Cairo has announced plans for a new mixed-use masterplanned city in the Nile Delta region, according to a statement from the country’s housing ministry.

The New Mansoura city, which will be developed 128 kilometres north of Cairo, was announced through a presidential decree on 9 August.

According to a government statement, the decree approved the reallocation of 21 million square metres of land to the housing ministry’s New Urban Communities Authority.

The new city is expected to have more than 150,000 housing units for about 680,000 citizens, the statement added. The city will also include a touristic development, villas, and medium-income and social housing.

Egypt is currently trying to press ahead with two other major “new city” projects across the country. The largest of which is the New Capital City scheme. Cairo is also working on on the proposed New Alamein City project in the North Coast area.

New Capital City

The New Administrative Capital was initially announced in partnership with the Mohamed Alabbar and his new private real estate investment fund, Capital City Partners, a subsidiary of Eagle Hills.

Throughout 2015 the deal witnessed many setbacks related to the cost and the timeframe for its development, and eventually Alabaar dropped his interest in the project.

The Egyptian government has now brought in Chinese partners, although challenges have remained. Reports in early 2017 said they had pulled out of the project due to disputes over land prices. But the latest news is that negotiations have restarted.

The Chinese companies involved are China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), China Railway Group and China Fortune Land Development.

Alamein New City

Alamein New City, a government supported initiative to develop a new city project in the North Coast area, has received technical assistance from the UN Habitat’s Achieving Sustainable Urban Development programme since it was initially launched in 2014.

Former president Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree in May 2014 approving the reallocation of 2.4 million square metres of state-owned land to the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) to be used to develop Alamein city.

The conceptual plan, which was being carried out by the local Associated Consultant, aims to develop five main industries - tourism, regional trade, agriculture, logistics, and higher education to attract new investment into the area, and create a centre for employment to support Alexandria.

The first phase, which will aim to house 20,000 residents, will be made up of a tourism development and a residential area with retail space. The authorities will be approaching the private sector soon after all the infrastructure work is complete. Work on the infrastructure in the area started in February 2016 when the local Arab Contractors and Societe Egyptienne D’entreprises (previously known as Mukhtar Ibrahim) were appointed by the government to carry out all road and utilities work.

In mid-2016, Egypt’s Ministry of Planning said that the first phase of the El-Alamein city project requires an investment of up to $337m. A statement from the ministry at the time added that in the next fiscal year, 2016/17, it is prepared to earmark the amount from the state budget to develop the tourism project.