Overseas P roperty Investment Solution and Services
Capital City: Cairo
Area:
1,001,449 sq km
Population: 69,500,000
Time Zone: GMT +2
Country dialing code: + 20
Currency: Egyptian Pound (£E)
Investment Incentives
Egypt offers a number of advantages to potential property investors. The low
cost of living in the country is reflected in the cost of maintaining a rental
property, or of increasing the value of a property through improvements. The
purchase process in Egypt has been overhauled to make property purchase
more accessible to non–residents. Lower taxes apply to property owners, with
no capital gains or inheritance tax.
The cost of living in Egypt is far lower than in most European countries. As a
result, the cost of maintaining and managing a property is very low, another
reason that property ownership is gaining popularity among overseas
purchasers. Exact costs will vary from property to property, but the following
is a general guide:
Property tax - currently, taxes on the sale of real estate are entirely different to
standard property taxes or real estate registration fees in other countries. The
government is debating a reform of property registration fees and is proposing to
impose international-standard property taxes to simplify the process.
Tax from the sale of property - this is currently chargeable at 2.5% of money earned
from the sale of a property and it must be filed as tax owed by April 1st. The only
exceptions are income from the sale of inherited real estate, and income received
from the sale of real estate owned through a shared capital company, provided the
shares in that company are held for at least five years after the sale. This is designed
to prevent the formation of ‘paper’ companies for tax avoidance purposes.
Stamp duty / capital gains tax / inheritance tax - in Egypt there is no stamp duty
or capital gains tax payable on real estate and there is no inheritance tax on any
Egyptian properties for British residents.
Tax on rental income – income tax is le