Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court has received the first direct challenge to the 2025 law regulating old-rent tenancies, as the heirs of a longtime renter contest key provisions on longstanding leases, according to the daily Al-Shorouk.
The North Cairo First-Instance Court authorized the heirs of Hatem El-Sigini to file a constitutional suit against two articles of Law No. 164 of 2025 on “old-rent” arrangements, in the context of a civil dispute between the heirs of the original tenant and the owner of the building where they live.
Under court procedure, the case will first go to the court’s body of commissioners, which will prepare a legal opinion on the challenge before it is heard by the court itself.
The plaintiffs are challenging Article 2 of the law, which sets a transitional period of seven years to end residential leases for natural persons and five years for nonresidential units, and Article 7, which allows landlords to evict a tenant who owns an alternative housing unit or leaves the rented premises closed for more than a year.
The lawsuit argues that Article 2 conflicts with the civil law principle that “contracts are the law of the parties,” while Article 7 is said to violate Article 78 of the constitution, which obliges the state to guarantee the right to adequate housing.
“Right path”
Sherif El-Ga’ar, head of the Egyptian Tenants’ Union, welcomed the move to bring the “old-rent” battle before the SCC, calling the suit “the right track to overturn” the law.
El-Ga’ar told Al-Manassa that the two articles targeted by the lawsuit directly conflict with earlier rulings of the SCC.
Regarding Article 2, which sets a seven-year transitional period to end residential leases, he said the provision clashes with a previous constitutional ruling that allowed leases under the old system to extend to one generation of the original tenant’s heirs.
“The new law restricts that right and makes it temporary—seven years for residential and five years for nonresidential—creates an obstacle to implementing a binding constitutional judgment,” he said.
On Article 7, and specifically its first paragraph allowing the eviction of a tenant who owns an alternative residence, El-Ga’ar said the provision is “one million percent unconstitutional.”
He noted that the SCC had already struck down a similar clause in Law No. 49 of 1977 and affirmed citizens’ right to own or hold more than one dwelling. “The new law ignored a clear and explicit constitutional ruling, and that makes this article void,” he said.
El-Ga’ar described Articles 2 and 7 as “the most dangerous” in the law and said bringing a constitutional challenge against them represents “a real glimmer of hope” for tenants who say they have been harmed by the new framework.
Governorates move ahead with implementation
The constitutional challenge comes as governorates move ahead with implementing the new legislation, announcing the results of classification committees mandated by the law.
Under Law 164 of 2025, each governorate must establish committees to classify districts and areas into three categories— prime, average, and economic—according to a set of criteria laid out in the legislation. This zoning will serve as the basis for raising controlled rents under the new regime.
While work is still underway in some governorates, the classification committees have completed the task in Minya, Dakahliya, and Giza, which in recent days issued formal decisions dividing and classifying neighborhoods under the law.
On Aug. 4, 2025, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified Law No. 164 of 2025 on certain provisions related to leases of premises and the reorganization of the relationship between tenants and landlords, widely known as the “old-rent” amendments.
The law establishes a seven-year transitional period after which tenancy relationships end for units rented to natural persons for residential use, and a five-year period for units rented for nonresidential purposes. At the end of these periods, tenants are required to vacate the premises and return them to the owner.
The legislation also obliges the government to provide alternative housing to the original tenant and their spouse at least one year before the end of the transitional period specified in the law.
