Real estate careers in Egypt

The rules a broker must know

Real estate authority

General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC), Real Estate Brokers Registry, under the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade

Broker registration (GOEIC)

Anyone who brokers the sale, purchase or lease of property or land must be entered in GOEIC's Real Estate Brokers Registry, created by Law 21 of 2022 amending the Commercial Agency and Brokerage Law 120 of 1982. Ministerial Decision 578 of 2025 on broker types and categories was issued on 16 December 2025 and took effect on 18 January 2026 according to Property Finder Egypt, and existing practitioners had six months, to July 2026, to register. Applicants first pass GOEIC's online Real Estate Brokerage Practice course (3 days, 12 hours, 80% attendance and a final assessment, EGP 1,500), then file the individual or company form with the certificate at a GOEIC branch. Brokers register as seller, buyer, dual or rental brokers and are graded by deal size: A (over EGP 100 million, capital EGP 1 million), B (over EGP 50 million, EGP 500,000), C (over EGP 10 million, EGP 50,000) and D (up to EGP 10 million, EGP 20,000). The broker card is collected at the Maarouf (Cairo), 6th of October or Alexandria branches. Registration fees are paid at branches but are not published; practising without registration carries up to two years in prison and a fine of EGP 50,000 to EGP 1 million.

Who can be a broker

Individual registration is reserved for Egyptians: Law 120 of 1982 (Article 3, applied to real estate brokers by Article 3 bis) requires the applicant to hold Egyptian nationality, and a naturalised Egyptian must have held it for ten years. So a foreign national cannot register in his own name as a real estate broker. Foreigners can still take part through a company: GOEIC's registry lists separate tracks for Egyptian companies with foreign founders and for Egyptian branches of foreign companies, and the law lets the minister waive the nationality rule for companies with foreign founders. A foreigner employed by such a firm needs a Ministry of Labour work permit under Labour Law 14 of 2025 (in force 1 September 2025), and Ministerial Decision 279 of 2025 caps foreign staff at 10% of an establishment's Egyptian workforce (up to 20% for some Investment Law projects when qualified Egyptians cannot be found). Whether a foreign employee may personally sign brokerage contracts while the firm holds the registration is not confirmed in any official text found.

Brokerage rules

Every brokerage contract must be written and state the date, the parties, the property details and the full payment method, and the broker must check property data against official records and keep client information confidential. Commissions above EGP 10,000 cannot be paid in cash, brokers keep a transaction register (electronic through GOEIC's website) recording prices and commissions, and amounts received are declared to the Tax Authority within 30 days. Law 120 sets no commission cap; the rate and currency are whatever the contract states. On new projects the developer pays the broker's commission, so the buyer pays the same price either way, and brokers were said to handle 70 to 80% of developer sales (Invest-Gate, 2022). Clients must be screened against the anti-money laundering unit's lists before a deal.

Foreign buyers

Law 230 of 1996 historically limited a non-Egyptian to two properties of up to 4,000 sqm each, with no resale for five years. Cabinet decisions from 2023 to 2026 removed the cap on the number of residential units for buyers who pay in foreign currency transferred from abroad, and units bought from bodies such as NUCA can only be notarised with proof of payment in US dollars (Ahram Online, July 2026). Ownership covers units, not land: the Prime Minister has said foreign ownership is limited to real estate units, desert land is reserved for Egyptians and Egyptian-majority companies (Law 143 of 1981), and agricultural land is closed to foreigners. In Sinai, the 2012 Integrated Development Law reserves land and building ownership for Egyptians and offers foreigners renewable usufruct (up to 50 years, 75 at most), with Ahram reporting exceptions for Dahab, Sharm El Sheikh and the Gulf of Aqaba tourism zone. Residency through property is offered, with thresholds reported at USD 50,000 for one year, USD 100,000 for three years and USD 200,000 for five years (IMI Daily, 2023), though no official schedule was found to confirm the current amounts.

Tax and fees

The seller pays a 2.5% real estate disposal tax on the gross sale price of built property or building land, whether or not the contract is registered; Income Tax amendments under Law 151 of 2026, in force from 29 July 2026, give 60 days to pay. Registering a sale at the Real Estate Publicity Department (Shahr El Aqary) costs a fixed fee by area under Law 83 of 2006, reported at EGP 500 up to 100 sqm rising to a cap of EGP 2,000 above 300 sqm, plus survey, Lawyers' Syndicate ratification (1% capped at EGP 25,000) and contract costs, with the full process often costing EGP 30,000 to 50,000 (Enterprise, 2023). Since Decision 3562 of 2023, contracts for units in state-supervised cities can be notarised without full registry registration. Non-residential leases now carry 14% VAT (Law 149 of 2026).

Off-plan

Most new homes are sold off plan by developers on long instalment plans, which JLL says stretched from two years before 2016 to as long as 15 years today, often on land bought from or shared with the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) under revenue-share deals. Current rules (Prime Minister's Decree 2184 of 2022) require project bank accounts and guarantee deposits but no developer registration or classification, and late delivery has become a political issue: in September 2026 the government began listing stalled projects. A draft law creating a compulsory Egyptian Real Estate Developers Union, completed by the Housing Ministry in late September 2026, would require registration before any project approval, one escrow account per project or phase with releases tied to certified progress, payment schedules linked to completion, and two buyer protection funds; it still has to pass the Cabinet and the House.

Rentals

Old rent Law 164 of 2025, published on 4 August 2025, ends rent-controlled leases after seven years for homes and five years for other uses. During the transition rents jump to 20 times the old rent in premium areas (at least EGP 1,000 a month), 10 times in middle-income areas (at least EGP 400) and in economic areas (at least EGP 250), and five times for non-residential units, then rise 15% a year; the state has pledged alternative housing for original tenants. Leases signed since 30 January 1996 are outside this law and follow the Civil Code, with rent and term freely agreed.

Platforms

GOEIC Real Estate Brokers Registry and broker cardGOEIC online booking (goeic.gov.eg/reserv-online, hotline 19591)GOEIC electronic transaction registerReal Estate Publicity Department (Shahr El Aqary)New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA)Egyptian Tax AuthorityEgyptian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Combating Unit listsMinistry of Labour foreign work permits