Three questions decide whether anything else matters: can you own it, does the register hold, and is your deposit protected. Here are the answers for Egypt, each with the law or source it rests on. The answers are written for EU and EEA citizens; where rules differ for other nationals, the ownership answer says so. As of September 2026.
The core answers
Can you buy property here as an EU citizen?
Under Law No. 230/1996 a foreigner may own at most two residential properties in Egypt, each of at most 4,000 m², and must in principle hold them for five years before selling. Prime Ministerial Decree No. 548/2005 exempts, among others, Hurghada, the Red Sea, Sharm El Sheikh, Sidi Abd El Rahman and Ras El Hekma from the five-year lock; desert land under Law 143/1981 and agricultural land (Law 15/1963) are excluded, and in Sinai only usage rights are possible (up to 75 years according to Al Tamimi). More recent rules require the price to be paid in foreign currency by bank transfer from abroad, otherwise the registry refuses registration.
Legal basis: Law No. 230/1996; Prime Ministerial Decree No. 548/2005; Law 143/1981 (desert land); Law 15/1963 (agricultural land). Source: tamimi.com, blogs.realestate.gov.eg, eg.andersen.com · retrieved 21.09.2026
Is your deposit protected by law?
Prime Ministerial Decree No. 2184/2022 (in force since 17 June 2022) requires developers to hold a separate project account and provide security before sales start, and prohibits reservation and sale before the building permit is granted; after more than 24 months of delay the buyer can withdraw and demand full repayment. According to the law firm Adsero (November 2025), many clauses of the decree are not actively applied in practice, and according to Daily News Egypt (July 2026) there is no statutory mandatory escrow for buyer payments; an escrow proposal in parliament and a draft real estate market law with a developers' association and classification (September 2026) have not yet been adopted.
Legal basis: Prime Ministerial Decree No. 2184/2022 (no mandatory escrow; draft law regulating the property market in preparation). Source: mondaq.com, riad-riad.com, dailynewsegypt.com · retrieved 21.09.2026
Residence
Under Interior Ministry Decree No. 977/2023 there is a renewable residence permit for property owners: 1 year from USD 50,000, 3 years from USD 100,000 and 5 years from USD 200,000 in property value. The permit does not arise automatically with the purchase but has to be applied for separately.
Legal basis: Interior Ministry Decree No. 977/2023. Source: mnasserlaw.com, bylawme.com · retrieved 21.09.2026
How reliable is the register?
Full ownership only arises on registration with the real estate registry (Shahr El Aqary) under Real Estate Registration Law No. 114/1946; Law No. 9/2022 simplified the procedure (among other things, no complete chain of prior ownership is needed any more, applications are electronic). According to the Minister of Justice (February 2022), more than 90 % of properties are not registered and the great majority rest on private contracts. According to the official property platform, the court validation of signatures (Sehat Tawqee) does not give full ownership and offers only limited protection.
Legal basis: Real Estate Registration Law No. 114/1946, amended by Law No. 186/2020 and Law No. 9/2022. Source: shalakany.com, dailynewsegypt.com, blogs.realestate.gov.eg · retrieved 21.09.2026
First thing to check
- Whether the seller or developer holds ownership of the land registered with the Shahr El Aqary and whether the unit can be registered to the buyer, or whether only a private contract or a right of use is being transferred.
All 24 dimensions
Scale 0 to 100, higher is better. Each value shows where it comes from: tied to a published index, own research with a source on file, or approximated from comparable countries.
Law and register
| Dimension | Score | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Property rights | 22 | Index |
| Register | 26 | Approximation |
| Deposit protection | 38 | Approximation |
| Rule of law | 15 | Index |
| Freedom from corruption | 26 | Index |
| Political stability | 37 | Index |
Money and market
| Dimension | Score | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase costs | 20 | Index |
| Tax burden | 73 | Index |
| Entry price | 86 | Index |
| Rental yield | 63 | Research |
| Price development | 27 | Approximation |
| Demand pipeline | 65 | Index |
Residence and access
| Dimension | Score | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Residence | 90 | Research |
| Exit | 64 | Index |
| Currency | 7 | Index |
| Accessibility | 70 | Research |
Place and building stock
| Dimension | Score | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Climate | 49 | Index |
| Natural hazards | 10 | Index |
| Utilities | 47 | Index |
| Build quality | 65 | Research |
| Construction cost | 68 | Research |
| Quality of life | 16 | Index |
| Healthcare | 24 | Index |
Researched individually
These entries do not come from an index but from research for this country. The source is given with each.
Residence
Citizenship from USD 300,000 in property (Law 190/2019), extended to privately owned properties since 2023; 5-year ban on resale
Source: imidaily.com · 2023
Accessibility
2,617 km great-circle distance from Munich
Source: Grosskreisentfernung Muenchen-Hauptstadt · 2026
Build quality
BQCI 14/15 (WB Doing Business 2020) + WGI Government Effectiveness 49,45 (2024), Gewicht 35/65
Source: archive.doingbusiness.org · 2019
Place and building materials
What to check in Egypt
Derived from the four weakest dimensions of this country - statistically, that is where buyers lose money.
- Currency. The exchange-rate risk between purchase currency, rental currency and your own.
- Natural hazards. Exposure to earthquake, storm, flood and wildfire at the specific site, not the national average.
- Rule of law. Whether you can actually enforce a contract in a dispute and how long that takes.
- Quality of life. Whether everyday life works for years, not just for a holiday.
Developers and projects in Egypt
The developer index records 13 projects and 8 developers in Egypt without rating them, each entry with source and retrieval date. An excerpt:
| Project | Place | Developer | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Badya | 6th of October City | Palm Hills Developments | under construction |
| Soul | Ad Dabaah | Emaar Misr | on sale |
| IL Monte Galala | Ain Sokhna | Tatweer Misr | under construction |
| IL Monte Galala Marina Towers | Ain Sokhna | Tatweer Misr | under construction |
| Nuba El Gouna | El Gouna | Orascom Development Egypt | on sale |
| North Bay - El Gouna | El Gouna | Orascom Development | on sale |
| Ledge Valley (Makadi Heights) | Makadi Heights | Orascom Development | on sale |
| Mivida | Neu-Kairo | Emaar Misr | under construction |
| Salt Marina | North Coast | Tatweer Misr | under construction |
| June | Ras El Hekma | SODIC | partly handed over |
| il Bayou | Sahl Hasheesh | TLD - The Land Developers | on sale |
| Mesca Soma Bay | Soma Bay | Soma Bay Real Estate | on sale |
Individual project pages are currently in German; they contain the recorded data, the source and the retrieval date.
All 13 projects and 8 developers in Egypt
What the guide cannot do
A country can look good in all three columns and the specific property can still be a total loss. The reverse is also true: in a country with a weak register, a cleanly titled plot can be entirely unproblematic. The guide tells you what the environment looks like. Whether this one property holds up is decided by the review.