Sahl Hasheesh & El Gouna -Info & Questions!

[distant dreamer]

Hi everyone

After watching this site for months, finally decided to register with some input!

I own on El Gouna and am purchasing in Sahl Hasheesh also. My reason for buying in Sahl Hasheesh is that I consider it will be similar, but even more upmarket than El Gouna eventually and the prices there have risen dramatically since we first visited in 2002! We subsequently purchased in 2005 and we could have got a lagoon front detached villa if we'd purchased in 2002 for the same price that we paid for a small one bedroom apartment in 2005!! When I found out about Sahl Hasheesh from another forum I decided to purchase site unseen, and so far am very pleased with the investment.

The point of my post is that as quite a few of you are aware, El Gouna is privately owned, therefore different rules/regulations may apply. However on visiting recently I picked up some information for a friend and in the buyers guide for El Gouna it said under What taxes are needed to be paid and how much? The response stated
" There are two types of taxes in case of registration of the contract:
i. Real Estate Tax - it is paid once per year and it is the evaluated rental price of 1 month.
ii. Capital Increasing Tax - Applied only when unit is resold. It is 20% from the capital increase in the price of the unit.

I understood that in Egypt there was no capital gains tax at all. Is this a new tax? Would much appreciate any clarification on this.

According to El Gouna figures Year on year average capital appreciation is 20-30%. Also property appreciation in El Gouna significantly higher than the region over 400% over the last 4 years! Therefore if Sahl Hasheesh appreciates in a similar way, there will be some very happy owners around!

Look forward to hearing anyones comments.

Regards

[Peter Mitry]

Welcome to the forum Distantdreamer! We have a couple of Egyptian lawyers on the forum who I am sure can answer your query? If not, I am sure that Hamdy El Sawy could help; I too will be interested to see the answers.

[propertastic]

I'm no lawyer, but I have never heard of such taxes before - certainly not levied on rental value.

I would imagine that it is something unique to El Gouna - a place that I must admit to personally finding a little bit claustrophobic and 'fake'.

But hundreds of satisfied buyers can't be wrong.

But the GBP1500-2000/m2 that they are asking for their next phase is asking a bit much I think. They had the luxury market all to themselves up until now but, with Sahl Hasheesh, Zafarana, Serrenia and Gamsha Bay all going after similar markets, I think they'll struggle to get it.

[awahee123]

There aren't suppose to be any property taxes as yet in Egypt,unless there has been some new rules put in place I would certainly check this out through the Red Sea Governate.I think the rental tax is common ,if you register with the local government ,after all it is providing you with some sort of income so it would be classed as a business I would imagine.Regarding the tax after selling a property I think you may be right,I have heard about it a few times however havent really looked into it at this stage so does need some clarification.

[Sanchez]

There are definately no taxes when buying / selling in El Gouna. Well at least not enforced taxes ; - )

BTW - I think Sahl Hasheesh will be very different to El Gouna. Not necessarily in bad ways ... but definately different.

[queenie40something]

Hi Sanchez there appears to be alot of confusion over stamp duty on property in Egypt. My agent told me there is none and then on some threads there is mention of 0.6%. Any idea??
See here http://www.propertycommunity.com/forum/egypt...html#post60085
Thanks

[Jeremy Sturgess]

Originally Posted by queenie40something

Hi Sanchez there appears to be alot of confusion over stamp duty on property in Egypt. My agent told me there is none and then on some threads there is mention of 0.6%. Any idea??
See here http://www.propertycommunity.com/forum/egypt...html#post60085
Thanks

I think the confusion may arise because there is what we in England might call a stamp duty (but which is probably called something different in Egypt) of 1 LE per page of the registered purchase contract payable at registration. So if the contract is 100 pages long (god forbid) then the duty (or stamp duty ?) would be 100 LE or 10 pounds sterling. Hardly enough to be worrying about.

[Jeremy Sturgess]

Originally Posted by Sanchez

There are definately no taxes when buying / selling in El Gouna. Well at least not enforced taxes ; - )

BTW - I think Sahl Hasheesh will be very different to El Gouna. Not necessarily in bad ways ... but definately different.

Sanchez you are quite correct. The tax regime in El Gouna is the same as everywhere else in Egypt. It is not a country after all and unless Im mistaken only governments have the right to levy property or capital gains taxes.

I do believe there is new real estate tax legislation before parliament in Egypt at present. I think I heard (but check) that property taxes would be simplified and that each propertys (only those worth over LE500,000) rental value would be assessed every five years and after deducting 30% for expenses (? ) taxed at a rate of 10% (pls check rate as Im not sure) . Perhaps something will crop up with further info on this in the Media watch thread.

[Sanchez]

Hi there guys,
I can only say from my purchasing experience that when buying / selling property through Orascom ( I was sat in their office in Cairo ) that no taxes were charged at purchase time.
Jeremy / Queenie, I think that you guys are right in that it may be down to some confusion over terminology. I just hope that the Egyptian government doesn't try and change something that seems to working quite nicely at the mo : - )

[realestatemart]

Originally Posted by Sanchez

There are definately no taxes when buying / selling in El Gouna. Well at least not enforced taxes ; - )

BTW - I think Sahl Hasheesh will be very different to El Gouna. Not necessarily in bad ways ... but definately different.

who said that no taxes when buying / selling in El Gouna ? I don't think it say in new law Gouna no taxes