President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly broke weeks of official silence on the controversial amendments to Egypt’s decades-old rent control law, stirring cautious optimism among landlords, even as legal experts warn the law remains in a state of uncertainty.
The amendments, approved by parliament earlier this month, risk stalling indefinitely when President El-Sisi announced the closure of the current parliamentary session on July 9 without signing the bill into law.
According to a November 2024 ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court, this legislative gap could pave the way for lawsuits by landlords demanding rent increases aligned with market rates.
Such a development, warned a human rights lawyer and a representative of the Landlords’ Association who previously spoke to Al Manassa, may lead to “judicial chaos” and inflame tensions between landlords and tenants.
In his speech marking the anniversary of the July 23 Revolution, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said yesterday, “Egypt, which refused to let its citizens live in slums, will not abandon those entitled to housing to fall into a spiral of worry about their tomorrow.”
“For the first time, I feel like I actually own my property again,” said Julia Mohamed, a representative of the Landlords’ Association who participated in parliamentary hearings on the bill. “President El-Sisi gave us back our rights.”
Further bolstering these hopes were remarks by Madbouly during the weekly cabinet meeting, where he said the government had begun preparing the law’s executive regulations—an administrative step typically undertaken after a bill becomes law.
But tenant advocates remain skeptical. Sherif El-Ga’ar, head of the Egyptian Tenants' Union, believes the president’s remarks actually reflect reservations about certain law provisions, particularly the seven-year deadline for vacating rented units.
Speaking to Al Manassa, El-Ga'ar further pointed out that the Official Gazette published ten laws signed by the president this week, none of which included the rent law.
“If the president wanted to sign it, he would have,” he said. “His repeated use of the term ‘those who deserve housing’ suggests he still believes tenants have a right to stay.”
El-Ga’ar also cited El-Sisi’s previous comments acknowledging tenants’ long-term occupancy rights and interpreted the president’s latest remarks as an assurance that evictions would not happen abruptly.
Still, the prime minister’s statements fueled concerns among tenant representatives that the executive branch may be moving ahead without presidential ratification. El-Ga’ar accused Madbouly of bias toward landlords, recalling his earlier tenure as housing minister in 2014.
However, legal expert Salah Fawzy, a constitutional law professor and member of the Legislative Reform Committee, downplayed the significance of Madbouly’s remarks. “Drafting executive regulations before a law is officially ratified is not unusual,” he said. “Technically, it’s procedural.”
Fawzy added that only the House of Representatives can determine the fate of the law. Constitutionally, the president has 30 days from receipt to sign or return the bill.
Parliament had given final approval to the legislation in early July, after intense debate. The law sets a transitional period of seven years for residential tenants and five for commercial, after which leases under the old rent regime are terminated and the property returned to the landlord.
It also requires the government to provide alternative housing for the original tenant and their spouse at least one year before the end of the transitional period stipulated in the legislation.
