Egyptian property terms, explained

Most of what goes wrong in an Egyptian property purchase is not fraud. It is vocabulary. A buyer signs an aqd ibtida’i believing it is a deed, hears that a unit is "semi-finished" without knowing what arrives, or is told assignment is "no problem" without seeing where the contract says so.

This page defines the words you will actually meet, in the order you meet them. Each term gives the Arabic, a transliteration, and what it means in practice. Where KÂMO has a full guide on a topic, the entry links to it rather than repeating it.

One framing note before the list. Egypt’s property system is not centralised the way Dubai’s is: the authority that matters, the documents that exist, and the route to registration all depend on where the development’s underlying land sits and who administers it. Terms below that vary by development say so explicitly. Anyone telling you a single answer applies everywhere in Egypt is simplifying something that decides whether you can resell.

Ownership and title

Tamlik (تمليك, tamlīk) — freehold ownership. The strongest form of title: you own the property itself, not a right to use it, and you can sell, let or bequeath it subject to the conditions attached to foreign ownership.

Usufruct / haqq al-intifa’a (حق الانتفاع, ḥaqq al-intifāʿ) — a long-term right to use a property without owning the land beneath it, granted for a fixed term. Whether a development is sold freehold or on usufruct depends on the land it sits on, not on the developer’s marketing. On the Red Sea mainland — Soma Bay, El Gouna, Sahl Hasheesh — foreign ownership is generally freehold, subject to Law 230/1996’s conditions; elsewhere in the country the position differs. Establish which basis applies to your specific unit before you reserve, not after.

Foreign ownership conditions — Egypt permits foreign nationals to own residential property, subject to conditions that include limits on the number and size of units held. The conditions are national, but how they interact with a given development depends on that development’s land status. See buying property in Egypt as a foreigner.

Milkiyya (ملكية, milkiyya) — ownership, in the general sense. You will see it in contract headings and in the phrase naql al-milkiyya, transfer of ownership.

Feddan (فدان, feddān) — the Egyptian land unit, used for master-plan and land areas rather than for apartments. Slightly larger than an acre. Unit sizes are quoted in square metres.

Contracts and signing

Aqd ibtida’i (عقد ابتدائي, ʿaqd ibtidāʾī) — the preliminary or initial contract, the document most Egyptian purchases actually run on. It is a binding contract between you and the seller. It is not registration, and on its own it does not put your name on the public record. Understanding that distinction is the single most useful thing on this page.

Aqd niha’i (عقد نهائي, ʿaqd nihāʾī) — the final contract, executed once the price is paid in full and the conditions of the preliminary contract are met. Depending on the development, this is the document taken forward to registration.

Sihhat tawqi’ (صحة توقيع, ṣiḥḥat tawqīʿ) — literally "validity of signature": a court procedure confirming that the signatures on a contract are genuine. It authenticates who signed. It does not, by itself, establish who owns the property, and it is not a substitute for registration.

Sihha wa nafaz (صحة ونفاذ, ṣiḥḥa wa nafādh) — "validity and enforceability": a stronger court action seeking a judgment that the sale contract itself is valid and enforceable. Buyers encounter it where registration is obstructed. Whether it is available or appropriate in a given case is a question for a lawyer, not an agent.

Tawkil (توكيل, tawkīl) — power of attorney. Used constantly by overseas buyers and sellers, because much of the process expects a physical signature in Egypt. A tawkil can be narrow or very wide; the scope is the whole point, and a general power of attorney granted casually is one of the more consequential documents you will ever sign. See selling a Red Sea property from abroad.

Tanazul (تنازل, tanāzul) — assignment: transferring your position under a contract to a new buyer before you have completed and taken title. This is how most pre-handover resales happen. Whether it is permitted, on what terms, with what fee and with whose consent depends entirely on your contract, not on general market practice. Check it before you sign, not when you need it.

Registration

Shahr Aqari (الشهر العقاري, al-shahr al-ʿaqārī) — the Real Estate Publicity and Notarisation Department: the state registry where property rights are formally recorded. Registration here is what makes ownership effective against third parties, as distinct from a contract that binds only the parties who signed it. KÂMO has a full guide to how registration works, including the Siraj property ID.

Siraj (سراج) — the national property identification number that every property is now required to carry. It is recent, and it is changing what buyers and sellers need in hand. The registration guide above covers what it is and where it fits.

Musajjal (مسجل, musajjal) — registered. A unit that is musajjal is one recorded at the registry. The word is used loosely in listings; ask what specifically is registered, and ask to see it.

Naql al-milkiyya (نقل الملكية, naql al-milkiyya) — transfer of ownership, the act of moving title from seller to buyer.

Kashf / property search (كشف, kashf) — an official search of the record for a given property. What can be searched, and how conclusively, varies with how the underlying land is administered.

Buying off-plan

Off-plan — buying a unit before it is built, from drawings and a specification, for delivery on a future date. See what off-plan property actually is and off-plan versus resale.

Payment plan — the schedule of instalments between reservation and handover. Structures vary widely, and the headline price is not the cost of the plan. See payment plans and off-plan mechanics.

Muqaddam (مقدم, muqaddam) — the down payment: the first substantial payment, made at or shortly after reservation, usually expressed as a percentage of the unit price.

Aqsat (أقساط, aqsāṭ) — instalments. Singular qist. The rhythm of the plan — quarterly, monthly, or tied to construction milestones — matters as much as the total.

Reservation form — the short document, with a deposit, that holds a unit while the contract is prepared. It is not the contract, and what happens to the deposit if you withdraw should be written on it.

Delivery date / mawʿid al-tasleem (موعد التسليم) — the contractual date the unit is to be handed over. What the contract says happens if that date passes is a separate question from what the date is, and it is the more important of the two. See managing off-plan delivery risk.

Where your money sits — a structural point rather than a term, and one that surprises buyers arriving from other markets: off-plan purchase money in Egypt is generally paid to the developer against contract milestones, rather than held by a notary or in an independent escrow account until completion. That is not a defect to be alarmed by, but it does mean the developer’s standing is part of what you are buying.

Finishing and handover

Tashteeb (تشطيب, tashṭīb) — finishing: the fit-out of a unit’s interior. The single most commonly misunderstood word in Egyptian property marketing, because the same term covers wildly different deliverables.

Core and shell — delivered as a structure with services brought to the unit and essentially nothing inside: no internal finishes, and often no internal partitions beyond the structural ones.

Nisf tashteeb (نصف تشطيب, niṣf tashṭīb) — semi-finished. Partially fitted out, with the boundary between what is included and what is not set entirely by the specification annexed to your contract. "Semi-finished" is not a standard; the annex is.

Fully finished — delivered ready to occupy. Whether that includes kitchen units, wardrobes, sanitaryware, air conditioning or none of them is, again, the annex’s job to state.

Super lux — a marketing grade, not a defined standard. Treat it as a claim to be itemised, not a specification.

Snagging — the inspection at handover that lists defects and incomplete work for the developer to remedy. Agree how snags are recorded and resolved before you accept keys.

Wadi’at al-siyana (وديعة الصيانة, wadīʿat al-ṣiyāna) — the maintenance deposit: a sum, usually a percentage of the unit price, paid towards the upkeep of the development’s shared areas. Ask whether it is refundable, what it funds, and what the recurring service charge is on top of it.

Service charge — the recurring annual cost of running the compound. It is a real and permanent cost of ownership, and it belongs in any yield calculation. See what buying actually costs and rental yields in Egypt.

Authorities, bodies and the people involved

FRA (الهيئة العامة للرقابة المالية) — the Financial Regulatory Authority, Egypt’s non-banking financial regulator. It matters to property buyers because it regulates the funds and financing structures that increasingly sit behind developers. See our reporting on the FRA developer-fund conversion rule.

NUCA (هيئة المجتمعات العمرانية الجديدة) — the New Urban Communities Authority, the state body that administers Egypt’s new cities and allocates much of the land they are built on. Where NUCA is the underlying land authority, its rules shape what a developer can offer and how title moves.

Mutawwir aqari (مطور عقاري, muṭawwir ʿaqārī) — the property developer: the company selling and building the project. See the developer profiles for who is behind the major master plans.

Compound — the near-universal Egyptian term for a gated, managed residential development with shared amenities and a service charge. Used for everything from a small city scheme to a coastal master plan.

Broker versus buyer-side advisor — a distinction worth holding on to. Most agents in Egypt are paid by the developer whose inventory they are showing you, which shapes what they show. A buyer-side advisor represents the buyer across developers. See how we work.

Words used loosely in marketing

Some terms carry no fixed meaning and should be read as claims rather than facts. That does not make them dishonest — it makes them unverified until someone itemises them.

"Prime", "first row", "sea view" — position language with no standard definition. First row to what, and with what protection against something being built in front of it? A view is a fact about a specific unit on a specific floor, not about a project.

"Guaranteed ROI", "guaranteed rental" — a guarantee is only as good as the counterparty giving it and the term over which it runs. Ask who is guaranteeing what, for how long, and what happens after. See rental yields in Egypt.

"Limited units", "launch price", "last phase" — scarcity framing. Sometimes true, and independently checkable against the developer’s actual release schedule, which is what we do before a client reserves.

"Fully finished" without an annex, and "delivery 2027" without a delay clause — the two most expensive omissions on this list.

A note on what this page is

This is a vocabulary reference, written so that a buyer can read their own paperwork with fewer unknowns. It is not legal advice, and it deliberately avoids stating rates, thresholds or deadlines that vary by development and by authority.

We are a property advisory, not a law firm. Independent legal advice on your specific contract and title is something we recommend rather than replace, and we will say so at the point it matters rather than after.

Speak to an advisor