CAIRO // Before he became a homeowner, Ashraf Abaz was a typical Cairene.
Well-educated and underemployed, he earns about 900 Egyptian pounds (Dh590) each month as a lawyer in one of the government's bloated bureaucracies. He uses part of his salary to pay for the tiny three-bedroom apartment downtown where he lives with his wife, two children, mother and sister.
That was before he stumbled upon a particularly exciting news article. The government, the newspaper said, will offer plots of land in the capital's desert suburbs at a subsidised rate to any young Egyptian who has the moxie to build his own home. Even the programme's simple name, Ibni Baitak or "Build your home", implied a certain empowering capitalist verve.
"I just saw it in the newspapers I read every day. I was so happy when I read this," said Mr Abaz, 38, who hopes to move into his three-storey house in 6th of October City, a well-established "satellite" of greater Cairo, within two years.
"Everyone dreams of having their own house, especially in those new cities that are so far away from the crowds of downtown."
Ibni Baitak is the latest experiment in low-income public housing for a country that has known decades of what experts describe as an almost permanent housing crisis. The rapid urbanisation that followed the industrialising economic reforms of the 1970s and 1980s caused a massive housing shortage in Egyptian cities that the government was ill equipped to manage.
Although exact statistics are unavailable, the Egyptian Centre for Housing Rights estimates that 80 per cent of the new homes built between 1970 and 1994 were illegal dwellings for which the residents hold unofficial titles and which are rarely subject to safety inspections.
And the problem, say officials at the ministry of housing, is only getting worse. The Egyptian housing market needs about four million new living units, said Mohammed Demardash, a deputy minister of housing and one of the developers of the Ibni Baitak programme. There are 520,000 new marriages each year, according to the housing ministry. These are the people who really need homes, he said.
The need is so acute that during his 2005 election campaign, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's president, promised voters that his government would build 1.5 million public housing units within six years.
With Ibni Baitak, the government may have found an inexpensive way to build adequate housing by sharing costs and construction responsibilities with low-income residents.
The programme is open to anyone between the ages of 20 and 40 who has an income of less than 1,000 pounds per month and who does not currently reside in government-subsidised housing.
In its current form, Ibni Baitak has space for about 90,000 participants, nearly half of whom will live in 6th of October City, one of the oldest and most established of Cairo's satellites.
In theory, each floor of a building should accommodate one family, and home-builders may elect to rent or sell one or both of the other floors, provided that the home-builder continues to reside on one of the floors. Ten years after the home is completed, the original homeowner is free to sell the whole lot.
It is a prescription for turning low-income Egyptians into small-scale investors and landlords, said Ayman Ashour, a professor of architecture and urban planning at Ayn Shams University in Cairo and one of the designers of Ibni Baitak.
"This is the first lesson we gained from the informal settlements established in Cairo or in Egypt, that the low-income and middle-income people and investors have the capability to develop houses on their own, by themselves," said Mr Ashour, who added that the designs for Ibni Baitak mimic the simple, uniform styles of the illegal homes that can be seen throughout the country.
By taking their design cues from the informal settlements, Mr Ashour and other urban planners hope to one day make them obsolete. "It's the characteristics of informal houses, but in the right way. Of course we are not going to develop informal settlements any more, but we're basing this project on our understanding" of the preferences of these small-scale investors whose illegal developments house much of Egypt's urban population.
Although Ibni Baitak may be a boon to new families and young Egyptians, the programme also provides a kind of free lunch for the government, which has been trying for years to develop the desert land that forms the bulk of the country's geography. Ninety-nine per cent of Egypt's 80 million-strong population lives on the 5.5 per cent of the country's land that straddles the Nile River Valley, according to a report by the Rand Corp in 2000.
Since the homeowners are financially responsible for the development, the project offers an inexpensive incentive for Egyptians to leave the Nile Valley cities, which are some of the most densely populated conurbations in the world.
Until the first 4,780 houses in 6th of October City are completed in January, it will be impossible to evaluate the success of the project. But for the thousands of Egyptians like Mr Abaz, who soon hope to live the once-impossible dream of owning their own three-storey houses, Ibni Baitak is already an unequivocal success. Though he still has two years before he expects to move in, Mr Abaz gushes with praise for the Egyptian government and its controversial, divisive president.
"It was the intention of the government to have the youth take responsibility for themselves instead of just building a house and giving it to them," said Mr Abaz, gushing with obvious admiration. "It's a very happy feeling."
mbradley@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
TERMINAL HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENCE (THAAD)
What is THAAD?
It is considered to be the US's most superior missile defence system.
Production:
It was created in 2008.
Speed:
THAAD missiles can travel at over Mach 8, so fast that it is hypersonic.
Abilities:
THAAD is designed to take out ballistic missiles as they are on their downward trajectory towards their target, otherwise known as the "terminal phase".
Purpose:
To protect high-value strategic sites, such as airfields or population centres.
Range:
THAAD can target projectiles inside and outside the Earth's atmosphere, at an altitude of 150 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
Creators:
Lockheed Martin was originally granted the contract to develop the system in 1992. Defence company Raytheon sub-contracts to develop other major parts of the system, such as ground-based radar.
UAE and THAAD:
In 2011, the UAE became the first country outside of the US to buy two THAAD missile defence systems. It then stationed them in 2016, becoming the first Gulf country to do so.
SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Scoreline
Germany 2
Werner 9', Sane 19'
Netherlands 2
Promes 85', Van Dijk 90'
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (11.30pm)
Saturday Freiburg v Borussia Monchengladbach, Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Dortmund, Cologne v Wolfsburg, Arminia Bielefeld v Mainz (6.30pm) Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig (9.30pm)
Sunday Werder Bremen v Stuttgart (6.30pm), Schalke v Bayer Leverkusen (9pm)
Monday Hoffenheim v Augsburg (11.30pm)
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
Facebook | Our website | Instagram
RESULTS
6.30pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 – Group 1 (PA) $49,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner RB Frynchh Dude, Pat Cosgrave (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
7.05pm Al Bastakiya Trial – Conditions (TB) $50,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner El Patriota, Vagner Leal, Antonio Cintra
7.40pm Zabeel Turf – Listed (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,000m
Winner Ya Hayati, Mickael Barzalona, Charlie Appleby
8.15pm Cape Verdi – Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Althiqa, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
8.50pm UAE 1000 Guineas – Listed (TB) $125,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Soft Whisper, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
9.25pm Handicap (TB) $68,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Bedouin’s Story, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
Facebook | Our website | Instagram
New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
New Zealand
Penalties: Barrett (7)
British & Irish Lions
Tries: Faletau, Murray
Penalties: Farrell (4)
Conversions: Farrell
Cases of coronavirus in the GCC as of March 15
Saudi Arabia – 103 infected, 0 dead, 1 recovered
UAE – 86 infected, 0 dead, 23 recovered
Bahrain – 210 infected, 0 dead, 44 recovered
Kuwait – 104 infected, 0 dead, 5 recovered
Qatar – 337 infected, 0 dead, 4 recovered
Oman – 19 infected, 0 dead, 9 recovered
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
Tomb Raider I–III Remastered
Developer: Aspyr
Publisher: Aspyr
Console: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, PC and Xbox series X/S
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
More from Aya Iskandarani
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.