The government agency responsible for the new cities – the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) – is planning to invest billions of pounds in the proposed new Egyptian administrative capital, and it continues to invest billions in its new cities across the country. Hence, raising questions about the real benefits of this new city is an imperative and timely matter. While billions are spent on the new cities, Egypt’s older cities continue to suffer from insufficient public resources and deteriorated services. This has increased the inequality between existing cities which house millions and the new urban areas that have been repeatedly described in the media as “ghost cities”.

1. Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.info
New
Egypt’s
New Cities:
Neither Just
nor Efficient
www.tadamun.info
Planning [in]
Justicewww.tadamun.info

2. = 200,000
Greater Cairo Region
Population = 21 million
Growth of Egyptian Cities
Egypt’s population has been historically concentrated along the Nile Valley. Over the past
few decades, the population density has increased significantly to accommodate the
growing population.
Sūhāg
4.3million
Asyūt
3.9million
al-Minyā
4.8million
Beni Suef
2.6million
Giza
7.6million
Damietta
1.2million
Alexandria
4.6million
al-Buhayra
5.4million
Kafr
al-Shaykh
2.8million
al-
Gharbiyya
4.5million
al-Munūfiyya
3.7million
Aswān
1.3million
al-Daqahliyya
5.6million
al-Qalyūbiyya
5.2million
Cairo
9.3millionQinā
2.8million
Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.infowww.tadamun.infoSource: Ministry of Planning, 2015

3. www.tadamun.info
Story & Concept of
New Cities
The policy of establishing new cities and urban
communities in the desert was developed as a way
of controlling future urbanization and growth, and
directing it towards new urban communities on
the peripheries of existing cities and outside of the
Nile Valley. Recently, the New Urban Communities
Authority (NUCA) has been playing a leading role
in implementing land and housing policies that
focus on revenue generation.
New

4. New
New
Goals of New Cities
Originally, new cities and urban communities were established to fulfill a social and
economic role. Fulfilling these roles successfully required attracting people away from
existing cities to limit ongoing urban expansion on agricultural land and to provide
affordable housing to lower- and mid-income groups.
However, NUCA has consistently deviated from this social role and acted as a real estate
developer instead.
www.tadamun.info

5. New
Qinā
New
Tiba
New
Luxor
al-Shurūk
New
Cairo
New
‘Alam
ayn
al-`Ubūr
SheikhZayed
Badr
15th
ofM
ay
New
Borg
al-`ArabNew
Dam
ietta
al-Sadāt
New
Salheyya
New
BeniSuef
New
M
inyā
NewNubareyya
New
Asyūt
New
Sūhāg
New
Fayyūm
New
Farafra
New
Asw
ān
New
Toshka
East`Uaynāt
6th
ofOctober
10th
of
Ram
adan
North
SuezBay
Costal
Resorts
East
PortSaid
First Generation
Second Generation
Third Generation
Under construction
New Cities & Urban Communities Map
Since 1979, Egypt built 28 new cities and urban communities over three generations with
more under construction.
Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.infowww.tadamun.infoSource: NUCA

6. Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.infowww.tadamun.infoEgypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient
Did New Cities Achieve their Goals?
www.tadamun.info

7. First Generation
Second Generation
Third Generation
Target Population
Current Population
(= 200,000 )
New
Tiba
al-Shurūk
New
Cairo
al-`Ubūr
Sheikh
Zayed
Badr
15th
ofM
ay
New
Borg
al-`ArabNew
Dam
ietta
al-Sadāt
New
Salheyya
New
BeniSuef
New
M
inyā
NewNubareyya
New
Asyūt
6th
of
October
10th
of
Ram
adan
Population of New Cities
Not a single new city has reached its target population and the vast majority haven’t even
achieved 50% of their target, even among the first ones established during the 1970s.
Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.infowww.tadamun.infoSource: NUCA

8. Current PopulationTarget Population
4%New Assiut
New Minia
6%
New Tiba
10%
Correlation between Spending & Success
New Assiut, New Minia, and New Tiba have received the highest amount of spending on
services per capita among all the new cities since their establishment, and yet, they have
only achieved, respectively, 4%, 6%, and 10% of their target populations.
www.tadamun.infoSource: NUCA

9. MonthlyHouseholdConsumption
2012/2013(EGP)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
5000
Lower Income Group
Middle Income Group
Richest Income Group
Poor Group
Minimum mortgage payment to own
an average apartment in New Cities
Housing not Reaching the Poor
The monthly income of almost 60% of the population
does not exceed EGP 2,000, while the monthly mortgage
payment required to own an apartment in Badr City is
EGP 3,625 on average.
www.tadamun.infoSource: Shawkat, 2014 (based on HIECS 2012/2013)

10. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
M
inistryof
Health
M
inistryof
Education
M
inistryof
Housing
NUCA
PublicInvestmentsin2015/2016
inEGPbillion
Where do Public Invesments Go?
NUCA’s budget in 2015/2016 is EGP 64.6 billion. NUCA’s gross investment in new cities is
almost four times the total public investment in the entire national education sector, and
more than five times the total public investment in the health sector during the same year.
www.tadamun.infoSource: Ministry of Finance, Public Budget 2015/2016

11. 8billion
EGP
64billion
EGP
New Cities are
Costing Too Much &
Generating Too Little
Revenue
The government adopted a philosophy of capi-
talizing on Egypt’s land resources as a means to
boost public revenues. However, despite new
cities utilizing a budget of EGP 64 billion in
2015/2016, NUCA only gave back EGP 8 billion
to the public treasury, which is only 1% of public
expenditure.
www.tadamun.infoSource: Ministry of Finance, NUCA’s Budget 2015/2016

12. New
People did not move Unaffordable houses
NUCA did not
generate revenues
New Cities are Neither Just nor Efficient
Relying on NUCA to provide affordable housing and to generate adequate revenues
through executing the current housing and land management policies does not seem to
be effective. Yet, the government continues on the same track.
www.tadamun.info

13. Planning [in] Justice
The project aims to collect and analyze data and
increase public awareness regarding the absence
of spatial justice in the distribution of public
resources between different urban areas. This is in
addition to examining the institutional causes
that enable this situation in Egypt, with a special
focus on the Greater Cairo Region (GCR).
In pursuing this aim, the project works on develop-
ing tools to identify, measure and address these
inequalities and making these tools available to
other active groups in Egypt. Planning [in] Justice
is a project of TADAMUN: The Cairo Urban Solidari-
ty Initiative.
www.tadamun.info

14. Egypt’s New Cities: Neither Just nor Efficient www.tadamun.info
www.tadamun.info
Planning [in]
Justicewww.tadamun.info