We bought a villa in El Gouna in June 2008 from the Orascom resale dept who are based in the Abu Tig Marina.
I think up until very recently, resales did not have a high profile with Orascom but they have, I think, now realised that there is a bob or two to be made in this area. They now have a separate department that deals solely with resales and have started to produce a glossy brochure with all properties for sale directly from Orascom.
Orascom get 3% of the original selling price for every property sold in El Gouna so it doesn't matter who you sell through, they will still get their cut. As for the other 6%, I don't how this compares with other estate agents in the Red Sea area but Orascom would appear to be more proactive in chasing properties in the resale area.
Margaret
Hi Margaret,
I'll lift the veil, I used to work for Orascom and left them about a year ago.
Maybe things changed in the meantime, but back then they used to:
- take 3% from the original salesprice, (which is the price stated in the salescontract which will be reassigned.) This is a fee for the reassignation.
- take 6% commission from the seller for finding a buyer
- take 3% commission from the buyer for finding a property.
So it's used to be 9 % from the salesprice agreed between buyer and seller, plus the reassignment fee
So depending on the capitalgrowth of the property the profit for Orascom varies between 10 an 12%.
That is how it used to be and of course that ended in a situation that people didn't offer through Orascom anymore and properties that were offered through them didn't get sold.
But I understand that the wind has changed, and it became time. Orascom lost a lot of business because of this ridiculous stragety, they felt that they had a monopoly, which in that time they truly had. No company inside El gouna was allowed to do any resale. Only one company officially did it, and they ended up being thrown out of El Gouna after a disagreement.
But they only had a monopoly above the table, so under the table was the place to search for affordable properties. And then people went to Orascom and claimed that there was nobody else involved in this sale and the buyer and seller met eachother in Tamr Henna on a sunny day.
It's good that finally the wind has changed and this ship is sailing in a different direction. though I have to admit that I'm still very curious to the realistic resale figures. How much did Orascom really sell??
I think it will always stay a mystery.
All I can say that in the time I worked there, which was about 10 months, 1 property got sold. 1 in ten months
Allahualam
Warm regards,
Huda