Is the new real estate developers' law in force in Egypt?

No. As of early October 2026 it is a draft. According to Daily News Egypt, the Ministry of Housing is still discussing its provisions with developers before sending it to the Cabinet, and after the Cabinet it still has to pass Parliament and then get executive regulations. Several of its details, including who manages the protection funds and what developers contribute, are explicitly left to later decisions by the Prime Minister. Nothing in it protects a buyer who signs a contract today.

What is the separate account per project in the draft?

The draft requires a developer to open an independent bank account for each project, or each phase, and to deposit every payment received from buyers into it. Buyers' money may not be used for other projects or for anything unrelated to that project. Withdrawals are tied to actual construction progress, as certified in reports by the project's consultant and approved by the federation. In practice it works like an escrow account, which Egypt has never required for off-plan sales.

Who counts as a real estate developer under the draft law?

The draft creates two categories. A 'real estate developer' builds residential projects of at least 5 feddans, or commercial, administrative, service or tourism projects of at least 1 feddan. A company with smaller projects can be registered as 'deemed a real estate developer' if it has already completed at least 3 feddans and meets the solvency and experience requirements. Existing companies get one year from the executive regulations to regularise their status, and registration with the federation becomes a condition for approvals and building licences.

What happens to stalled projects under the draft?

The draft sets out a graduated process. The developer is first notified and given a chance to restart work. If it does not, the federation can have the project completed by another developer at the original developer's expense, or activate the buyer-protection fund. The competent authority can also assign the project to another registered developer under the executive regulations. Critics note that the escrow rules would apply to new projects, which leaves buyers in projects already stalled without the new protection.

Egypt's Draft Real Estate Developers' Law: What It Changes for Off-Plan Sales

For as long as most agents have been selling off-plan in Egypt, the buyer's money and the developer's money have been the same money.

A down payment for a unit in one compound could, legally, pay for land in another. Nobody had to show the buyer where their instalments went. When a project stalled, the buyer's options were a lawsuit and patience.

A draft law now being circulated would change that. It creates a Real Estate Developers' Federation, makes registration with it mandatory, and requires a separate bank account for every project, with withdrawals tied to how much has actually been built.

It is not law. It may change a lot before it becomes law. But it is the first time the government has put a full framework for developers on paper, and the questions it raises are the ones your buyers will start asking you this month.

Here is what is actually in the draft, what the people criticising it are saying, and what is worth doing now — while knowing that the final text may look different.

Where it stands

The draft surfaced in the press in late September, and detailed summaries appeared in Al Borsa and Daily News Egypt by 4 October.

According to Daily News Egypt, the Ministry of Housing is discussing the provisions with developers before submitting the bill to the Cabinet. After the Cabinet comes Parliament, and after Parliament the executive regulations, which is where many of the important numbers will actually be set.

So the honest timeline is: months at the very least, and possibly longer. This is not the first attempt either. A law to regulate real estate development was proposed in 2019 and ran into opposition from the industry over prison penalties. A 2021 proposal backed by 61 MPs set fines of up to EGP 10 million for unregistered developers. Neither became law.

That history is a reason for caution, not dismissal. The current draft is more detailed than either of its predecessors, and it lands in a market where the top developers' sales held up in pounds while the number of units sold fell — a market where buyers are already more nervous about delivery than they were two years ago.

What the draft actually says

Ten provisions are worth knowing. Five of them matter far more than the rest to anyone selling off-plan.

1. A separate bank account for every project

This is the centre of the law. Each developer must open an independent bank account for each project or phase, and deposit into it every payment collected under its sales contracts.

The money may not be used for other projects or for anything unrelated to the project. Withdrawals follow actual construction progress, based on reports from the project's consultant and approved by the federation.

In other words, an escrow account. Dubai has required one for off-plan projects since 2007. Egypt has never required one for off-plan sales.

2. No marketing without prior approval

Developers would need prior approval from the federation before advertising units for sale, marketing a project, or taking part in a property exhibition.

This is the clause that comes closest to brokers. The draft regulates developers, but the advertising of a project is, in practice, mostly done by brokerages and their ad accounts. If this survives, "is this project approved for marketing?" becomes a question you need answered before you spend money on ads for it.

3. Two buyer-protection funds

The draft creates two independent funds to protect buyers: one for clients of registered developers, one for clients of companies "deemed" developers.

What the funds cover, how much developers pay into them and how compensation is paid are all left to a later decision by the Prime Minister. Until those details exist, nobody can tell a buyer what the fund actually protects.

4. Two classes of developer

A real estate developer builds residential projects of at least 5 feddans, or commercial, administrative, service or tourism projects of at least 1 feddan.
A company with smaller projects can register as "deemed a real estate developer" if it has already completed at least 3 feddans and meets the solvency and experience requirements.

Existing companies would get one year from the executive regulations to regularise their status. Registration requires real estate development to be in the company's corporate purpose, proof of land ownership or allocation, proof of solvency, and no final bankruptcy ruling against it.

5. A public register buyers can check

The federation would keep two electronic registers, one per class, updated monthly and free to access. The stated aim is to let buyers check a company's status and classification before they sign.

Administrative authorities could not approve a subdivision or issue a licence without first checking that the developer is registered and classified.

The rest of the draft

Stalled projects: a graduated process. The developer is notified and given a chance to restart. If it does not, the federation can have another company complete the project at the original developer's expense, or activate the protection fund. The authorities can also reassign the project to a registered developer.
Penalties: escalating, from a warning up to a suspension of all development activity for up to five years, without automatically stopping projects already under way.
Governance: a 15-member board mixing elected developers with members appointed by the Housing Minister and the Consumer Protection Agency, on four-year terms.
Disputes: an amicable settlement committee before any lawsuit, and specialised court circuits for real estate development disputes.
Market data: the federation would monitor prices and publish reports on market activity.

What the critics say

The draft has been welcomed in principle and criticised in detail, and the criticism is worth knowing, because it points at where the final text is most likely to change.

The regulator is run by the regulated. Fathallah Fawzi, who heads the real estate committee at the Egyptian Businessmen's Association, argues that a body representing developers should not also inspect and penalise them, and that an independent regulator is needed. MP Yasser Qura has made a similar call. Development consultant Seif Allah El-Khawanky points out that the government would appoint 7 of the 15 board members and developers would hold the other 8.

Money may still move between projects. Lawyer Nihad Abu El-Komsan argues that the draft still leaves room for developers to move funds between projects — which is the exact problem the law is supposed to fix. Fawzi has also objected to letting large developers transfer money across projects.

It protects future buyers, not current ones. The escrow rules apply to new projects. Buyers already inside stalled projects, who are the people with the most at stake, get nothing new.

Buyers have almost no seat at the table. Critics point to weak buyer representation on the board, and to the absence of clear rules on cancellations and refunds — the questions buyers actually bring to a lawyer.

A short-term slowdown is possible. Mustafa Shafie of Fleet Holding has said the protections are real, but restricting how developers finance projects could slow the market in the short term.

None of these are reasons to ignore the draft. They are reasons not to sell it as finished.

What it means if you sell off-plan

Don't sell the law

The first temptation will be to use it in the pitch: "and now there is a law that protects your money." There isn't. There is a draft, which may change, which does not apply to projects launched before it, and whose protection fund has no rules yet.

A buyer who signs because of that sentence and later finds out it was not true will not blame the government. They will blame you, and they will say so to everyone who asks them for a broker.

Answer the questions the draft will put in buyers' heads

Coverage of the draft is the first time many buyers will have heard the words "separate account per project". They will start asking. Get the answers from each developer you sell, in writing, before buyers ask:

Where does my down payment go? Is there a dedicated account for this project or phase, and with which bank?
Is spending tied to construction? Does any consultant or bank check progress before money is released?
What does the contract say about delay? The delivery date, the penalty clause, and whether the penalty is real money or a token.
What happens if I cancel? The refund terms, in the contract, not in the sales presentation.
What has this developer delivered, and when? Actual handovers, not announcements.

Some developers already have good answers to the first two questions and will be glad to show them. That is a selling point you can use honestly today — not because a law requires it, but because the developer chose it.

Check your projects the way the register will

The public register does not exist yet, but the information it is built on does. Is the company actually set up as a developer? Does it own or hold an allocation for the land? Is the project licensed? Is it one phase of a much larger master plan being financed from the same pot?

A brokerage that asks those questions before taking a project onto its list will lose fewer clients to a stalled site, with or without the law.

Expect the small developers to be squeezed

The 5-feddan threshold for residential projects and the 3-feddan track record for smaller companies will matter most to the small developers building single buildings and small compounds — a real part of what many brokerages sell outside the big names. If the thresholds survive, some of those companies will have to qualify through the "deemed developer" route, merge, or stop launching. Watch which ones on your list are likely to be affected.

Keep your own records straight

The clause on marketing approval, if it survives, means an ad for an unapproved project could become the developer's legal problem and your commercial one. Know which projects each agent is advertising, from which ad account, and with what claims. If a buyer complains later, the question will be what they were told, and you want that in your company's records — not in a WhatsApp chat on an agent's personal phone.

You are already regulated

The draft regulates developers. Brokers have had their own law since Law 21 of 2022, and since Decision 578 of 2025 every broker must be listed in the GOEIC register. If your brokerage is not registered yet, that is a requirement in force today, with penalties attached, and it should come before anything in this draft.

What to watch

The Cabinet text. Whether the escrow rules and the ban on moving money between projects come out stronger or weaker than in the draft.
Who sits on the board. Whether the developers' majority survives, or an independent regulator is created as critics ask.
The protection-fund decision. What it covers, what developers contribute, and whether existing stalled projects are included at all.
The marketing clause. Whether "advertising" is defined broadly enough to cover brokers' ads, and who is liable when an unapproved project is advertised.
The executive regulations. Where the one-year regularisation clock starts, and therefore when any of this actually begins.

Until then, the most useful thing the draft does is give you the right questions to ask your developers, before your buyers ask them for you.

Further reading

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