Originally Posted by distant dreamer

Hi everyone,

Had a bit of a discussion with various people whilst visiting our apartment in El Gouna recently, about our new apartment in El Andalous, Sahl Hasheesh, as to whether to rent it out or not. The problem I have is that the prices I've been quoted so far for furniture packs seem pretty expensive to me, and the figure thats been mentioned if we buy from the developer will be even higher. Thats when I started questioning whether its actually going to be worth renting our apartment out, as it could maybe take a few years just to get the money back on the furniture pack! My husbands idea is just to lock it up and leave it in "as new" condition, and hopefully sell it a few years down the line. Mind you, for me, the idea of furnishing it is going to be the "fun" part - at least I hope it is!!!! I know prices in Egypt (certainly when Egyptians buy things) are very reasonable. The guy who looks after our apartment in El Gouna, went out, looked for, found, purchased and delivered a very good quality double mattress to our apartment for only £60. On another occassion again he went out, sourced, purchased and actually fitted overhead lights and wall lights for £15!! So I'm quite astonished at how expensive the overall cost to furnish apartments seems to be. (We purchased a fully furnished resale in El Gouna, so never had to worry about furnishing it).

When speaking to friends that regularly rent their apartments, either by local management companies or their own efforts, several only reckon they fill their apartments around 50% - 70% of the year. So once you've taken off management costs, insurance, your time and effort, plus replacing bits and pieces as they wear out, is it really going to be worth doing?

If reasonably priced furniture could be obtained, then I think we'll give it a go, but otherwise will certainly have to think about! I'd be interested to hear any ones views!