The Egyptian government is set to offer 2,500 acres of land in new cities to real estate developers and also increase the budget of New Urban Communities Authority (Nuca) to E£50 billion ($3.24 billion) in the next fiscal year, said a report.

The Egyptian Ministry of Housing is working on developing the real estate sector through two projects, reported the Daily News Egypt.

The first is the development of the new administrative capital, which is set to occupy 168,000 acres of land (roughly double the size of New Cairo), and the second is the development of new cities in order to transform Egypt into an international hub, it stated.

Minister of Housing Mostafa Madbouly pointed out that despite opposition to the project, the new administrative capital is very important.

The project is being financed by the Nuca, which has become extremely financially solvent after its budget was increased from E£5 billion ($325 million) in the last five years to E£37 billion ($2.4 billion) in the current fiscal year.

Madbouly said the work on the new capital had been delayed for the past 50 years mainly because Egypt’s population inhabits only 6.5 per cent of the country. But now it is rising slowly, and hence the urgency to complete the project in time.

“We have to double the inhabited area of Egypt before 2052 to 12 per cent by adding an additional 5,000 to 8,000 acres worth of land for housing,” stated the minister.

“By 2027, we have to have achieved a comprehensive development in areas around the new capital, such as the Suez Canal Area Development Project, New Al Alamen, and East Port Said,” he added.