How to buy a property on a Gated Community in Egypt.

How to buy a property on a Gated Community in Egypt.


Each compound has a company office. The development companies vary in size.
Ours is huge and owns many sectors. This is the procedure we followed to buy on ours.

We went to the a real estate agent and viewed the property. It was unoccupied and was from the original owner.
The owner had bought it using a mortgage with a few years left to pay.
It had electric meter in their name.

Our estate agent then arranged for the seller and us, plus him to go to the Head Office to do the exchange. Because it was on a compound there was no need for a lawyer as the Company acted as the lawyer.

The company showed us( the buyer) the Ministerial Document saying that they had ownership of the Development and land.
They then showed us the purchase documents from the original seller ( our seller). It showed every payment to the mortgage and how much was left to pay. The seller had a few thousand pounds left to pay in our case.

The company then drew up a new contract of exchange.
Before they could sell it they had to complete the mortgage payments so they could legally sell it.
The usual thing done in this situation is the buyer (us) pays the remaining balance and deducts it from the price.
So we paid the company the balance and they cleared the debt and issued a final payment document.
We then paid the seller his money less the balance we paid.
We paid cash and it was all done in the office.
The seller then goes with his cash.

We are then given a full contract which was written up that afternoon detailing the sale. That included the ministerial letter, the layout, a statement of all the payments made and the final payment paid.
They also give us an electricity letter saying that we are now the legal owners.

We then pay them an admin fee ( sorry I can't remember how much that was?)

We then take the electric letter to the electric company with our new contract and they switch the electric to our name.

There are no lawyers involved because there is no court registration because it is a compound.
In our case the land is registered to the compound till handover. Then once the development is fully complete the company turn it over to the council and residents are then able to register their own units in their own names. In about 2 years we should be able to do this. Once they hand over they give a list of all the owners in the compound. Once you register it you then become liable to tax.
Also because the unit is not registered in your name I guess that is why residents are able to sell when they want , without the 5 year ban on selling?

The above only applies to compounds.