Egyptian developer Talaat Mostafa has completed the acquisition of 2.1 million square metres of land at the site of the New Capital City, according to a company statement on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX).

“Talaat Mostafa has contracted for the purchase of a land plot in the new administrative capital with a total area of 500 feddans (acres), in order to develop and execute an integrated urban project in the style of its other projects over a period of seven years,” a company statement on the Cairo bourse said.

Talaat Mostafa purchased the land for £E4.4bn ($244m) and was among 15 other companies that submitted bids in March this year to develop projects in the New Capital City.

Local contractor Hassan Allam was appointed earlier this year as the main contractor for work on six buildings in the proposed ministerial district.

“We are set to start work very soon on six government buildings in the new Capital City,” the company’s CEO Hassan Allam told MEED on 21 February.

The company was recently appointed following the official withdrawal of China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), which was set to build and finance the ministerial district of the Capital City.

The withdrawal of the Chinese means local contractors are in a prime position to complete the majority of the works for the new capital city.

Most construction contracts for the first phase of Egypt’s proposed New Capital City project will be delivered using design and build contracts, the chairman of the project’s master developer told MEED earlier this month.

Ayman Ismail, the chairman of the state-controlled Administrative Capital City of Urban Development (ACCUD), told MEED on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo earlier this year that “projects being directly developed by ACCUD will be contracted under the design and build model.”

“The design and build model is a favourable one for government buildings as it speeds the delivery time whilst the government maintains ownership of an asset,” said Ismail, who also added that projects in the proposed ministerial complex have also been awarded under the same model.