Private sector could play a greater role in low-income housing development in NUCA’s largest land offering: The Housing Ministry plans to announce this week the details of a series of tenders for urban development projects in FY2018-19, in what Housing Minister Moustafa Madbouly called the largest land offering to developers, according to AMAY. The New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) will tender the development 76,211 plots of land and 100,000 new homes in newly developed cities across the nation. These projects would be both residential and commercial, and will include low-income housing, Madbouly hinted. The policy would probably go far to help the Housing Ministry secure a USD 500 mn loan from the World Bank. As we noted yesterday, the bank had wanted to see the private sector take on a larger role in low-income housing development before signing off on the loan.

In other NUCA news, the authority appears to have reached a settlement with Orascom Housing Communities (OHC) over the disputed development of 1,380 feddans in the Haram City affordable housing project. Under the settlement, NUCA will exclusively develop 380 feddans, while OHC and the authority will partner to develop 1,000 feddans. OHC will also buy out its US partners, who have filed an international arbitration case against the government, according to Al Shorouk. The settlement will be brought up before a government investor disputes committee his week, where details will be ironed out. The dispute arose when NUCA provided only 620 feddans from an originally contracted 2,000 feddans.