{"id":18326,"date":"2026-02-01T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=18326"},"modified":"2026-10-08T22:54:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T20:54:59","slug":"nadi-al-sayed-housing-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/nadi-al-sayed-housing-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Nadi al-Sayed Residents: Delayed Homes and Disputed Ownership in Bashayer El Kheir"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than four years after families began moving from Alexandria\u2019s Nadi al-Sayed neighbourhood to the Bashayer El Kheir 5 housing project in 2021, residents interviewed by Zawia3 say their housing dispute remains unresolved. Some say they completed the required paperwork but have yet to receive a replacement apartment. Others have moved into new flats but dispute the legal terms: were the units compensation, with ownership rights, for homes they previously owned, or did the move create a new rental relationship? In early February 2026, residents describe two parallel forms of waiting, one at allocation offices and the other before the courts.<\/p>\n

The second dispute has reached the courts because residents who received apartments say the units were provided on rental terms rather than with the ownership rights officials had promised. Several residents have brought legal proceedings seeking recognition of what they consider their original property rights and correction of the terms under which they were rehoused.<\/p>\n

The distinction between the two disputes matters. Those still without a replacement home are asking for the promised compensation to be delivered and for a clear handover date. Those already in new flats are asking what right they hold, whether they can dispose of the property and why they are being charged rent. Counting completed handovers alone cannot answer those questions. Equally, one person\u2019s complaint does not establish that every resident has the same legal position.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s origins lie in a December 2019 cooperation protocol between Alexandria Governorate and the Informal Settlements Development Fund to upgrade seven unplanned areas, including Nadi al-Sayed and El Qabbari. Contemporary coverage described a cost exceeding EGP 800 million for all seven areas, while EGP 115 million concerned work in Nadi al-Sayed, including EGP 90 million for upgrading and EGP 25 million for natural gas provision. These figures cover different scopes of work and should not be treated as the same project total. The initial programme concerned infrastructure and services, before the approach later shifted towards clearance and relocation.<\/p>\n

In June 2021, approximately a year and a half later, residents protested after the government announced that households would be moved out. Contemporary accounts estimated the neighbourhood\u2019s population at around 16,000 and its area at approximately 51 feddans. A number of protesters were arrested.<\/p>\n

According to the sequence described in the source material, families began moving into Bashayer El Kheir around a month later. Some say they discovered that their new apartments were being treated as rented units rather than property they owned. Others say they are still waiting for a handover. For those interviewed, questions about ownership, compensation and the legal basis of the move therefore remain open.<\/p>\n

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Unclear contracts and disputed rights<\/h2>\n

Residents\u2019 testimonies describe a prolonged struggle after relocation despite earlier promises that homeowners would receive replacement homes with ownership rights. Instead, interviewees say they were asked to pay EGP 250 in monthly rent.<\/p>\n

One woman, who requested anonymity, said she was born in Nadi al-Sayed and had lived there with her family. She described the residents\u2019 departure as forced, pointing to the protests against clearance and the subsequent arrest and prosecution of some participants.<\/p>\n

She told Zawia3 that residents whose circumstances she knew had not been allowed to examine ownership or tenancy contracts when receiving their new apartments. They signed papers but were not given copies, she said. She also alleged intimidation, including the closure and sealing of apartments and threats of fines and legal action if residents protested, which she said prevented them from examining the contractual arrangements properly.<\/p>\n

The woman said most of the former homes had been fitted out at the residents\u2019 own expense. They had then been moved into rental units that did not grant the ownership rights they sought. Some families and young people who had owned apartments prepared for marriage remained without a replacement home and had to stay with relatives. She also described delays in delivering replacement commercial premises on which households had depended for income.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlthough my file was opened and I submitted all the required documents, the apartment handover was postponed more than once, amid repeated promises from officials that were not fulfilled. I still have not received my replacement unit, and I do not know when it might be handed over,\u201d resident Ziad Emad Hamdy told Zawia3.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hamdy said he had finished preparing his original apartment for marriage before seeking its replacement. Officials explained the delays by saying that families had priority, he recounted. Yet some families also remained without their replacement units, alongside those whose apartments had been intended for marriage.<\/p>\n

Residents awaiting housing submitted repeated complaints to different bodies, Hamdy said, including housing offices in Bashayer Karmouz, the West District authorities and offices in Cairo, as well as the Armed Forces Engineering Authority. He described being referred from one office to another without a clear answer or a date for receiving an apartment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile we were submitting one complaint, an official told us that the file on handing over housing units to Nadi al-Sayed residents had been completed and closed, and that there were no more units to deliver,\u201d Hamdy said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He understood the official\u2019s words as an indirect warning against submitting further complaints, with the insistence that the file had been closed permanently. How could it be closed, he asked, while families were still waiting for homes and shop owners were waiting for replacements for their sources of income?<\/p>\n

The consequences extended beyond individual applicants, Hamdy said. Entire families had lost their main livelihoods, deepening the economic and social pressures they had faced for years.<\/p>\n

Losing a shop or workshop concerns more than the size of a replacement home. A household\u2019s source of income may stop while new obligations arise at the relocation site. In these accounts, waiting for housing compensation goes hand in hand with waiting for a place to resume commercial activity, making resettlement a question of livelihoods as well. The supplied material did not include a comprehensive list establishing how many families or businesses remained without replacements. The cases are therefore presented as specific testimonies, not a census of the whole neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

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Promises residents say remain unfulfilled<\/h2>\n

In June 2021, residents protested against the decision to relocate them and clear the area for redevelopment. Residents\u2019 accounts and contemporary rights reporting described the arrest of dozens of people and orders remanding them for 15 days. They faced allegations including assaulting security forces, unlawful assembly and rioting. The source material links their subsequent release to negotiations over relocation. That is an account of events, rather than a published formal agreement establishing the conditions on which they were released.<\/p>\n

At the time, Alexandria\u2019s governor, Mohamed El Sherif, defended the relocation in a television interview with presenter Amr Adib. He said residents would move to a better residential area, describing their existing neighbourhood as affected by rainwater and part of the city\u2019s informal areas. Officials were seeking better conditions for residents and their children, he said, presenting the move as a way to provide decent living conditions in improved housing.<\/p>\n

In a statement dated 13 January 2026<\/a>, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said claims brought by residents of Nadi al-Sayed and El Qabbari had been referred to the court\u2019s commissioners. Its lawyer had submitted contracts, receipts and declarations to support the argument that some claimants had owned their previous homes and had signed new papers without adequate access to their contents or copies. The statement sets out the position of the organisation representing residents. Referral to the commissioners is a procedural step, not a final judgment confirming every allegation or transferring ownership.<\/p>\n

Hamdy Khalaf, an EIPR lawyer, told Zawia3 that the dispute began with an announced infrastructure improvement project, initially without a proposal to remove residents or change their legal position. He put the project\u2019s cost at approximately EGP 180 million. This differs from the EGP 115 million reported for work in the neighbourhood in 2020. The supplied material did not contain a detailed financial account showing whether the difference reflected additional works or another project stage; the two figures should therefore neither be added together nor presented as one fixed sum.<\/p>\n

Khalaf said the position later changed when residents were told to leave on the grounds that the area was informal. Widespread opposition was followed by security intervention, confrontations and arrests, he said, with acquittals subsequently issued. In an effort to contain the crisis, the former governor appeared on television and affirmed a principle that Khalaf summarised as \u201crental for rental, ownership for ownership\u201d, meaning that former homeowners would retain ownership rights after relocation.<\/p>\n

Residents were subsequently moved to Bashayer El Kheir 5, but Khalaf alleged serious problems with the contracting process. They were not permitted to examine the terms or obtain copies, he said. Later, they discovered that their status had changed from owners to tenants and were asked to pay monthly rent as well as maintenance charges. Khalaf stressed that the objection concerned rent, not maintenance contributions, which he considered legitimate. In his clients\u2019 view, their new units compensated for homes they had owned.<\/p>\n

The lawyer described several cases he regarded as violations of residents\u2019 rights. In one, he said, a woman owned a shop that she rented to someone else, but the replacement premises were allocated to the tenant rather than to her. He also described families that had owned three or four apartments but received only one or two replacement units.<\/p>\n

Khalaf argued that these arrangements violated constitutional protections for private property and adequate housing and breached the authorities\u2019 publicly announced commitments, depriving compensation of its intended substance. He also argued that residence in the area for more than 25 years, together with state provision of water, electricity and sanitation, amounted to implicit recognition of residents\u2019 lawful position and rights.<\/p>\n

That is an argument advanced by the residents\u2019 lawyer in the dispute, rather than a rule under which 25 years of residence or connection to utilities automatically proves ownership of every property. Each household\u2019s supporting title documents and the contract signed on relocation remain relevant to deciding its claim.<\/p>\n

Khalaf said 38 cases had been brought by the time of his interview: 37 concerning residential units and one concerning a shop. He said the cases were before the State Council\u2019s commissioners, with the prime minister and the commander of the Northern Military Region among the respondents. The claims sought correction of residents\u2019 legal position, a halt to rent collection on disputed units and restoration of full ownership rights.<\/p>\n

The number of cases Khalaf described concerns the files covered by his interview. It does not automatically equal the total number of affected families or properties removed. The difference between apartment owners\u2019 claims and the shop owner\u2019s claim also requires attention to the type of loss and the basis of each application, rather than treating all cases as if a single ruling had already resolved them.<\/p>\n

Khalaf said the problem was not confined to Nadi al-Sayed. He cited Ibn Sahlan Street in El Qabbari as another example of what he described as a structural problem in resettlement policies.<\/p>\n

The demands outlined by EIPR include stopping rent collection on the disputed units, recognising former owners\u2019 entitlement to replacement property, providing formal ownership contracts and challenging papers residents say they signed without knowing their contents. These are applications made by parties to litigation, not judicial outcomes established in this report. Examining the contracts, undertakings and relocation decisions remains essential to distinguishing what each resident was promised from what was delivered.<\/p>\n

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New buildings, unresolved questions about rights and livelihoods<\/h2>\n

An analysis published on 5 November 2023<\/a> by Alternative Policy Solutions at the American University in Cairo places such experiences in a wider context. It cites statements by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and the housing minister that year putting spending on alternative housing since 2014 at EGP 85 billion. This is a historical figure attributed to government statements, not an updated February 2026 total and not the cost of Bashayer El Kheir or Nadi al-Sayed alone.<\/p>\n

The analysis places alternative housing within Egypt\u2019s sustainable development strategy, Egypt Vision 2030, which includes addressing informal settlements. It distinguishes unplanned areas from unsafe areas. The latter are classified according to four broad types of risk: threats to life such as rockfalls and flooding; inadequate or structurally damaged housing; health hazards linked to utilities or power lines; and insecure tenure.<\/p>\n

Those categories describe areas and risks, not a single legal judgment about all residents\u2019 property. Individual households still have particular legal positions and housing needs that require examination when relocation is proposed.<\/p>\n

Using Al Asmarat as an example, the 2023 analysis describes rent-to-own or usufruct arrangements restricting sale and subletting, with a monthly charge it put at EGP 300, excluding utility bills. That does not mean Al Asmarat and Bashayer El Kheir have identical contracts or that the same amount applies to every phase. Rental or usufruct possession also carries rights and obligations, even where it does not confer ownership. The core of the Nadi al-Sayed residents\u2019 complaint is the difference they allege between the right promised and the arrangement actually imposed.<\/p>\n

Housing-rights researcher Ibrahim Ezz El Din told Zawia3 that evaluating Egypt\u2019s policies towards informal areas raises fundamental questions about their seriousness and compliance with rights standards. He identified a lack of transparent information about areas selected for relocation and the sites intended to receive residents. Comprehensive information on redevelopment plans and the terms and conditions of rehousing is difficult to access, he said, while official websites provide only partial information.<\/p>\n

Ezz El Din argued that residents are often presented with decisions already made rather than given a meaningful opportunity to influence planning or decision-making. He also criticised the absence of economic, social and cultural assessments before relocation. In his view, this was reflected in projects such as Al Asmarat, where available employment did not necessarily match residents\u2019 previous occupations and sources of income.<\/p>\n

The researcher said these policies had also overlooked international and domestic legal safeguards. He referred to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 4 on adequate housing, and General Comment No. 7 on states\u2019 obligations and safeguards concerning forced evictions. He also pointed to what he considered shortcomings in compliance with domestic legislation, including the Building Law, as evidence of a gap between official redevelopment rhetoric and practice.<\/p>\n

The two general comments are interpretations issued by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; they are not themselves Egyptian criminal penalty provisions. General Comment No. 7<\/a> emphasises meaningful consultation, adequate notice and access to remedies, and states that evictions should not leave people homeless.<\/p>\n

The residents\u2019 testimonies reveal an unresolved gap between the promised protection of rights and their account of implementation. Some describe being caught between former ownership they want recognised and a rental relationship they say they did not choose. Others still await the handover itself. For them, the measure of redevelopment is not simply whether new buildings exist, but whether the move provides a home, a clear legal position and a viable basis for continuing their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents of Alexandria\u2019s Nadi al-Sayed describe delayed replacement homes and disputed ownership terms after relocation to Bashayer El Kheir, as their claims move through the courts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[390],"tags":[2163,19217,2641,19219,7120,19216,7117,19218],"kateb":[1110],"class_list":["post-18326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-alexandria","tag-bashayer-el-kheir","tag-forced-eviction","tag-housing-compensation","tag-housing-rights","tag-nadi-al-sayed","tag-property-rights","tag-urban-redevelopment","kateb-merit-ashhad"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/huntingclub-cover-wide.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18326","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=18326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18327,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18326\/revisions\/18327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18326"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=18326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}