Buoyed by a growing local economy and its strategic location as a gateway to Africa and Middle East market, Cairo is becoming a pre-eminent real estate market and set to grow in 2010, it is claimed. The city is emerging on the radar screen of an increasing number of regional and global corporates according to a new report from international property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle.
Despite global economic turmoil, the underlying fundamentals of the Cairo real estate market have remained largely intact during 2009, analysts conclude in the Cairo City Profile report.
‘Cairo is characterised by a combination of mature and emerging market conditions. The city is growing rapidly from its heavily constrained historic core to a range of new areas on the urban periphery,’ the report says.
‘Development over the past few years has been focussed on the luxury residential market but while this sector is now approaching saturation, there remain huge opportunities for the increasing income market,’ it continues.
‘Driven by end user demand rather than speculative investment, the Cairo real estate market is cash driven and has experienced much lower levels of debt than in many of the other cities in the region,’ it adds.
‘It is our opinion that demand for real estate in Cairo will continue to grow in 2010 providing opportunities for investors, developers and occupiers across the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors,’ the report concludes.
It predicts that there will be growth in the residential sector with an important shift towards affordable housing as Cairo is a demand-driven market where affordable housing is in short supply.
In the commercial sector the report points out that city’s fragmented office market provides significant opportunities for building international quality office buildings and there is demand from international occupiers. The hospitality and tourism sectors, driven by new investment, are expected to record an important increase in both international and regional tourists.
‘Cairo remains a market with more demand than supply for new, high quality retail development and is significantly under-served as compared with competing markets for modern, professionally managed retail offerings,’ the report says.
