Hi guys,

My partner and I are keen to purchase an investment property and the Red Sea is looking like a serious contender. However, having spent time out there and observed some partially constructed developments in Dahab and Sharm the build quality is causing me serious concern. Short of employing my own personal structural engineer and a time machine, how on earth do I know that the building is going to withstand the next earthquake (or loud Russian party in light of some of the brickwork I've seen!)? If anyone can give any pointers towards developers they know are enforcing international build standards I would be most grateful. If it helps we are looking for a studio / 1 bed in the £20k - £25k price range, probably Herghada or Marsa Alam. Zafarana has also caught my interest but I'm a little unsure about the location as it seems a bit out of the way. I would love to buy in Dahab but there doesn't seem to be anything going up there except hotels at the moment unless anyone knows different.

All comments / opinions greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

hi
we are a briish family run buisness based in hurghada we have are own development of 72 apartmants 1 and 2 beds in your price range , the quality of regency towers is as most of the new building going up in hurghada , very good we will live there , although the building regulations are differant from europe etc.. the builidings are closly checked by local council and for any owner to register there building which you have to do here it is a legal requirment you have building inspectors inspect at differant stages to ensure that the correct materials and procedures are used ,unfortunatly there will always be cowbaoys but in the main touristic centres the standards are very high compard to other parts as tourisium is there main income they can not take any chances there has being huge amounts invested in hurghada over the last 3 years and more to follow saying this we also asked my travel to inspect are building for saferty regulation etc..

Hi Jenniann

I have bought 5 properties so far in Sahl Hasheesh Premium Resort near to Hurghada. The build quality is superb and all Developments have their own private beach. Starting prices are from 50k sterling but this is normal for front line beach. In Egypt if your development is not on a beach you have to visit the nearest public beach which can be some distance away; they also get very crowded.

Ummm, honestly the building standards in Egypt should not be a matter of concern to you. Egypt might have some negatives, but most definitely not when it comes to building standards, and I believe I am not goinf too far when I say that Egyptian engineers are some of the best in the world, and that Egyptian construction is well known as very reliable, may be much more than most of other countries. Again, Egypt may have A LOT of negative points, but not when it comes to building standards.

Hi jenniann,
This is global investment properties marketing manager,
I manage our Red sea office; I also have a degree in Civil Engineering from Cairo university.
you do not need to worry about the structural safety of the buildings as the Egyptian code of construction has a high % of safety factors to cover forces not included directly in the calculations of the structural design, however since the earthquake that Egypt was subjected to in 1992 the code has include other forces that was not considered before like seismic actions, moreover by law the owner and the Engineers who supervised and designed the constriction are legally responsible for it for a min. of 10 years.
Also it should be noted that in some coastal cities like Sharm El sheikh and, there are height limitations set by the government in order not to be like Spain with no height limitations the properties lost its beauty and value .

I am a new UK developer with a block of apartments, with swimming pool, just being started in Hurghada, completion by Dec 2008, called Red Sea Residencia. I have 2 bedroom apartments that start from around £25,000. Having seen the level of detail in the planning application I can well believe that there is great concern in Egypt about the build standard. The soil sample, stress calculation, load bearing information etc required certainly implies that they are very keen on safety. I show all my potential owners the planning application, and land registration prior to accepting a reservation.

Hi Alison9071, did you say you are going to live in Regency Towers? Thats nice to know if you are.


Dawn -x-

I disagree. I'm always amazed at how sloppy the workmanship is. The caulking is almost always poorly done, the mouldings don't fit well together and poorly cut, the tile grouting is also lacking and the list goes on,

But there's something that really bothered me in all the bathtubs I saw and that they are narrow and the taps are installed in the middle of the tub not at the end which makes it a nightmare sitting in one!

hello
this is not true 100% each country there is good builders and bad builders and here in Hurghada all developers use the best as it big investments plus there is some british developers around

Can anyone give me some recommendations for builders in Hurghada. (Individual). Also a contruction company.

I have bought a villa and am wondering if it is best to have a contruction company finish it all for me, or to source the materials myself and get workers individually??

Has anyone done this? Any advice would be much appreciated.