President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified today a contentious law restructuring Egypt's decades-old rent system, triggering outrage among tenants who plan to appeal the decision in court.
After a month of limbo triggered by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s decision to close the parliamentary session on July 9 without ratifying key legislation, a long-awaited law will finally come into force tomorrow. The enactment caps off months of contentious debate in parliament and years of legal disputes between landlords and tenants over below-market rental rates.
Law 164 of 2025, published in the official gazette, sets a definitive timetable to phase out “old rent” contracts—fixed-rate leases dating back to the 1960s and earlier, coupled with sharp rent hikes and the option to apply for alternative housing through the state.
For decades, Egypt's “old rent” system was a legal framework designed to protect tenants. Instituted during periods of war and economic crisis, it capped rent at a fixed rate and made eviction nearly impossible. This created a dual housing market, where millions of tenants and their descendants lived in units with rents frozen far below market value.
This system, however, also created years of legal and social conflict. Landlords argued the fixed, non-market rents violated their property rights, while tenants relied on the law for housing security.
A series of Constitutional Court rulings gradually chipped away at the system, culminating in the recent legislation that now sets a timeline for its complete phase-out.
Eviction clock ticking
Under Article 2, tenants of residential units will have a seven-year grace period before mandatory eviction, while commercial and administrative tenants have five years. The law also allows for early eviction in cases such as prolonged vacancy or tenant ownership of a similar usable unit.
Beginning next month, monthly rents under old contracts will be significantly multiplied, with increases reaching 20-fold in prime locations, 10-fold in middle-income areas, and 5-fold for non-residential properties.
The new regulations also set minimum increases ranging from 250 to 1,000 Egyptian pounds ($7–$21), based on area classification as determined by newly formed provincial committees. An annual 15% increase will apply thereafter.
Alternative housing
To ease the social impact, the law offers tenants a chance to apply for substitute housing or commercial space, conditional on vacating the original unit once an alternative is received.
In parallel, El-Sisi ratified Law No. 165 of 2025, amending the 1996 civil law governing rental contracts.
The new provision empowers landlords to request expedited eviction orders from summary judges if tenants fail to vacate upon contract expiry, bypassing lengthy litigation. Tenants can appeal, but the ruling remains enforceable during legal proceedings.
Legal challenge brewing
Against this backdrop of impending evictions and steep rent increases, tenant advocate Sherif El-Ga'ar, who participated in parliamentary consultations, told Al Manassa his coalition would file a constitutional challenge. “We will exhaust every legal avenue to block this legislative deviation,” he said.
El-Ga'ar argued the new laws violate prior constitutional rulings that had upheld tenants’ right to pass leases to a single generation of heirs, adding that the seven-year transition violates that principle.
Affected tenants, he said, hope to secure a new constitutional ruling striking down the legislation, which they frame as an obstacle to implementing existing court judgments.
The new law was passed by Parliament in early July following contentious debate over its transition period. Critics had argued that this period fell short of constitutional protections for long-term tenants.
