Only 86,000 families living in units rented under Egypt’s old rent law have submitted applications to receive alternative housing, said the housing minister during a media briefing on a tour of the Badr city and Hadayek Al-Asima (Capital Gardens) housing areas this week.
The deadline for submitting applications is 21 July.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, there are 1.6 million residential units subject to the old rent law. This means that applicants for alternative housing account for less than six per cent of those targeted by the programme.
A housing expert who requested anonymity said that the fact that fewer than six per cent of the targeted families had applied for alternative housing pointed to deep-seated structural obstacles and apprehension among old-rent-law tenants.
The shift from paying small monthly rents to committing to the financial obligations that come with subsidised alternative housing is a burden that is beyond the means of many people, particularly as a large number of them are low-income families or elderly people unable to afford down payments or monthly instalments, he explained.
Another problem is geographical and social dislocation. Relocation would force families to leave neighbourhoods in the heart of Cairo, such as Downtown, Shubra, Heliopolis, and Hadayek Al-Qubba, and move to desert cities such as Badr and Hadayek Al-Asima, increasing their daily commuting costs, he said.
Moreover, many tenants fear that applying for alternative housing could be legally construed as voluntarily relinquishing their existing rental contracts, thereby weakening their negotiating position in any future legal settlements or compensation schemes.
Law 164/2025, which repealed the old rent law and superseded previous legislation governing old-rent-law properties, introduced a fixed annual increase of 15 per cent in the rental value of all residential and non-residential units starting in September 2026.
Inventory and classification committees in the governorates are using census data to divide old-rent units into three categories: prime, middle-income, and low-income. The classification mechanism is based on criteria including geographical location, construction quality, and the availability of public utilities.
The gradual adjustment of rental values will be determined accordingly, while taking social considerations into account during the transitional period, which ends after seven years for residential units and five years for non-residential units.
Two months ago, 60 MPs signed a request submitted to parliament seeking amendments to Law 164/2025. Their principal demands include abolishing the provision requiring eviction at the end of the seven-year transitional period and reducing the stipulated annual rent increase of 15 per cent in order to ease the financial burden on tenants.
Amr Hegazi, a member of the Association of Those Affected by the Old Rent Law, which represents landlords, ruled out the prospect of any meaningful government response to the MPs’ request to amend the law.
He said that the 60 MPs behind the request account for less than 10 per cent of the seats in parliament. Most of the MPs and political parties that voted to repeal the old law in the previous parliament continue to constitute the majority in the current one.
More importantly, Hegazi said, properties owned by the government and its institutions are leased to individuals and companies under the legislation that has now been repealed. Should the law be reversed again, government bodies would be unable to evict the occupants.
Another socially and economically complex factor in the transition away from the old rent law is that the majority of tenants are over the age of 60. This group will face difficulties in securing financing schemes suited to their age, as most mortgage finance programmes, whether market-based or subsidised, require borrowers to complete repayment of their loans before reaching the age of 60.
Mortgage finance expert Mohamed Kamal said that the Egyptian mortgage market offers a financing model targeting people over 60 years of age and extending up to a maximum age of 75.
However, applicants are required to meet certain conditions, including paying 40 per cent of the unit’s price upfront. Although such a model already exists, it has not been widely adopted by the Egyptian banks, with only two state-owned banks offering financing schemes for this age group.
In press statements, Mai Abdel-Hamid, CEO of the Social Housing Fund, said the Fund would review all applications submitted for alternative housing for old-rent-law tenants once the application period closes. She added that the forms submitted through the Digital Egypt portal would help assess the demand for alternative housing.
Applicants will subsequently be required to complete a number of procedures and submit documents proving the validity of their legal status and demonstrating that they regularly occupy their units, rather than belonging to the category of tenants who keep units closed and unoccupied.
The review will also identify applicants’ preferences for obtaining units through rental, rent-to-own, or ownership schemes.
Abdel-Hamid added that the housing ministry is preparing to announce the offering of 25,000 housing units under a rent-to-own scheme, some of which would be made available as alternative housing for old-rent-law tenants wishing to apply for them.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 16 July, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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