s levels.

He also framed real estate as a long term store of value, noting that property gains over decades have outpaced holding savings in dollars. Many Egyptian families track wealth in foreign currency terms, and property often plays a central role in that calculation.

Looking further ahead, Moustafa said demand is unlikely to fall below 900,000 housing units a year over the next 30 years, driven by population growth and household formation. He estimated that about 150,000 to 250,000 units annually would be aimed at buyers who can afford higher priced homes.

With demographics driving demand and replacement costs staying elevated, he said prices are likely to remain supported, leaving buyers to focus on what they can sustainably pay.