Ask ten Egyptian brokers what the commission on a resale apartment is and most will say 2.5%. Ask them which law says so and the room goes quiet, because none does.
That gap matters more than it sounds. The percentage is the part everyone negotiates. The expensive arguments are about everything around it: whether the commission was earned when the buyer signed or only when the developer paid, whether you keep it when the buyer walks away six months later, whether the seller owes you anything when it was the buyer who called you, and how the fee is split when two brokers touched the same deal.
Egyptian law answers most of those questions, clearly, in a handful of articles most brokers have never read. This guide goes through what the law says, what Law 21 of 2022 added, what the market actually pays in resale, rental and developer sales as of 2026, and the terms worth putting in writing before your next deal.
One note before we start: this is a practical explainer, not legal advice. Where a real dispute is on the table, take the contract to a lawyer.
What the law says: no rate, but clear rules
Brokerage is governed by the Commercial Code, Law No. 17 of 1999, in the chapter that opens at Article 192. Article 192 defines it as a contract under which the broker undertakes to find a second party for a specific contract and to mediate its conclusion.
The rate: agreement first, then custom, then a judge
The law sets no percentage. Article 193 says:
«إذا لم يعين أجر السمسار فى القانون أو فى الاتفاق وجب تعيينه وفقا لما يقضى به العرف، فإذا لم يوجد عرف قدره القاضى تبعا لما بذله السمسار من جهد وما استغرقه من وقت فى القيام بالعمل المكلف به.»
If neither the law nor your agreement sets the fee, custom does. If there is no custom, a judge decides based on your effort and time. That is the only place the famous 2.5% gets its force: not as a number in a statute, but as custom a court might recognise when nobody wrote anything down. Which is the first lesson of this whole article: when nothing is written, you've handed the number to someone else.
A court can also reduce a commission that is out of proportion to the effort, under Article 196, unless the agreed fee was paid after the contract was concluded.
When you earn it: the preliminary contract
This is the rule that settles most arguments. Article 194 says the broker earns the fee only if the mediation led to the contract being concluded, and then:
«ويستحق السمسار الأجر بمجرد إبرام العقد ولو لم ينفذ كله أو بعضه.»
And for property specifically, paragraph 4:
«إذا كان أحد آثار العقد يتوقف على إتمام إجراء قانونى معين كالتسجيل فى بيع العقار أو القيد فى الرهن الرسمى استحق السمسار أجره بمجرد إبرام العقد الابتدائى.»
In plain terms: in a property sale, your commission is earned when the preliminary contract is signed. Not when the deed is registered, not when the last instalment is paid, not when the keys are handed over. If the contract hangs on a suspensive condition, something that has to happen before it takes effect, you earn it when that condition is met. And if the client blocks a deal you brought to the table for no good reason, the court can compensate you for your effort, though that is compensation, not the full commission.
If the deal falls apart afterwards
Article 195: if the contract you mediated is rescinded, you can still claim your fee, or keep it if you've been paid, unless you committed fraud or gross error. That is the legal default. Developer agreements frequently say otherwise, which is allowed, because it is a contract term both sides signed. Know which one you signed.
Who owes you: only whoever engaged you
Article 198 is the one that ends the "buyer pays or seller pays?" argument:
«لا يستحق السمسار الأجر إلا ممن فوضه من طرفى العقد فى السعى إلى إبرامه. وإذا صدر التفويض من الطرفين كان كل منهما مسئولا قبل السمسار بغير تضامن بينهما عن دفع الأجر المستحق عليه ولو اتفقا فيما بينهما على أن يتحمل أحدهما الأجر بأكمله.»
You are owed a fee only by the side that mandated you. If both sides engaged you, each owes their own share, separately. If the buyer and the seller agree between themselves that one pays everything, that doesn't bind you: you still collect each share from the person who owes it. There is no legal default that the buyer pays, or that the seller pays. It is whoever signed a mandate with you, and what that mandate says.
Three more rules worth knowing
- Expenses are recoverable only if you agreed on them, and if you did, they're due even if no deal closes (Article 199).
- Honesty runs both ways. Even if only one side hired you, you must present the deal honestly to both and tell them everything you know about it, and you are liable to both for fraud or gross error (Article 200).
- Several brokers, one deal. Where a deal closes through several brokers and no separate fees were set for each, each gets a share of the joint fee in proportion to their effort (Article 205). Anyone who has fought over a co-broke split will see why agreeing it in writing first is cheaper.
What Law 21 of 2022 added
Law 21 of 2022 amended Law 120 of 1982 and brought real estate brokerage into a registration regime. We've covered registration, the broker categories and the penalties for working unregistered in their own guide, so take that as read. What matters for commission is three rules.
The brokerage contract must be in writing, with the date, the broker's and client's names and national ID numbers, the broker's commercial register data and tax number, and the property's specification. It must also record the payment method in full: its type, means, date and amount.
Commission must be paid by non-cash means above EGP 10,000. The law requires the agreed commission, and any amount the broker receives, to be paid through non-cash payment channels, and forbids cash above EGP 10,000. The fine for breaking that is 2% to 10% of the amount paid in cash, up to EGP 1 million.
You must keep a register of your brokerage deals, the commissions and amounts you received, the transaction price and the parties. Missing the written contract or the register carries a fine of EGP 10,000 to 50,000.
Note what is missing: a rate. The law's own wording talks about «العمولة المتفق عليها», the commission agreed in the contract. In August 2026 the head of GOEIC, which runs the brokers register, said the law requires a written contract that sets the commission by agreement between the parties, without the state intervening.
What the market actually pays
Everything in this section is market practice or press reporting, not law, and the sources are listed at the end. Rates move by area, by developer and by how badly someone needs to sell.
Resale. Commission is commonly quoted at 1.5% to 2.5% of the property value, with who pays it set by agreement, according to Aqarmap's guidance updated in late 2025. That range is reported market practice, not a rate any court is bound to apply, which is one more reason to write your number down.
Rentals. One month's rent is the usual commission, and it's common to take a month from each side: the owner and the tenant.
Developer sales. This is where the numbers have moved. Egyptian business press describes the traditional developer commission as not exceeding about 2.5%. In January 2026, Hapi Journal reported rates reaching 10% and 12% in some cases, and around 7% in New Cairo, with the experts it quoted calling 2.5% to 4% normal. In November 2025, Al-Borsa carried industry figures describing commissions of up to 12% of the unit's value, and a deputy head of the Real Estate Development Chamber arguing that commission should not exceed 2.5%. A developer publicly called for a 4% ceiling back in 2022. None of those ceilings is law. They are proposals from one side of the table.
Two consequences are worth understanding, because buyers and developers are starting to talk about them.
The first is price. When commission climbs to those levels, it doesn't disappear. One industry figure quoted in January 2026 put commission plus direct selling costs at around 10% of the unit price, which means the buyer is paying it inside the price.
The second is cancellations. Developers that take back a unit from a buyer who can no longer pay often keep a share of what was paid; one real estate writer, quoted in June 2025, put it at about 10% of the unit's value and linked it partly to commissions and advertising the developer had already paid. That points the same way as Article 195: once a commission is paid, getting it back is hard, which is exactly why developers write their own triggers and clawback terms into broker agreements.
Payment timing from developers is set by each developer's agreement, and there is little public, current data on it. The one published example we found is old: in January 2019, Iskan Misr quoted a real estate writer describing some developers paying brokers 50% of the commission four months after a sale and the rest four months later. Don't assume that's typical today. Ask.
How the commission is split inside a brokerage
There is no reliable public data on the standard split between a brokerage and its sales agents, and figures you'll see quoted online vary so widely that some can't both be true. What has been reported, in November 2025, is that some firms raised their agents' share to around 70% of the company's commission to attract salespeople, before tax and admin costs, described as the aggressive end of the market, alongside referral fees of around 0.5% paid to clients who bring a buyer.
The law doesn't set a default split between a brokerage and its own agents; that is whatever your employment or commission agreement says, so write it down. Between separate brokers it's different: when several brokers close a deal together and nobody fixed each one's fee, Article 205 splits the joint fee in proportion to effort, which is a fight nobody wins.
Put these in writing before the deal
The law now requires a written brokerage contract anyway. Use it to settle the things that actually cause disputes.
- Who is engaging you. A signed mandate from the seller, from the buyer, or from both, with each side's share stated separately. Article 198 ties the fee to whoever authorised you, so get each side's authorisation and fee into the written contract the law already requires.
- The rate and the base. A percentage of what, exactly: the contract price, the price before or after a discount, with or without the maintenance deposit or parking. Most rate disputes are really base disputes.
- The trigger. The law's default for property is the preliminary contract. If you're agreeing a later trigger, such as the developer's collection of a certain share of the price, write down which one and the date it is expected.
- Cancellation. What happens if the buyer withdraws or the contract is rescinded. The legal default in Article 195 favours the broker; a clawback clause changes that, and you should know if you've signed one.
- Payment method. A bank transfer or another non-cash channel for anything above EGP 10,000, recorded in the contract, as the law requires.
- Co-brokers and referrals. Who else is on the deal and what share each gets, agreed before the viewing, not after the signature.
- Expenses. If you expect them covered, say so. Article 199 gives you nothing otherwise.
Once those terms are written, the next problem is keeping track of them across dozens of deals and several developers, each with its own rate and its own payment schedule. That is where a commission ledger earns its keep. In V Estate you set a default commission rate for each developer and override it per project, and every deal carries its own trail: when the buyer's initial payment was confirmed, when the commission became eligible, and when the claim was submitted to the developer. A developer payables view then shows what each developer still owes you. However you track it, the rule is the same: the commission you don't chase on the day it's due is the commission you end up arguing about.
On tax
Commission is income, and it's taxed like income. Accounting sources describe a 5% withholding on commissions and brokerage under Egypt's withholding regime, which means the payer may deduct it at source. Whether VAT applies to your brokerage services depends on how you're registered. Both are questions for your accountant, not for a blog post.
One conversation to have this week
Pick the developer you sell the most for and ask for the brokerage agreement you're actually working under, the signed one, not the rate you remember from the launch event. Read three things in it: the rate for each project, the event that triggers payment, and what happens to your commission if the buyer cancels. Most brokers who do this find at least one of the three is different from what they assumed.
Sources
- Commercial Code, Law No. 17 of 1999, Articles 192–205 (Arabic text)
- Law No. 21 of 2022 amending Law No. 120 of 1982 (Arabic text)
- Cairo24: GOEIC head on brokerage registration and commissions (1 August 2026)
- Aqarmap: Broker commission on sales and rentals (updated 28 November 2025)
- Hapi Journal: Marketing commissions become a burden (4 January 2026)
- Al-Borsa: Industry calls for a ceiling on real estate commissions (4 November 2025)
- Asharq Al-Awsat: In Egypt, buying new property is easy but reselling it is hard (18 June 2025)
- Iskan Misr: Developer commission payment schedules (17 January 2019)