Saib Bank signs cooperation protocol with Al-Safwa

Saib Bank, one of the largest banks operating in Egypt, launched the real estate financing program “The Central Bank’s Initiative for Medium Income Financing”, as it signed a cooperation protocol with Al-Safwa Urban Development Company SUD, one of the largest companies working in the market.

Amr Atallah, Deputy Managing Director for Business and Operations Sectors, said, “The Central Bank and the banking sector pay full attention to the real estate sector, as it is one of the most important indicators of national economic growth, so it is natural to support real estate activity, which ramps up  the growth of many other sectors, such as contracting and building materials industry, among others. He added, “The bank’s signing of a cooperation protocol with one of the largest companies operating in the real estate market comes in line with the bank’s strategy to stimulate and increase the mortgage finance portfolio, as well as to achieve the common goals of both parties.”

For his part, Amr Nasir, Head of the Retail Banking Group, Distribution Channels, Institutional Communication and Marketing underscored the social dimension of the Central Bank’s initiative to finance middle-income financing, as it aims to provide suitable housing for all segments of society. The program permits the ownership of residential real estate with financing of up to 80% of the property value with a financing value of one million and eight hundred thousand Egyptian pounds out of the value of the housing unit in all various housing projects in all governorates across the country to which the terms of the initiative apply, as well as projects of the Ministry of Housing and the Housing Fund.

Mohamed Samir, Head of the Real Estate Finance Sector, said that signing these protocols fulfills the real estate finance sector's  marketing role in attracting real estate developers to handle their various projects, including residential, commercial and administrative units, and in support of activating and increasing the bank's mortgage finance portfolio, as the Central Bank initiative programs and the Individuals Program were activated. The Leasing Program, the first Sharia-based real estate finance program in the banking sector, will be launched through the bank, which is streamlined to become Egypt's leading Islamic bank dealing with Islamic mortgage products.

Dr. Medhat Shalaby, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Safwa Urban Development Company (SUD), indicated that Al-Safwa Urban Development “SUD” is an Egyptian joint stock company, established in 1996, and owns 25 diversified projects in the local market, ranging from housing, education, medicine and tourism, to become one of the leading entities in  property development.

The company always adopts the strategic directions of the state in the field of urban development, starting with being the first to acquire a group of lands in the New Administrative Capital as a modern and smart capital, during the first offering in March 2017.

The company supports the Real Estate Export Initiative put forward by the state to encourage the Egyptian community abroad and Arab and foreign investors to invest in real estate. Therefore, it held the first introductory forum for the Administrative Capital in 2019 in the French capital Paris and the Austrian capital Vienna, which felt the enthusiasm of the Egyptian community abroad to own residential and commercial units in their motherland.  Then the company opened its overseas branches in Europe, specifically in France, Austria and Italy.

When the Central Bank of Egypt launched the real estate financing initiative that aimed to facilitate the process of purchasing housing units and revive the real estate market, the company decided to be one of the first entities to join the initiative, in cooperation with  Saib Bank.

Mohamed Shalaby, CEO and Managing Director of the Al Safwa Urban Development Company (SUD), explained that the number of units offered by the company through the initiative is 350 housing units and their areas range from 60 to 150 square meters, and the price per square meter per unit ranges from 11 to 13 thousand Egyptian pounds fully finished, with a total value It reaches half a billion Egyptian pounds, and according to the initiative, the payment systems provide a period of installments of up to 20 years with down payments starting from 20% of the total unit value at an 8% diminishing interest rate equivalent to 5% fixed interest.

As for the units’ sites, they are concentrated in 3 projects of the company’s projects. The first project is High City in Obour City, which is distinguished by its unique location, as it is built on the top of a hill in Obour City in Ahmed Orabi Square in the Fifth District and has an area of ​​36 acres with a total of 60 residential buildings. By the initiative in the first phase of the project, which consists of 33 residential buildings, and SUD has already begun to deliver them to contracted clients as of early 2021, he noted.

The second project is Sunset 3 in Ras El-Bar, which is a residential project located on Ras El-Bar and Damietta Road and faces the Nile River and consists of 134 residential buildings on an area of ​​35 acres with fully finished residential units starting from 60 square meters and also the company started the process of delivering customers at the beginning of the year 2021, he explained.

"The third project, New Damietta's Sunset3, in the chalets area on the International Coastal Road, is a residential project consisting of 13 buildings with housing units and 11 stand-alone villas on an area of ​​25 thousand square meters for residential units starting from 132 square meters, and we have delivered the project to  clients in 2019".