"Social housing"We aim to build more than 68 thousand units with environmentally friendly specifications
Chief Executive Officer of the Social Housing and Real Estate Finance Support Fund, Mai Abdel Hamid, confirmed that the Fund launched the second phase of the Green Social Housing Initiative in 2022, with the aim of implementing 30,000 sustainable housing units. Bringing the total target to 55 thousand housing units during the current year and in response to the increasing demand for housing in Egypt, the target has been expanded to reach more than 68 thousand sustainable and environmentally friendly housing units.
This came during the participation of the Fund’s CEO, today, Tuesday, in the activities of the technical session “Green Social Housing: Building Homes, Developing Skills, and Financing a Sustainable Future,” within the activities of the Sixth Arab Ministerial Forum for Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, held on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers of Housing. And construction in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The technical session witnessed the presence of: Ayman Mutlaq, Director General of the General Housing Corporation (Syria), Syria Khalil, Director of Technical Affairs and Relations with Professionals, Ministry of National Territorial Preparation, Urbanism, Housing and City Policy (Morocco), Amin Al-Arrayed, CEO of Naseej Real Estate Company (Bahrain), and Muhammad Asfour, the international expert on green construction (Jordan). The session was moderated by Ahmed Rizk, Director of the Egypt Office of the United Nations Habitat Programme. “Habitat”.
She explained that the Social Housing and Real Estate Finance Support Fund began moving towards sustainable green construction and adopting environmentally friendly construction methods in 2020, in cooperation with the World Bank, as the Fund launched the first initiative for green social housing, which aims to implement 25 thousand sustainable, low-cost housing units.
She added that 25 have been approved. One thousand, 494 housing units in the Green Pyramid system in cooperation with the National Center for Housing and Building Research, and 14,376 housing units with the International Finance Corporation according to the global EDGE classification, and more than 28 thousand new housing units will be approved within an international accreditation system.
She also explained that the steps that the Fund is taking to rationalize electricity consumption and reduce carbon emissions, including the use of environmentally friendly building materials that reduce energy and electricity consumption, and the adoption of External walls 25 cm thick, thermal insulation of surfaces to reduce heat transfer, and use of LED lighting and solar energy for lighting. She indicated that the Fund is working to support the private sector’s participation in green housing projects, as the implementation of 1,194 green housing units has been completed, work is underway to implement 53,364 units, and 13,920 new housing units are being offered.
The CEO of the Housing Fund explained that the financing solutions that the Fund relied on, especially since innovative financing tools play a pivotal role in supporting the expansion of green social housing, as The Fund relied on an integrated financing system that contributes to achieving a balance between construction quality and ensuring affordability for low- and middle-income groups. She pointed out that among the financing tools that the Fund relied on was a World Bank loan, in addition to financing from Egyptian banks, which finance the purchase of green units through real estate loans while paying the price of the units to the Fund, which contributes to a sustainable cash flow that contributes to the construction of new units, in addition to the Fund’s study of issuing subsidized green bonds.
She added that the Fund supports the unit price, by selling it at cost without any profit margin, and without the cost of land and utilities, in addition to applying the smart support mechanism, as well as supporting The benefit of real estate financing, noting that there is an integrated support system in the fund, which makes the price of the housing unit accessible to low-income citizens, as well as the cash support provided to citizens according to income limits, which reached 160 thousand pounds.
She announced that the fund is working to increase the volume of proposals, while expanding to the governorates and centers with the highest need, developing new urban and development models that suit the purchasing power of the beneficiaries, and developing innovative financing mechanisms that allow for increased The number of units offered annually.
She indicated that the fund aims to move towards urban growth in new cities instead of focusing within the crowded cities of the Delta, as 85% of its projects were in new cities instead of only 15% in existing cities, which contributes to reducing unplanned expansion, protecting agricultural lands, and reducing the population’s exposure to risks associated with congestion and weak infrastructure.
The CEO explained that the Fund focuses on ensuring that each project includes the current and future needs of the population, such as: schools, health units, schools, and hospitals, while supporting marginalized groups such as: female breadwinners, and self-employed professionals, with the project being linked to public transportation networks and vital facilities in a way that ensures easy and effective employment opportunities for citizens.
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