HOUSING IN EGYPT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 160, 19 April 1949, Page 2

HOUSING IN EGYPT

Government Tackling Problem

FAST-GROWING POPULATION

(By Gilbert Sedbon.—Reuter Correspondent).

CAIRO

Tiie Egyptian Prime Minister, Abdul Hady Pasha, is giving his personal and immediate attention to a, ten-year, £160,000,000 housing plan for Egypt’s growing population. . \

The object of the scheme.is to make accommodation available for the middle and poorer classes at rents not exceeding Id per cent, of their salaries or wages. It provides for the construction of 40,000 houses a year in the principal cities of Egypt and at least 100,000 dwellings in the rural areas. State-owned land is to be utilised for this project, and to encourage the building, it is suggested that imported building materials should be exempt from customs and excise duties. The plan also recommends easy term government loans to landowners to help build houses for their employees. Egypt, with one of the densest populations—6oo to 700 inhabitants per square kilometre—in the world, is grappling with the housing shortages caused not only by the war, but also by her high birthrate. Since the end of the war, big blocks of modern buildings from ten 1o fifteen storeys high have shot, up in Cairo and Alexandria, while beautiful villas have sprung up like mushrooms in the garden suburbs of Maadi, Giza, Heliopolis and Ramleh. But the problem of houses for letting at a cheap rent has remained unsolved.

Abdul Hady Pasha has before him three schemes submitted by the Ministry of Social Affairs.

(1) The formation of an Egyptian Stock Company with a capital of £2,500,00 to build a city of 5000 houses on state-owned land.

(2) Balloon houses which may revolutionise the mud and tin village life throughout Egypt. A firm circular base is laid, then a balloon of very strong rubber is blown up and concrete is poured over’ it. When the concrete is dry, the balloon is deflated—and there you have your new home. Doors, windows and internal partitions can he fitted in no time. Inside the' balloon-building, there are a large" sitting roonff a dining room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen.

(3) Pre-fabricated houses may be imported into Egypt.