T
he launch of Egypt's first real estate startup incubator was announced by Khaled Abbas, Chairperson and Managing Director of Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD). During a roundtable discussion on Proptech Innovations: Shaping the Future of Real Estate, he emphasized that technology is no longer a luxury in the real estate sector but a necessity and tool for enhancing performance and decision-making. He stressed the importance of using technology wisely to create an extensive real estate database that provides critical data and insights for comprehending real estate dynamics, value drivers, and utilization variables. This information helps clients, developers, and foreign investors make decisions more quickly.

    Abbas highlighted plans to use cutting-edge technologies that support the development of smart cities, providing an improved quality of life via integrated technology solutions. He also mentioned the collaboration between the Ministry of Justice and ACUD to initiate the national real estate ID project, where each real estate asset in the New Administrative Capital (NAC) is given a unique code. The NAC's overall growth strategy, which includes transportation infrastructure, is largely shaped by the registration of real estate properties inside it.

    Bedeir Rizk, CEO of Paragon Developments, emphasized that proptech provides real estate solutions to reduce material costs and boost sustainability. Proptech also enhances sales operations, enables online registration of property ownership through online portals, and improves the management of facilities. He stressed the importance of enhancing user experience as an essential pillar to guarantee successful growth in Egypt.

    Abdallah Sallam, President and CEO of Madinet Masr, highlighted the importance of the roundtable topic as technology has become crucial for facilitating operations in general. He emphasized the distinction between proptech and contech and elaborated on how proptech has evolved into a tangible reality amidst technological advancements. It can effectively eliminate barriers and expedite task completion, encompassing various stages of the real estate sales process, commencing from sales initiation and customer familiarization.

    Ahmed Mansour, CEO of Cred, stated that technology has accelerated the production pace of building materials in the Middle East and Africa. He highlighted the company's efforts to enhance its operations, including the development of an application integrating augmented reality. This application facilitates communication with sales representatives and streamlines all transactions through its interface.

    Ahmed Abdallah, Vice Chairman of REDCON Properties, emphasized the need to employ technology in the market to maximize investments within Egypt, especially in light of current problems such as inflation and high financing costs. He stressed the necessity to develop an integrated marketing plan to attract more investments in proptech and announced REDCON's intention to join this initiative.

    Karim Shaalan, CEO of Royal Developments, pointed out that while Egypt is new to real estate technology compared to other countries, rapid technological development has begun to expand its use in real estate. He highlighted that proptech has a positive impact on the real estate sector in Egypt, especially in real estate investments, as it aids developers in making informed decisions from designing the property to collecting data and information.

    Ahmed Kadri, CEO of SAK Developments, urged fast adoption of blockchain technology in real estate, a promising sector in Egypt. He emphasized Egypt's need to apply blockchain technology to enhance flexibility and ease in real estate sales and called on the government to regulate units by registering every property within Egypt using QR codes.