Real estate is in the headlines this morning as two pieces of news duel for your attention.

UP FIRST- A play for Egypt’s Ras Gamila: Authorities are in talks with Egyptian officials to acquire the development rights to South Sinai’s Ras Gamila, Bloomberg reported last week, citing sources close to the matter. Nobody in Saudi or Egypt has publicly put a price tag on the sale, but Bloomberg expects it to be in the multiple USD bns.

What’s Ras Gamila? The cape separates a wide, sandy lagoon from the Red Sea generally described as one of the most beautiful dives on Egypt’s globally popular Sharm coast. Ras Gamila is directly across the Strait of Tiran from Neom and not far from the site of a proposed bridge that would link Neom to Sinai.

A sale of the development rights to Ras Gamila would be a second mega-transaction for Egypt. It recently sold the development rights to the North Coast’s Ras El Hekma to Abu Dhabi’s ADQ for USD 24 bn. ADQ said it would also convert and invest some USD 11 bn worth of deposits at Egypt’s central bank.

AND- Egyptian real estate giant TMG’s first foray into the Kingdom will soon be off the ground: Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) will kick off construction on its Benan City project in Riyadh mid-April, CEO Hisham Talaat Moustafa told Asharq Business, explaining that construction is expected to take around eight years to complete. The final agreement (pdf) for the land purchase was inked last week.

Cost estimates are up: Moustafa told the outlet that the project would carry a price tag of about SAR 65 bn (c. USD 17.3 bn) — 63% above an initial price estimate of SAR 40 bn (c. USD 10.7 bn) when the project was first announced in September in a TMG statement.

Benan City? The smart city is being developed in eastern Riyadh’s Al Fursan in partnership with the National Housing Company. It will be home to some 27.8k residential units, along with a sports club and health, educational, and commercial services. The project marks the Egyptian real estate developer’s first overseas project.

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