A platform tracking Egypt's market for reselling existing property contracts recorded 35,184 purchase requests in September, against just 3,618 newly listed units, according to the second monthly report of its Real Estate Assignment Market Index, covered by Daily News Egypt on 11 October. The gap between demand and new supply is the latest data point in a debate that has run through Egypt's property sector since the index launched in August.
The platform, Aqar Exit, operates what it calls a contract-assignment market: sellers who hold an existing instalment contract with a developer list it for sale, and a buyer takes over the remaining instalments at the original contract price, without the premium typically charged in Egypt's informal resale market. The model lets an original buyer recover money already paid without waiting for the unit's delivery, according to Daily News Egypt and Eleqtisade News.
Since its launch, Aqar Exit has closed 638 deals with an estimated market value of EGP 8.8 billion, including 404 closed in September alone, up from 233 in the previous monthly period, Daily News Egypt reported. As of 8 October, the platform listed or had under review 8,534 units with an estimated market value of EGP 124 billion, up from EGP 72.2 billion a month earlier, according to Daily News Egypt and a Daily News Egypt report from 6 September, which covered the platform's first 28 days of operation, from 8 August to 5 September.
Average daily purchase requests rose 58 percent in September, to 1,060 from 671 in the previous period, while daily new listings remained largely unchanged at 109 units, compared with 112 in the previous period, Ammar said, according to Eleqtisade News. Gulf-based buyers accounted for 13.3 percent of the platform's users, Eleqtisade News reported, and units priced under EGP 3 million drew an average of 11.1 purchase requests each.
Mahmoud Ammar, founder and chairman of Aqar Exit, said demand was accelerating faster than the growth in new listings, according to Daily News Egypt. Ammar's September reading echoes a warning he gave when the index was a month old. In data covering the platform's first 30 days, about 6,000 listed units had drawn roughly 32,000 purchase offers, according to an EnterpriseAM report from 13 September, which said the mismatch reflects strong end-user demand running up against squeezed buyer affordability. "The market faces a problem bigger than a bubble," Ammar said at the time, according to EnterpriseAM.
That assessment has been disputed by some of Egypt's largest developers. Hesham Talaat Moustafa said the country's top 10 developers, which EnterpriseAM reported have about 500,000 units under development worth a combined EGP 800 billion, maintain a collection rate of 99.6 percent on instalment payments, which he said disproves claims of widespread buyer default. Ahmed Adel Darwish, a former deputy housing minister, took a different view, telling EnterpriseAM that while the market is not on the verge of collapsing, it suffers from structural problems that require urgent government intervention to prevent ongoing uncertainty from harming committed developers.
The underlying tension, according to EnterpriseAM's reporting, traces back to 2023 and 2024, when high inflation and a sharp devaluation of the pound drove speculative buying of real estate as a store of value, pushing up prices and straining the ability of end-users to keep up with instalments on units bought at the top of that cycle. Aqar Exit's assignment model gives some of those buyers a way to exit a contract without taking the loss of an informal resale markup, while giving other buyers access to units at the original, pre-markup contract price.
Since Aqar Exit's launch, the platform has registered 14,845 assignment contracts from 11,833 sellers, against 67,013 purchase requests submitted by 32,870 buyers, according to Eleqtisade News. The average number of deals closed per week rose 148 percent in September, to 85 from 34 in the previous period, Daily News Egypt reported, even as the pace of new listings stayed close to flat.
Because the index is only two months old, it is too early to say whether the September acceleration in purchase requests reflects a durable shift in buyer behaviour or a shorter-term response to specific listings. Aqar Exit has not published data for October, and neither Aqar Exit nor the developers quoted in the reports above have offered a forecast for how the gap between requests and listings will move in the coming months.
Frequently asked questions
What is Aqar Exit and how does the contract-assignment model work?
Aqar Exit is a platform for Egypt's market in reselling existing property instalment contracts. A seller holding a contract with a developer lists it, and a buyer takes over the remaining instalments at the original contract price, letting the seller recover money already paid without the markup common in informal resales, according to Daily News Egypt and Eleqtisade News.
What did Aqar Exit's September index show?
It recorded 35,184 purchase requests against 3,618 new listings in September, with 404 deals closed during the month compared with 233 previously, and total listed or under-review units valued at EGP 124 billion as of 8 October, according to Daily News Egypt.
Does this data mean Egypt has a housing bubble?
Accounts differ. Aqar Exit's founder has said the imbalance between demand and listings points to a problem he considers larger than a bubble, while large developers cited by EnterpriseAM point to a 99.6 percent instalment collection rate as evidence against widespread buyer distress. A former deputy housing minister described the market as facing structural problems requiring government intervention. No report reviewed offers a single, agreed verdict.
Who is buying on the assignment market?
Gulf-based buyers made up 13.3 percent of Aqar Exit's users in the period reported, and units priced under EGP 3 million attracted the highest average number of purchase requests per unit, according to Eleqtisade News.
