Statement from the Developer ‘First Leisure’

Some of you may have read some adverse comments recently published on internet forums about our Company who owns the “Regency” brand and its CEO Mr. Andrew Harris and in particular about so called ‘double-selling’. Although we do not normally respond to ‘gossip’ on forums we have taken the view that for the benefit of our Buyers, on this occasion it is appropriate because of the serious nature of the allegations.
We should first like to say that it is important that Buyers appreciate that contributions to forum’s are mostly made by well intentioned people with a genuine concerns or a wish to pass on good tips, however, forums are also frequently misused by developer/Agent competitors or people with an axe to grind. In addition, sometimes (not always) the information provided by some people can often be one-sided, confused or misguided or occasionally vindictive. The reason why people do this is because they believe they can do so with complete anonymity or comeback. This sense of security is misplaced however because their postings on the websites can be traced and we together with the Egyptian Authorities are presently trying to track down those responsible and commence proceedings against them.
We accept that when dealing with hundreds of Buyers (as we do) there will always be a small number of justified complaints from Buyers and we make every effort to deal with those to the satisfaction of the Buyers - but as you will appreciate you can never satisfy everyone all the time.
We now turn to the issue of double-selling. We understand the practice of double-selling is to sell a property to more than 1 Buyer at the same time.
We believe the Purchase Contracts we use are fair to both the Buyers and the Sellers achieving a good compromise between both parties’ interests. As with the UK property market, our Purchase Contract for Egyptian property provides that the Seller commits to sell and the Buyer commits to buy on exchange of contracts. The Buyer pays an exchange deposit and promises to pay the due amount on completion. On completion we notify the Buyer the property is ready for handover and request the completion monies.
On just 4 occasions, despite doing all we could to assist, the Buyer has either refused or has been unable, through their own financial circumstances, to pay the completion balance. Under the terms of the Purchase Contract (as in the UK) if the Buyer fails to pay the completion monies on completion then the Seller is entitled to revoke the Contract and retain a percentage of the deposit monies already paid and the Buyers are refunded the balance. In this event the Seller is by law entitled to re-market and re-sell the property to another Buyer but only because of the Buyer’s default not ours. This is not double-selling.
We can assure our Buyers that we have never double-sold a property on any of our developments. Indeed to do so would invoke the Egyptian Criminal Code and the Developer can be sent to prison.
If any of our Buyers have any concerns about what they read on the forums or other internet sites we would be grateful to them if they could contacted us directly and we shall answer or clarify any issues they are concerned about including making any enquiries of the Egyptian Authorities. Anyone wishing to clarify the situation is welcome to telephone our office on 002 065 345 0452 or 0044 121 711 3319 or visit our offices to discuss the matter.
Finally, our offices have received literally hundreds of phone calls expressing their disgust at what they have read and offering their support and to all of them we would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation.
Best wishes,

Andy Harris
Group CEO

Thank you for your statement. Due to the time passed between the allegations and now, many comments have been posted on forums and I know of several buyers either pulling out or considering this (myself included). For the Regency Beach project, we have all paid deposits. Can you assure us that these will be returned, without having to resort to lawyers etc.., if we choose this course of action. This assurance would allow many of us to hang on for these very overdue contracts and plans and excercise the right to cancel within X number of days should they not be what we were expecting.
Also are there any investigations into the company's activities or associated companies? This answer directly from you would count for a great deal as this is not clear from your statement.

Another cause of great concern is the inclusion of / non inclusion of communal areas in the purchased area of apartments. Many other buyers have expressed their intention to pull out if communal areas are included as this dilutes their purchase or increases the square metre price significantly on the net area. can you confirm what is the exact situation with this.

Thank you for your participation. I, like many others, had and still could have really high hopes for the Regency Beach development but there are many questions that need satisfactory answers.
No answer to this post would suggest many things.
Regards,
Neil

Hi Neil, I think you put our concerns very well there. This statement is popping up all over but it's a struggle trying to get anything else more concrete, don't you think?

Thankyou for your comments neil, we have no investigation against us and this has been checked on numorous occassions by my legal team, we have a happy client in apt 307 of regency towers who is actually the captain of Police here, my development team has met with the Govenor of the red sea yesterday and we are assured we will have final licence approval within the next 2 weeks. the reason for the delay has been that we have improved the design added some apartments and made the sizes of the units more 'European friendly' and affordable to my demographics.

All your deposits are currently sitting in the Lawyers account and can not be forwarded to me without the license number and signed contract, refunds are available to anyone who has doubt on a no quible basis immediately, we do not make money out of a £1000 deposit our mission is to have happy clients who will be visiting us on a regular basis spending money in our bars and restaurants.

Again I am sorry about the delay but nothing moves fast in Egypt although we intend to make up time on the build schedule, I promise the wait will be worth it as we intend to build the best resort Hurghada has ever seen, please also bear in mind the prices have already gone up over 30% and will be put up again when the licence is granted so if you do cancel you will be giving your profit away.

on the point of net and gross areas, it does include built communial areas this includes stairs, lift shafts, coridoors etc. This is the only way you can own a freehold in egypt it is called a joint freehold. As you probably know you can not own a freehold flat in the UK as someone will own the land underneath and charge ground rent. So this is a real benefit and you will encounter the same wherever you buy in Egypt.

These malicious posts are untrue without proof or foundation, unfortunately in this country competitors that are unable to deliver as good a product and are unable to market as successfully as us turn to dirty tactics.

Please contact me personally if you need any more answers

Andy

Thanks Alot Andy
I hope this will be able to clear everything for everyone
Regards
George

I certainly feel much happier!

We weighed everything up but in the end the delay in starting and the 1 bed junior suite becoming something else, finally decided us, and we are no longer continuing with our purchase.

We have just heard from LAW Ltd who are arranging our refund.

I'm sure it'll be a beautiful development when complete, and I wish everyone the best.

I'm glad to read Andy's comments.

I for one had seen these allegations on the internet, of which the author quoted he worked for an Egyptian newspaper. I researched on the net for the newspaper, and found that the author did not work for the publication, and that the article had never appeared in the newspaper, as cited. So I found out that the article was made up.

I went along to the party that Andy threw at Regency Towers last week, which was attended by his family, friends, staff, clients, residents, and agents. There were no complaints at all, even when Andy starting singing!

What I like most about the Regency brand is that it's CEO lives here in Hurghada, with his family. They have an office you can go to, and a finished development.

Not many developers or UK promoters for local developers can boast of that!

__________________
ross@experience-international.co.uk
http://www.experience-international.com
skype:rossantony1971 tel:002 0168597844

I missed a party??? Now I AM upset lol. On a serious note though, I've decided to hang in there. There is nothing else on the market as good in that price range for a start and as my reservation fee is not at risk even, I'm going to wait it out for the moment unless I hear something concrete telling me I shouldn't

Thank to every one that has supported us through this difficult period, I know you will not be disappointed in our products and all are welcome for a drink in the sunset bar

Andy