The New Urban Communities Authority () is an Egyptian state owned enterprise (SOE) established in 1979 and affiliated to the Ministry of Housing. It is the exclusive

satellite city A satellite city or satellite town is a smaller municipality or settlement that is part of (or on the edge of) a larger metropolitan area and serves as a regional population and employment center. It differs from mere suburbs, Subdivision (la ...

developer in Egypt, in addition to being Egypt's largest

real estate developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to other ...

and constructor of residential units. These activities resulted in

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some compan ...

of LE 57bn in FY 2019/2020, making it the third largest SOE after

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

and the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

. NUCA was originally tasked with addressing housing issues in Egypt by developing new urban communities to redistribute the population of existing cities away from Egypt's

Nile valley The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

and

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

, and into the

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

in order to save

agricultural land Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other organism, forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous ...

from being urbanized. But after four decades of working under a strict policy of desert development, NUCA's mandate was modified in 2018 allowing it to develop land and real estate projects on agricultural land and within existing cities. Since 1979, NUCA's main role is master developer of the 2.3 million feddans (acres) of state-owned land assigned to it over the years, subdividing it and laying trunk infrastructure, as well as constructing water and wastewater treatment plants, buildings for public schools, hospitals and government agencies. Through its city development agencies (jihaz tanmiyat al-madina), it sells land parcels to individuals and real estate developers for residential and other purposes. NUCA is also the regulator of the new urban communities under its jurisdiction. Its chairman, the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities issues planning permits and oversees the communities, while the appointed city agency heads issue building permits and run the day-to-day affairs of functioning towns, as the new urban communities do not fall under regular local administration. Its headquarters are in

Sheikh Zayed City Sheikh Zayed City () is a city in Giza Governorate in Egypt and part of the Greater Cairo urban area. It was established in 1995 and is named after Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Geography Sheikh Zayed City is situated about from Lebanon Square in ...

Greater Cairo The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...

New communities

Over the course of forty years, NUCA built 20 new towns and satellite cities across Egypt. Since 2014, it started planning a new batch of 37 fourth-generation towns cities spread over around 167,000 feddans of land, where by 2021 17 were under construction. New Communities not under NUCA's administration: New Galala City

Real estate developer

In addition to its city developer role, NUCA acts as a real estate developer where it has recently built and sold over 77,000 for profit housing units such as the Sakan Masr and Dar Masr and Janna projects across Egypt, as well as skyscrapers in Maspero, the New Administrative Capital, and New Alamein. According to a NUCA executive, they account for 28% of its income. In addition to its in-house real estate development, NUCA, along with the

Housing and Development Bank The Housing and Development Bank () is an Egypt, Egyptian bank established in Cairo on June 30, 1979, originally as a List of state-owned enterprises in Egypt, state owned enterprise (SOE), with a mandate to alleviate housing shortages by narrowi ...

which it controls, owns a number of real estate developers: * City Edge Developments (84%) * Hyde Park Developments (78%) * Saudi Egyptian Developers (50%) * Administrative Capital for Urban Development - ACUD (The city developer of the

New Administrative Capital New Administrative Capital (NAC) () is a New Urban Communities Authority, new urban community east of New Cairo in Cairo Governorate, Egypt and a satellite city of Cairo. As of May 2023, 14 ministries and government entities have been relocated ...

, 49%) In 2024, NUCA and the

Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company PJSC (Arabic: شركة أبوظبي التنموية القابضة ش.م.ع), branded ADQ since 2020, is a significant sovereign wealth fund based in Abu Dhabi. It was established in 2018 as a comparatively ...

(ADQ), a

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

based in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

, signed a deal for the ADQ to invest $35 billion in developing Ras el-Hekma into a tourist resort. The deal grants ADQ the right to develop 130 million square metres of land, and is the largest foreign investment deal in Egypt's history.

References

External links

Official website

Land and real estate sale portal
(Inaccessible in Egypt)
Defunct archived website 2005-2013
{{authority control Government agencies of Egypt Housing in Africa