The Future Of Egypt Real Estate FSBO


by Nadia Shibiny - El Alfy - Date: 2006-12-04 - Word Count: 381 Share This!

"Information is power" ... this statement can only be positive when information is available, for free and presented in a user-friendly manner. In this case, information has the possibility to empower whole markets. Looking to the future, real estate market in Egypt is on the verge of empowering property owners to rent and sell their products online.

Not too long ago, property owners rented and sold their properties by word-of-mouth particularly via of the "bowab" (porters) or local "real-estate" offices. These offices were usually a one-person operation dependant on an informal network among bowabs. Their services were limited in geographical scope to a corner of the city or a suburb. Information was withheld at the bowab level depending on which office paid more, and hence the term "information is power" was applied in the negative to property owners who had no means to sell their property except through these informal, usually inefficient manner (lack of viable databases) ... basically a hit or miss, and in the land of the Pyramids, owners owed alot to luck.

Since the recent government economic and information technology initiatives for introducing Egypt to 21st century platforms, international real estate companies entered the market, buying out local offices, training staff, and computerizing their databases. There was less dependency on at the porter level, but none-the-less, some owners remained sceptical. Higher marketing spending could only be justified against higher commissions. And as for the level of service, it remained inconsistent. Many offices, although carrying one flag/brand, still operate independently from eachother.

With the coming of the internet and broadband, the past 3 years saw an interest in local Egyptian e-real estate portals. The major real estate companies established portals, although again databases were not always accurate or updated, and henceforth unreliable. And property owners were getting less patient on the "luck" factor.

The concept FSBO - For Sale By Owner, is relatively new in the Egyptian market. Even in the classified sections of Egypts local papers, this FSBO category does not yet exist. Surfing the internet, there is as yet no local-Egypt portal dedicated to such a category/market. However, a group of owners have pooled their resources and created a website for selling/renting their own real estate in Egypt. This is just the beginning. We have yet to see just how much "information is power".


Related Tags: property, real estate, fsbo, egypt, rent, sharm, sokhna, cairo, for sale, by owner

www.egypt-realestates.com

N. Shibiny is a business development consultant who writes from the point of view of a property owner. She has lived in Egypt intermittently since 1982 and has observed and experienced first hand the dynamics of selling/renting real estate.

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