As Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly toured New Alamein\u2019s Latin Quarter in mid-July, hearing officials describe thousands of apartments as ready for handover, dozens of buyers who signed contracts in 2024 and 2025 continued posting complaints and appeals online. They asked the government to intervene over delayed delivery, changes to some units\u2019 specifications, and continued instalment and maintenance demands despite having received no apartment.<\/p>\n
During the visit, Housing Minister Randa al-Menshawy said the project spans 404 feddans and comprises 52 residential complexes: 178 buildings containing 10,316 apartments. New Alamein City Authority head Mohamed Khalaf said 5,368 units were being handed over during July, following 1,940 delivered previously, while finishing and infrastructure work continued elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Owners\u2019 testimonies and documents reviewed by Zawia3 tell a different story. Some buyers say they have paid millions of Egyptian pounds for apartments still undelivered after the initial contractual delivery dates, while the company continues demanding periodic instalments and maintenance charges.<\/p>\n
\nThe complaints extend beyond delays: buyers describe changes to promised amenities, inconsistent finishing quality, new fees and conditions, and opaque complaint, refund and contract-termination procedures. Some allege that their contracts were cancelled without the legal procedures stipulated in them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nOwners\u2019 complaints submitted to the Housing Ministry, New Urban Communities Authority and Administrative Control Authority. Original Arabic documents. (Original document in Arabic; its relevant contents are explained in the English text.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/svg><\/div>\nTrust in a government project<\/h2>\n Sherif al-Hadry, an owner and lawyer practising before the Court of Cassation and Supreme Constitutional Court, says the project\u2019s government backing was a major reason people bought there, although contracts were marketed and concluded through City Edge and Saudi Egyptian Developers.<\/p>\n
He describes an imbalance in the contractual relationship. The authority delegated marketing and contracting to those companies, he says, but buyers ultimately understood themselves to be purchasing in a government project and placed greater trust in it.<\/p>\n
\nAn owner identified as M.E., who requested anonymity, agrees: \u201cI avoided buying property from private companies and turned to a government project because I thought it offered stronger guarantees and protected customers\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
According to M.E., sales staff promised benefits including a private beach for owners and free entry to Alamein events. After signing, he discovered those benefits were absent from the written contract and the company regarded them as non-binding marketing statements. The contracts, he says, confer extensive powers on the company without equivalent buyer protections.<\/p>\n
The Housing Ministry and New Urban Communities Authority have promoted the Latin Quarter as one of New Alamein\u2019s flagship residential projects, highlighting its European architectural style, Mediterranean location and officially advertised integrated services. Those features attracted people seeking a home or investment in the new city.<\/p>\n
\nAl-Hadry criticises terms permitting repossession after two missed instalments, deducting 10% of the unit\u2019s value as compensation and refunding the balance over several years. He says: \u201cIf a customer is even one day late with an instalment, a 2.5% late-payment penalty is imposed, while the company has no comparable obligation when it delays delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
M.E. also reports disputes over payments transferred in dollars. He says the company applied exchange rates below the prevailing official rate, then demanded differences amounting to tens of thousands of pounds despite his submission of bank documentation.<\/p>\n
Al-Hadry objects to continuing transfer fees on resale, citing court judgments recognising an owner\u2019s right to dispose of a unit after ownership passes. He says some contracts charge 5%, others 10%.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nDelivery dates and waiting buyers<\/h2>\n Al-Hadry bought in 2024 with an initial delivery date of August 2025 and an additional contractual grace year ending in August 2026. He had still received no apartment when interviewed, despite paying more than EGP 3 million towards a EGP 6.7 million unit, plus maintenance charges. The grace-period deadline was therefore still ahead when this report was published in July 2026.<\/p>\n
He says repeated visits showed little discernible construction progress for more than a year and a half: finishing, fa\u00e7ades and stairs remained unchanged and construction materials lay in place for months. He attributes some delays to disagreements with contractors and says seven or eight entire buildings were affected.<\/p>\n
M.E. describes the same August 2025 delivery date and August 2026 grace deadline, saying only a limited share of apartments had been handed over.<\/p>\n
Al-Hadry questions delivery priorities: some people who contracted in 2025 have received apartments while 2024 buyers still wait without clear criteria explaining the difference. He says Saudi Egyptian Developers suspended instalment collection from affected buyers until delivery, whereas City Edge told customers it would reschedule instalments under a clause allowing a longer repayment period.<\/p>\n
\nHe believes rescheduling could increase instalment amounts rather than relieve buyers\u2019 burden. \u201cThe contract is based on delivery on a specified date. If the company does not honour it, what guarantees that it will honour any new date?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nFinishing defects and disputed handovers<\/h2>\n Al-Hadry says finishing quality in delivered apartments falls below expectations for a project where prices exceed EGP 50,000 per square metre, prompting complaints about workmanship.<\/p>\n
M.E. describes defective flooring, tiles and paint, missing windows and incomplete kitchens and bathrooms. Buyers were asked to sign handover records on promises that faults would be repaired later, he says, but owners had not seen those promises fulfilled after signing.<\/p>\nA handover record disputed by owners, who say they refused to sign it. Original Arabic document. (Original document in Arabic; its relevant contents are explained in the English text.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nM.E. says formal readiness letters gave buyers two months to take delivery, after which the apartment would be treated as \u201cdeemed received,\u201d even if uninhabitable. Some buyers, he says, were asked to declare that they would not live in or use the apartment for a year after handover, shielding the company from delay claims or compensation demands.<\/p>\n
He says he refused that declaration and called the police during an attempted handover, after which the company withdrew the request.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nThe lagoon, beach and changed master plan<\/h2>\n Owners also dispute changes to the project\u2019s master plan. M.E. says buyers paid the highest prices for northern units overlooking the artificial lagoon, only to discover that roughly a third to half of it had been filled in and converted into a private beach leased to Saudi Egyptian Developers, with a wall obstructing views.<\/p>\nPhotographs supplied with the report showing infilling of the artificial lagoon. (Original document in Arabic; its relevant contents are explained in the English text.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAl-Hadry says lagoon- and sea-facing apartments sold for around EGP 6.7 million in 2024, compared with roughly EGP 2 million for southern units. Yet, he says, some buyers of the more expensive units were excluded from the new lagoon and beach, whose use was restricted to Saudi Egyptian Developers\u2019 customers, including buyers of cheaper apartments.<\/p>\n
Lawyer and owner Hossam Magdy says he replaced a EGP 2 million southern apartment with a EGP 5 million northern unit to gain the view and beach access. After receiving that apartment, he discovered the beach opposite was managed by Saudi Egyptian Developers rather than reserved for Latin Quarter owners. Beaches available through the app were open to the public, he says.<\/p>\n
Magdy says Saudi Egyptian Developers\u2019 officials told him the company spent around EGP 15 million preparing the lagoon area and paid a usufruct charge of roughly EGP 250 per square metre. City Edge did not contribute, he says he was told, leaving its customers without access unless they paid subscriptions.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nAdditional costs and missing services<\/h2>\n M.E. says owners were required at handover to install a VRF air-conditioning system absent from their contracts. Installation costs EGP 300,000\u2013500,000 depending on apartment size, he says, with additional demands for external connections originally presented as the company\u2019s responsibility.<\/p>\n
Owners describe electricity cuts, weak water pressure, no fixed-line internet or natural-gas connection, faulty lifts in some buildings and insufficient parking. They say this persists despite utility-connection payments exceeding EGP 80,000 per unit and maintenance charges set at 10% of unit value, collected years before handover. Some owners paid more than EGP 1 million in maintenance charges, they say, without operational maintenance services or facilities.<\/p>\n
\nMagdy and other owners also criticise security. They say there is no effective perimeter wall controlling entry, and guards employed by construction contractors do not protect owners\u2019 possessions. Workers move freely through buildings without a system identifying delivered apartments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Owners cite an alleged attempted night-time intrusion into a woman\u2019s apartment. They say the company responded with a nominal increase in guards and formally stated it was not responsible for furniture inside apartments after handover.<\/p>\n
<\/svg><\/div>\nDelayed refunds and disputed cancellations<\/h2>\n M.E. recounts buyers paying reservation deposits before being told their selected apartments had already been sold because of sales-staff mistakes or booking-system updates. They were offered alternatives. If they refused and requested refunds, he says, repayment was delayed six to nine months, allowing the company to retain their money.<\/p>\n
Some buyers went to court, he says, including a woman identified as Dr Abeer whose case against the company remained pending.<\/p>\n
Magdy describes the unilateral cancellation of his second, delayed apartment contract. He says the company redirected instalment payments without his consent into a EGP 400,000 maintenance deposit that it insisted on collecting before handover. This made him appear behind on instalments, he says, and the contract was cancelled without notice, formal warning or a court process establishing termination.<\/p>\n
When he tried to pay the alleged arrears, Magdy says, the company refused the money and informed him administratively that the contract had ended. He was offered cancellation with a 10% deduction from the apartment\u2019s value, or transfer of his payments to another project at current prices.<\/p>\n
He had paid roughly EGP 1.5 million\u201430% of his EGP 5 million apartment. He considers the options unfair when comparable apartments now cost around EGP 8 million, while the company insists on cancelling the original contract.<\/p>\n
Owners say the complaint process is itself opaque: the company uses an app that does not let customers retain a copy or tracking number, while customer service declines to document correspondence by email.<\/p>\n
Magdy and al-Hadry say they submitted multiple complaints and formal notices to the company, New Urban Communities Authority, Housing Ministry, Administrative Control Authority and prime minister\u2019s office, without clear responses or action resolving their grievances. Some officials dismissed complaints as merely \u201csocial-media posts,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n
Magdy believes the dispute affects trust in government projects beyond the Latin Quarter. He points to City Edge\u2019s major projects in the New Administrative Capital, Alamein and New Mansoura, citing circulating complaints from Al-Maqsad owners about delayed basic services such as electronic gates.<\/p>\n
Al-Hadry says every available option is costly: keep paying without receiving an apartment; terminate, lose part of the money and recover the remainder over years; or enter prolonged litigation.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf the money we paid had been deposited in banks, it would have earned a substantial return over the past years. Now we have neither our apartments nor our money back, and we do not know a clear delivery date,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Zawia3 contacted City Edge for a response to owners\u2019 accounts of delivery delays, continuing instalment and maintenance collection, alleged changes to the project, contract cancellations and complaint procedures. Company officials acknowledged receipt and said a legal-department representative would respond, but no response reached Zawia3 before publication.<\/p>\n
Zawia3 also formally asked the New Alamein City Authority, part of the New Urban Communities Authority, to comment on the complaints and reported incidents. It had not replied by publication.<\/p>\n
Zawia3 remains ready to publish responses from the company or relevant authorities in accordance with the right of reply and its commitment to presenting all perspectives.<\/p>\n
Promoted as a leading fourth-generation city project, the Latin Quarter has become, for some buyers, a dispute between contractual promises and what they say exists on the ground. While the government reports continuing deliveries and completion work, owners demand fair remedies through clear, transparent procedures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Latin Quarter buyers describe delayed handovers, changed amenities and disputed charges in a government-backed project. City Edge had not replied by publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[413],"tags":[],"kateb":[6247],"class_list":["post-16908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-en","kateb-rasha-ammar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/\u0627\u0644\u062d\u064a-\u0627\u0644\u0644\u0627\u062a\u064a\u0646\u064a.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16909,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16908\/revisions\/16909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16908"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=16908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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