Parliament Speaker Hanafi Gibali said amendments to Law 120/1982, regulating the performance of commercial agencies and real estate brokerage were approved and will be put up for a final vote during Tuesday's plenary session.

The amendments, approved in principle by MPs on Sunday, are meant to help cope with the expansion in the activities of commercial agencies and real estate companies. 

Ahmed Samir, head of the House's Economic Affairs Committee, said the amendments target placing real estate brokerage activities under stricter regulation. According to the new law, brokers will have to give detailed statements on the sales of their real estate units.

On Monday, MPs approved Article 16 which states that "those working in commercial agencies and real estate brokerages without being licensed or registering their names with the concerned authorities will be banned from performing these activities and sentenced to no more than two years in prison and fined between EGP 50,000 and EGP 1 million."

Meanwhile, parliament gave a preliminary approval to legislative amendments to Law 178/1952 on agrarian reform. 

MP Mohamed El-Hussein said the amended law opens the door for building national projects on land affiliated with agrarian reform authorities. "The existing law does not make it possible to implement national projects on agrarian reform lands. The law was amended to make this possible," said El-Husseini.

Ahmed El-Sigini, head of the House's Local Administration Committee, said there has been a pressing need to use agrarian reform land to build national projects -- such as hospitals and schools affiliated to the Decent Life initiative implemented in villages -- on lands affiliated to the Agrarian Land Authority.