A REIT you can buy into from your phone, no brokerage account necessary. MNT-Halan and Azimut Egypt submitted a prospectus for what they’re billing as the first digitally-distributed real estate fund in Egypt — we’re thinking of it as the nation’s first private (as distinct from EGX-listed) digital REIT.

What is it? The Halan AZ Real Estate Fund will allow individual investors to buy digital investment certificates in what the fund is billing as “premium real estate assets.” The fund plans to market the certificates to both novice and experienced investors through three of the nation’s top fintech platforms: Halan, Thndr, and Azinvest, it said in a statement (pdf).

How does it work? Actively managed by Azimut, Halan AZ will let retail investors buy digital certificates in a multi-tranche fund, earn rental income, and trade their stakes via the app. If it works, they’ll become the latest in a new (and very underserved) fractional real estate market.

Who else is playing in fractional real estate? As we’ve noted in our recent two-part guide to the industry (here and here), players include our friends at Bonyan and Madinet Masr. Here’s how they break down:

  • Halan AZ — a digital-first REIT: An actively managed fund that will offer digital certificates. Buy online from Halan, Azinvest, or Thndr without a brokerage account. Each tranche of the fund includes a mix of commercial, residential, hospitality, and office properties from multiple developers.
  • Bonyan — an institutional heavyweight: An EGX-listed company that functions as a pure-play landlord. Buy BONY.CA through your brokerage account — it’s an EGX share. Invests in grade-A commercial real estate (office and retail) in East and West Cairo, including high-end offices and malls with USD-linked rents.
  • SAFE — a fractional proptech: A direct ownership model where you take a specific share of a single apartment or office. Distributed through MNHD’s SAFE app on Google and Apple’s app store. Buy pieces of individual properties in specific projects.

Why fractional real estate matters: Real estate has always been Egypt’s favorite place to park savings (and hedge against devaluation and inflation), but the affordability crunch has forced many people out of the market. Fractional players want to institutionalize the market — and grow it by allowing would-be investors to write smaller tickets.

Worth watching: Our friend Hassan Allam is on Halan AZ’s board; his involvement suggests this isn’t just a fintech experiment.

What’s next: We’ll be watching for regulatory approval of the prospectus and the initial asset list in the first tranche. We expect 2026 to be a down year for unit sales in real estate at large as the industry shakes out a bit, but with interest rates coming down, more investors will be eyeing prospects to lock in high yields instead of rolling over their CDs.

For our fellow Finance Nerds: Azimut is getting interesting. This is the third pillar in what looks an awful lot like a strategy to digitize Egypt’s traditional savings vehicles. The asset manager already offers digital gold via az-Gold and has pushed into fixed income through its Azinvest platform. Real estate was the obvious next step.

MANAGEMENT + ADVISORS- Khaled Sakr is MD of Halan AZ, while Ahmed Abdel Meguid is MD of MNP, Halan AZ’s property manager. Azimut is fund manager, while Maatouk Bassiouny & Hennawy is counsel. Banque du Caire is mandated custodian and MCDR is central custodian of the fund’s investment certificates.

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