Good Price - maybe not. Hi all, new to this forum, seems excelllent source of all things useful. I have the opportunity of buying a two bedroomed apartment, only 5 mins from the King Tut hotel in North Hurghada, 10 mins from beach. Its about 90 sq mts and has just been finished. An Egyptian friend bought it but has to sell unexpectedly. Its in a really nice block with only 12 apartments in all, in a good location. He is asking £16000. I personally think its a 'snip' and there is already a Swiss woman and a British guy have already bought and moved in...so common sense says it must be ok. Opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Lynne
Hi Lynne
My Egyptian partner lives close to the King Tut (I've just returned from Hurghada),and in my opinion this is a mainly a local Egyptian residential area, not a genuine tourist area. It is just down the road from the Arabia district which is becoming one of the new "IN" places (maybe in about 12 months time). So location is not comparable. This is expensive for an Egyptian apartment, probably without air conditioning, no pool or garden, or lift, or security, or proper kitchen units.
The build quality has to be suspect since the standard accepted by Egyptians is way below what you will find for properties targeting Europeans.
Buildings only 4 years old in this area are already showing signs of damp and other problems (the sea water salt gets into the walls due to poor damp proofing at ground level, not something the Egyptian bother about).
Also more than likely that your friend will make excuses when asked about giving you a copy of his land registration (since it may not exist, or it will still be in the name of the original owner rather than your friend).
Assuming my notes above are correct then £16000 for an Egyptian apartment is NOT good value. The price to an Egyptian would be more like £8,000 to £10,000. I would be suspicious of the reason for sale. Most likely the money is need to finance another "project" of a similar nature and is a "marketing" strategy.
A similar size apartment in the Tourist development in the district of Arabia (about 1/2 kilometre away),with pool, a/c, garden etc, would cost at least £28,000, therefore if you can assure yourself about the potential issues above it could be a good deal, but I doubt it.
If you get a copy of the Land deed you'll need an independent transalation, and the full name and ID number of your friend so that you can check that he is the owner.
