CAIRO -

Repeated incidents of real estate collapse in Egypt have shed light on the scale of one of the biggest crises threatening the lives of thousands of Egyptians, amid expectations that more lives will be claimed in light of the alarming numbers of real estate in danger of collapse, which are close to 100,000, according to government figures.

The last of those incidents happened today;

A 5-storey house collapsed in the Sahel neighborhood in the Shubra area (north of Cairo), but fortunately that was two days after the property was evacuated from its residents, knowing that the collapse caused a partial collapse and destroyed the facades of 3 neighboring properties.

A few days ago, a 5-storey property collapsed in the Rod al-Farag neighborhood, an old popular neighborhood in the Egyptian capital, killing the owner of the property, her daughter and her 9-year-old grandson.

The same neighborhood witnessed the collapse of an old 4-storey property last February, which resulted in the death and injury of a number of residents, and caused the partial collapse of two adjacent properties, as the phenomenon of real estate adhesion is common in all Egyptian cities.

Greater Cairo (consisting of Cairo, Giza and North Qalyubia) is crowded with about 20 million people, which means about one fifth of Egyptians, and about 97% of the population is crowded on an area of ​​only 8% of the country’s area, which amounts to about one million square kilometers, where there are 1,400 people per kilometer. Square.

A search for news of collapsed real estate and its victims reveals many similar accidents that occur frequently;

Which raises many questions about the causes of this recurring crisis and the inability to prevent it so far.

Civil protection forces and the people are looking for victims under the collapsed property in the #Rawd_al-Faraj neighborhood in #Cairo pic.twitter.com/M2IDr4ysz1

- Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) November 13, 2021

Real estate numbers in danger of collapse

The figures of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (government) tell us a large number, which is that the number of real estate that is about to fall in Egypt is 97,535, for which no action has been taken, even though they are real estate that may fall at any moment, and these real estate are classified under the item “unjust.” It is subject to restoration and required demolition,” in addition to the presence of 258,442 buildings under demolition.

What is interesting is that this number appears modest despite the many risks it carries, in addition to other figures related to real estate that need repair and repair, as there are 3,233 thousand and 635 buildings in need of restoration, between simple, medium and large.

Most of these buildings are located in the countryside, which accounts for 69.4% of the number of buildings at the level of the Republic, where there are about 13.5 million buildings, of which 9,367,000 are in the countryside, and about 4 million are in urban areas.

In a study issued by Cairo University and published by local newspapers in 2015;

It showed that 90% of Egypt's real estate is in violation of the specifications, and that 50% of it is in need of maintenance, and it estimated the number of collapsed properties at one million, of which 132 thousand removal decisions were issued, of which nothing has been implemented.

Causes of violations and breakdowns

Officials and experts list the causes of building collapse in a number of factors.

Among them are the spread of random construction, non-compliance with building standards, the decline of the state’s supervisory role, fraud operations, violating building permits, and poor exploitation of residential real estate;

Such as the establishment of factories, workshops and furnaces under them, the lack of maintenance or review of the condition of the property, in addition to the deterioration of the infrastructure that contributes to the cracking of buildings.

But at the top of these reasons is the spread of corruption in the local authorities in the governorates, which issue licenses, supervise construction operations, report and edit violations, and issue decisions to remove them, but they do not play this role, according to a study of the Ministry of Housing several years ago and published by local news sites, where she confirmed that Corruption in the localities is the main reason for the collapse of real estate.

Local administration expert Hamdi Arafa, a consultant for slum development, says that more than 90% of workers in engineering departments in 27 governorates are unqualified, unspecialized and with average qualifications, and corruption is rampant among them, as he described in statements to local newspapers.

This was agreed with by the former head of the Urban Planning Institute, Dr. Mahmoud Abdel Hai, who indicated - in previous press statements - that the reason for the collapse of the buildings was due to the corruption of (employees) of the localities and the complications in issuing licenses.

corruption contractor

A former member of the Egyptian Parliament’s Housing Committee, Azab Mostafa, held successive Egyptian governments responsible for the random construction;

And thus the collapse of real estate, saying that "the absence of the state's role is the main responsible for the collapse of real estate, because it does not play its role in activating the law and applying it to violators."

In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Azab referred to Law No. 119 of 2008 that defines the urban space of the city and the village and the planning and building requirements in line with development and expansion plans, and the monitoring and maintenance of those buildings in a way that preserves the real estate wealth, "But rampant corruption in the localities and the absence of oversight led to what we are in it,” he said.

As a result of all of the above - according to Mostafa - Egypt is considered one of the countries that are on the verge of collapse as a result of randomness, lack of strategic planning, fraud in construction, the absence of construction culture, manipulation of licenses and conditions, and allowing abuses for the sake of bribery and nepotism.

Why don't they leave?

The irony is that some of the victims were given warnings by local administrations to vacate the building or renovate it to no avail. So why do the residents of these dilapidated buildings refuse to leave despite the danger they pose to their lives?

Is it due to the lack of places commensurate with their financial capabilities in light of the high prices of housing units?

Or because of the high prices of building materials needed for restoration?

Or is it the association of many with their places of origin and work and a certain way of life that makes it difficult to move to another place to start from the beginning?

In an attempt to answer these questions, Al Jazeera Net met a resident of a government property in the Sharkia Governorate, on the lower floor of which was a government post office that had been moved years ago due to cracks and cracks in the building.

Ali Ibrahim says that "the 4-storey building with 8 apartments is threatening to collapse at any time on the heads of those in it, yet here we live and here we work."

When asked why he did not leave the building, he replied, "The building was issued a decision to remove and we received multiple warnings, but we do not refuse to leave for the sake of refusal, but because there is no alternative for us. We have been living here for a long time and we do not pay rent, and the governorate did not provide us with any other housing." And we have no money to buy an apartment, or repair our place of residence, we leave it to God.”

government solutions

The Egyptian government says that it took the initiative by issuing the Unified Building Law, which set many technical requirements and defined many engineering standards to ensure the structural safety of the building, stop random construction, and quickly confront violators.

In addition to its efforts to eliminate the 357 unsafe areas and 1105 random markets nationwide, and the completion of the development of 316 areas, at a cost of more than 40 billion pounds (about 2.8 billion dollars).

The government expanded in building new cities and providing housing units for all segments, as the Ministry of Housing says that it has implemented or is implementing about 900,000 housing units in social and medium housing projects, at a cost of about 390 billion pounds.

During the past two years, government campaigns to remove slums and demolish violating homes have sparked anger among the residents of those homes. Rare demonstrations have taken place in villages and the outskirts of Cairo, calling for a halt to the displacement of these areas, and others calling for not demolishing the violating buildings and reducing the fines imposed by the authorities on them.

With tear gas canisters,


the security forces dispersed the demonstrations of the people of the #Alexandria_Al-Said area protesting against the demolition of their homes pic.twitter.com/Sgb8bwZONh

— Monitoring Network (@RassdNewsN) June 4, 2021