Property
Registered title plus a very large unregistered urban stock
Ownership and registration are governed by the Civil Code and the Real Estate Registration Law, but a substantial share of urban housing was built without permits and is held on unregistered contracts.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Real Estate Publicity and Notarisation Department under the Ministry of Justice. Foreign ownership is restricted in some areas, notably Sinai.
Governing law
- Civil Code, Law 131/1948 — ownership, usufruct, mortgage
- Law 114/1946 on Real Estate Registration
- Law 148/2001 on Real Estate Finance
- Law 230/1996 and Law 4/1996 on landlord and tenant
In practice
The gap between formal title and actual occupation is the defining feature of Egyptian property practice. Registration is slow and costly enough that many transfers are documented by successive unregistered sale contracts, which are enforceable between the parties but do not convey registered title, so a buyer must trace a chain of contracts rather than consult a register. Rent control under the pre-1996 laws still governs a large legacy stock at frozen rents, and Law 4/1996 applies market terms only to tenancies created after it, producing two parallel rental regimes in the same building. Foreign natural persons face limits on the number and size of properties they may hold, and desert and border land, including Sinai, is subject to separate national-security restrictions.