Top national players including Sodic, Emaar Misr, and Palm Hills are among hundreds of real estate developers in talks over payments to regularize the status of their land on the North Coast under new regulations ratified by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi last year, Al Shorouk reports, citing unnamed government sources. The new regulations are part of the government’s redevelopment plan for the “western” North Coast, which place some 707k feddans on the coast under the ownership of the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) to set up its own developments. This development plan is expected to be complete over four-five years.

The only problem is that the decision covers land that developers have already purchased and built compounds on, and it appears that the prior purchase and development of land plots does not exempt them from having to pay a fee to regularize their status. Around 200 companies are now on track to regularize the status of some 250k feddans within six months, and 15 companies have submitted the necessary paperwork and signed agreements so far, the government sources say.