Buying a villa in Egypt
A villa purchase carries risks an apartment purchase does not: you are buying land as well as a building, extensions may have been built without permit, and the recurring cost of ownership is several times higher.
Apartment due diligence is mostly about the unit and the building. Villa due diligence is about land, permits and a compound's private legal order — the bylaws, the management company and the service charge, none of which you control and all of which you are bound by.
Land title is the first question
For an apartment, you buy a share of a building. For a villa, you buy a defined plot. That makes the land title central:
- Has the developer registered the parent land in its own name? If not, individual villa registration cannot proceed, no matter how clean your contract with the seller is.
- Is the villa itself individually registered, or does the seller hold a preliminary contract with the developer?
- Does the deed describe the plot boundaries, and do they match what is fenced on the ground? Encroachment disputes between neighbouring villas are common and expensive.
- Is the garden inside the title or licensed separately by the compound?
Permits and extensions
Villas get extended. Basements get dug, roof rooms get added, pergolas become rooms, pools appear. Each of those needed a permit and often did not get one. Unpermitted works transfer with the property, along with fines, reconciliation costs under building-violation settlement schemes, and in the worst case removal orders.
Ask for the original permit and the as-built drawings, and walk the property with them. If the seller cannot produce drawings, treat every visible addition as unpermitted until shown otherwise and price it accordingly.
The running cost of a villa
| Cost | Notes |
|---|---|
| Compound service charge | Usually charged per square metre and indexed; the dominant recurring cost. |
| Garden and pool | Maintained at your expense, not the compound's. A pool is a permanent staffing cost. |
| Utilities | Higher by an order of magnitude versus an apartment, especially cooling. |
| Security and staff | Where the compound does not cover it internally. |
| Real estate tax | Assessed on rental value above a threshold; villas are more likely to exceed it. |
| Insurance | Optional in practice and worth taking. |
Model these before you commit. Buyers who stretch to the purchase price and then meet the annual charges are the ones who resell within three years, at a discount, in a thin market.
Compound bylaws
Read them before signing, not after. The clauses that matter most in practice: restrictions on short-term letting, rules on external appearance and colour, limits on extensions, whether commercial activity is permitted at all, pet rules, and what happens if service charges go unpaid — which in some compounds means suspended access to amenities or a registered charge on the unit.
Owner listings on this site
Common questions
Can a foreigner buy a villa in Egypt?
Yes, within the two-unit limit and the 4,000 square metre aggregate cap under Law 230 of 1996. Coastal locations need approval, and Sinai is usufruct only.
Are villas harder to sell than apartments?
Generally yes. The buyer pool is smaller and more price-sensitive, so villas sit on the market longer. Budget for a longer exit.
What is a reasonable service charge?
It varies widely by compound and is rising with inflation. Ask for the last three years of actual charges rather than the current headline rate, so you can see the escalation.
Last reviewed September 2026. Prices, tax rates, residency thresholds and ownership rules in Egypt change frequently — verify anything you are relying on.