In 2010, Mohamed Refaat bought an apartment in the youth-housing project at Kilometer 26 west of Alexandria, known as the National Bank housing estate, hoping to live safely with his wife and raise their children. The family did not expect their lives to turn upside down, leaving them in constant fear and uncertainty, months after the Field Marshal Fouad Abou Zekry corridor opened on December 5, 2022 in President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s presence.
In April 2023, Mohamed and other residents were surprised by Alexandria Governor’s Decision No. 146 of 2023 on the occupants of Kilometer 26 housing. It cited a Presidency letter dated November 27, 2022 containing a study to evacuate about 5,000 housing units in Al-Zeraa Al-Bahri and relocate residents to Bashayer El-Kheir and Masharef Al-Amreya. It also cited Cabinet meetings in December 2022 and January 2023 on urban-planning projects in western Alexandria that included surveying Kilometer 26 housing and determining its legal status.
An official committee then visited the subsidized youth-housing projects at the start of the North Coast in Al-Agami district, at Kilometer 26 on the Alexandria–Matrouh road, to inventory and survey units. When Mohamed and his neighbors asked what would happen to them, district employees said the buildings would be demolished and residents transferred to Bashayer El-Kheir and Masharef Al-Amreya.
Days after the survey, vehicles and workers from Al-Agami district arrived. Videos obtained by Zawia3 document a campaign in which they removed wooden doors, windows, sinks and toilets from units not yet sold. In July 2018, Alexandria governorate had offered 399 apartments, describing them as the remaining subsidized youth-housing units at Kilometer 26, but had not sold them all.
The governorate also ended security and guarding arrangements. A wave of looting and vandalism soon hit sold apartments whose owners were not living there, with doors, windows and furniture stolen in the absence of security. Thieves also took an electricity transformer, high-voltage cables, water pipes and pumping motors belonging to residents still living in their apartments. Only a few households occupied the roughly 500 sold units. Those who tried to confront thieves were threatened with bladed weapons, and residents say emergency calls brought no security response.
Entire buildings lost electricity and drinking-water supplies and became uninhabitable. Owners were forced to leave and rent elsewhere at considerable expense. Abandoned units became sites of criminal activity targeting the remaining residents. Mohamed says appeals to Al-Agami district, Alexandria governorate and constituency MPs produced no practical solution.
The uncertainty persisted for around three years. District employees said plans to transfer residents to Bashayer El-Kheir had been canceled for the time being, while the buildings might be demolished for redevelopment later. Mohamed says no official announcement clarified residents’ fate, compensation or relocation mechanisms, causing social and economic harm to families.
“Since 2023 we have been surprised by instructions suspending property transactions without any published official decision,” he says. “That prevented us from installing electricity meters in sold units or applying for landlines and home internet. Natural-gas connections were refused. We can no longer draw up formal sales contracts and register them, while the units’ market value has fallen sharply.” He says drinking water is cut off for more than 20 hours daily in summer, and public services, markets, facilities and regular transport are absent. Remaining families lack the basic conditions for a dignified life.
Mahmoud Ahmed, another owner, says the estate was built in 2010 under the national subsidized youth-housing program launched during former President Hosni Mubarak’s tenure. It comprises 29 buildings and 1,160 apartments—about 40 per building across two entrances. Allocation through public lotteries continued until 2018, but only around 500 units were sold; the rest remained empty.
From its earliest years, Mahmoud recalls, the project lacked basic services. Gas and telecommunications networks were unfinished and transport limited, deterring applicants for remaining apartments. Few families occupied each building, while a security company appointed by the governorate protected empty units. Things changed in late 2022 amid reports of relocation to Bashayer El-Kheir, followed by Decision No. 146 of 2023 and field surveys. Al-Agami district ended the security contract and moved doors, windows and fittings from unallocated units to its stores—steps residents saw as signs of imminent evacuation.
“Ending the guarding arrangements led to widespread theft and vandalism, including the main electricity transformer, cables, water and sewage pipes, and break-ins at privately owned apartments,” Mahmoud says. “The buildings became unsafe, so residents blocked passages with white-brick walls and organized night watches to protect themselves and their property.” He left about three years ago and rents an apartment for EGP 3,500. Restoring utilities and repairing damage would exceed most residents’ means. Owners also encountered a freeze on dealings involving their units, preventing meter installation and administrative procedures while development work stopped.
Despite repeated complaints to the governorate, the Cabinet, local officials and an MP, Mahmoud says no decisive response clarified whether the project would be developed, demolished or its residents relocated. Residents want a decision after years of uncertainty: rehabilitate utilities and secure the estate if it is to remain, or announce a clear plan that preserves owners’ rights and ends their suffering.
Decision No. 146 of 2023 formed a committee headed by the Housing and Utilities Directorate’s director, with government, military, academic and technical representatives, including the Northern Military Region, Social Solidarity Directorate, Real Estate Registry, Survey Directorate and Property Tax Authority, alongside valuation experts and governorate legal, engineering and housing staff. It tasked the committee with defining the legal mechanism for dealing with occupants, including transfer to Masharef Al-Amreya or social compensation or assistance according to categories based on the legal nature of occupancy, in preparation for evacuation. This was to draw on the inventory prepared by the committee established under Decision No. 68 of 2023.
The committee was also tasked with setting final market-based property prices and referring inventory information to the committee reviewing citizens’ ownership contracts in Bashayer El-Kheir urban-development areas. It was to start work on April 27, 2023 and submit findings and recommendations by May 11. The decision took effect upon issuance on April 18, 2023.
Forced to leave their apartments
For 14 years, homemaker Yomna Anas—a pseudonym—lived with her family in the apartment she received in 2010. As theft and intimidation escalated in 2023, neighbors left until she and her two children were the only occupants of their building. She held on for two more years, until stolen pipes and the electricity transformer left her without water and power.
Burglary extended from empty units to occupied homes. She says unknown men entered her apartment and threatened her and her children with a bladed weapon in the absence of security. Police reports brought no tangible result, she says. For their safety, she rented another apartment in an occupied building within the estate whose residents had erected a stone wall and iron gate offering some protection.
“Although we received no official demolition notice, most buildings—including mine—lost the essentials of life after utilities were vandalized and stolen and water and electricity stopped. They became empty shells,” she says. On receiving her apartment, a security company had provided some stability. A district survey and registration of residents around three years ago coincided, she says, with the removal of security and widespread theft. Residents ask only for minimum security and services or a clear decision about the area’s future, rather than ongoing uncertainty and threats.
More than ten years ago, Bassam Mohamed bought an apartment hoping to settle there with his wife and four children. He says he had to leave in 2013 and rent under the new rental system because security had deteriorated. Thieves repeatedly took not just doors and windows but appliances, sewage and metal pipes. Four wooden doors and other contents were stolen from his apartment, and he says a police report produced no effective response.
“Fear for my children was the main reason we left,” Bassam says. “I was not prepared to risk my family’s safety, so I had to bear the cost of rent despite the major financial pressure.” He questions how thieves enter and leave unchecked and believes negligence or collusion allowed the incidents to continue, without directly accusing any specific body. He still hopes to return and wants the governorate and security authorities to solve the problems and make owners’ return possible. Rent on top of living costs heavily burdens low-income families.
Zawia3 obtained a collective complaint submitted by owners to Alexandria’s governor. They said they had bought units since 2010 but the project remained incomplete, with apartments unsold and basic services missing. They said Al-Agami district ended the security contract in March 2023, followed by removal of doors, windows and fittings from unallocated units, which they regarded as contributing to vandalism and wasted public money. The complaint described 29 buildings and 1,160 apartments, with only two to four occupied units per entrance out of about 20. Empty, open units became shelter for stray animals and some lawbreakers, damaging residents’ security and living conditions.
The complainants said district staff circulated information about relocation to Bashayer El-Kheir as units were stripped and owners inventoried repeatedly under Decision No. 146 and a Cabinet decision. They said subsequent theft of water, sewage, electricity and other infrastructure left the estate without basic living conditions. They asked the governor to intervene, noting that some had rented alternative homes, that circumstances had been stable before these developments, and that they attached photographs they said documented the stripping of units and current conditions, along with earlier complaints.
An unlawful restriction on property dealings?
Human-rights lawyer Mohamed Ramadan Abou Baybars describes Kilometer 26 as an affordable-housing project built under Mubarak: 29 buildings and 1,160 apartments, about 500 allocated since 2010 and the rest empty. Occupied units are held under final ownership contracts. Their original low prices reflected the area’s remoteness, he says. The Abou Zekry corridor and projects including Alex West’s hotel and compound and the Saudi hospital significantly increased investment value. Residents consequently believe the area is being targeted for evacuation, amid what he calls a policy of pressure beginning with the disappearance of the security company and the subsequent security vacuum.
He tells Zawia3 that restrictions extended to sales and purchases, instructions to registry offices not to issue powers of attorney concerning units, and some utility companies refusing to deal with owners, alongside property-survey committees. Residents regarded these as preparations for an expropriation decision. Surveys and discussion of compensation and relocation indicate an intention to demolish or evacuate, he argues, but cannot replace a published administrative decision with a legal basis.
“The governing framework is Public-Benefit Expropriation Law No. 10 of 1990, amended by Law No. 187 of 2020,” he says. It specifies projects for which the state may expropriate property, including roads, water, sewage, energy, bridges, transport and urban planning, plus works designated as public benefit by other laws. Administrative demolition and evacuation had previously been used in limited circumstances, he adds, while public-benefit expropriation has expanded in recent years. In his view, some decisions cite announced public projects while the actual aim is investment development, making legal challenges more complicated.
Abou Baybars says the estate’s legal position remains unresolved: no official public-benefit expropriation decision has been issued, only decisions and procedures pointing toward surveys and evacuation without a clear final legal basis. A freeze on property dealings, if established, would be unlawful, he argues, especially as most residents hold final ownership contracts. He describes such a measure as unjust and intended, in his view, to pressure residents to leave.
Zawia3 obtained a housing ownership contract signed on December 30, 2010 between Alexandria governorate as seller and a beneficiary as buyer. It shows full ownership of the apartment’s building component while the land remained state-owned private property allocated to the national youth-housing project. The 63-square-meter unit comprises two rooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom, on the ground floor of Building 7, Entrance 2. Its total price was EGP 64,469, including EGP 25,000 in government subsidy and EGP 4,463 from Alexandria governorate; the buyer paid EGP 35,000 cash, settling the unit in full.
The contract affirmed the governorate’s ownership and the absence of third-party property rights, mortgages or violations, and stated that construction complied with official permits and technical rules. The buyer had to use the unit for housing and move in within three months. Sale, rental, mortgage or creation of property rights was prohibited for five years from receipt, otherwise the contract would automatically terminate. Clause 12 allowed the owner, after five years, to sell, gift, rent or grant others occupancy or property rights, provided the government subsidy was repaid with legal interest and the seller’s approval obtained. The buyer was responsible for registration costs, taxes and fees, had to join the occupants’ association and contribute to shared-area maintenance. Disputes fall within the jurisdiction of the court covering the property.
Seeking an official response and clarification of the estate’s legal position, Zawia3 attempted to contact Governor Ayman Mohamed Attia Ibrahim and governorate Secretary-General Mohamed Salah. Spokesperson Mohamed Fouad promised to follow up and provide a response, but none had arrived at publication.
An unnamed parliamentary source, however, told Zawia3 that all Kilometer 26 youth-housing buildings west of Alexandria, known as National Bank housing, were heading toward demolition, with no current plans to retain and rehabilitate them. The source said discussions and negotiations with officials were under way to provide alternative housing for apartment owners.
Between residents’ accounts, official documents and ownership contracts, Kilometer 26’s future remains suspended between worsening conditions and an unresolved plan. After years of inventories and talk of evacuation and development, around 500 owners still await an official announcement defining their homes’ fate and their rights. Alexandria governorate had not responded to the investigation at publication, leaving residents’ questions about the legality of measures, security and the project’s future unanswered.
