Real estate market dominates talk shows as ‘Aqar Exit’ sparks debate

Egypt’s real estate market dominated talk shows over the weekend. Speaking to El Hekaya’s Amr Adib, industry mogul Hesham Talaat Moustafa dismissed claims that a real estate bubble is coming for the local market. Adib also hosted Mahmoud Ammar, founder of Aqar Exit — a platform that allows buyers to transfer installment contracts without markups to relieve distressed owners and offer below-market deals. Ammar warned that the market faces a problem bigger than a bubble, saying that 6k listed units drew 32k purchase offers in just 30 days (watch, runtime: 10:40). The surge demonstrates that while end-user demand remains strong, buyer affordability is squeezed, prompting distressed owners to offload contracts to buyers hungry for below-market prices.

That may not be a problem, either: Talaat Moustafa responded by downplaying the 6k figure, pointing out that Egypt’s top 10 developers have 500k units under development worth EGP 800 bn and maintain a 99.6% collection rate, which he says disproves default claims. He attributed the resale surplus to speculative buying during the 2023-2024 inflationary surge and currency devaluation, noting it represents a fraction of the market (watch, runtime: 25:38).

Real estate isn’t slowing down: Talaat Moustafa also denied that a sales slowdown is afflicting the real estate sector, citing corporate financial results as proof. He explained that 2023 and 2024 saw a speculative sales boom following currency devaluation, meaning 2025’s return to normal is a market recalibration, not a slump. "Is it right to take an exceptional year like 2024 as the benchmark for everything?" he asked.

What about delayed delivery? El Sora’s Lamees El Hadidi highlighted the crisis of delayed unit deliveries, urging the government to publish an official real estate database tracking market size, active developers, total inventory, and distressed units. She argued that a single platform's listings cannot serve as a metric for the entire market.

An official response: Commenting on developer delivery delays, former Deputy Housing Minister Ahmed Adel Darwish said that while the real estate market is not on the verge of collapsing, it suffers from structural problems that require urgent government intervention to prevent ongoing uncertainty from harming committed developers (watch, runtime: 7:56).