Egyptian billionaire offers to build 100,000 houses

islamabad — An Egyptian billionaire, Naguib Sawiris, has shown interest in building 100,000 housing units under the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme which aims to construct five million houses.

“Naguib Sawiris has expressed his willingness to invest in 100,000 units of affordable housing to help prime minister (Imran Khan) in his vision towards Pakistan,” Tarek Hamdy, chief executive of Elite Estates — a partnership between Ora Developer and Saif Holding — told

in an interview. Owned by Sawiris, Ora Developers is already engaged in the construction of a multi-billion-dollar housing scheme named ‘Eighteen’ which was launched in 2017 in Islamabad with local partners. Sawiris’ first investment in Pakistan was in Mobilink, a cellular operator.

“This (Naya Pakistan Housing) scheme is ambitious yet very promising for the people of Pakistan. I think all developers should help in this scheme. You cannot solely rely on the government to build five million houses,” Hamdy said.

Hamdy believes the promise of building five million affordable housing units cannot be realised in a short span of time. “I think the plan is right but it has to be in stages, has to be in steps. It could be achievable obviously that is not the project (to be achieved) in one or two years...may take few good years, may be couple of decades to be achieved,” he said. —