Greater Cairo’s housing crisis: Contested spaces from inner city areas to new communities

This article examines housing crises, access and vacancy within Greater Cairo’s metropolitan communities. The impact of the Greater Cairo Master Plan and New Towns Policy on the housing crisis are investigated through some case studies focusing especially on new towns and on New Cairo City, to the east of downtown Cairo. The empirical research attempts to qualitatively examine the complex reasons for the failure of various policies and implementations (GCR master plan, new settlements schemes, new towns plans) in meeting housing needs of middle and low-income people. This has resulted in the emergence of nearly empty new towns, and the expansion of exclusive gated communities, a phenomenon which aggravated social injustice and housing inequality. A small area survey employs ethnographic techniques of informal discussions with secondary stakeholder agencies (local municipality, planners, NGOs, real estate agents and land developers) and in-depth interviews with primary stakeholder groups ranging from urban poor households within resettlement housing to affluent residents within gated communities. The article tackles the on-going contest between local population, and real estate and property speculators within Greater Cairo’s urban policy, whilst calling for a stakeholder approach to tackle the problem of housing access and vacant dwellings. This would involve public–private partnership and grass roots co-operation between tenants, resettled people, NGOs, housing experts and local authorities.