Egypt immune to crisis?

Egypt's property market offers several advantages for investment that have allowed it to weather the global economic crisis...

These include the absence of capital gains and inheritance tax, affordable cost of living, a thriving tourist industry, a warm desert climate, which attracts year-round rental opportunities, and close proximity to major European destinations.

There is also a cultural attitude that results in Egyptians who prefer to buy into stable and fixed assets such as property during hard times, and the rapid expansion of Egypt's banking sector has further helped support current local property sector conditions.

Chairman and CEO of the Next Move 2009 Real Estate Investment Exhibition, Ahmed Ghozzi said, "Egypt's real estate sector continues to perform well in contrast to those of other regional players which are struggling to cope with current market and economic conditions."

He believes that a different attitude to financing is one reason the Egyptian market has not reached a crisis point. "In Egypt, financing is not debt-based since property buyers often purchase from their surplus liquid money. The portion of payment that is financed is up to three per cent only," he explained.

"Internally, residents believe in the stability of property investments and have a good grasp of changing business cycles. Property owners and developers thus have a positive outlook on the industry's performance for this year," he added.

The positive outlook is expected to result in a good attendance at the second Next Move 2009 Real Estate Investment Exhibition to be held in the capital, Cairo, later this month.

Source: www.hotproperty.co.uk