This section discusses the realization of the key aspects of the right to adequate housing in affordable housing programs in Egypt during its four phases. The discussion is based on the data and information issued by the Egyptian housing sector official reports, as well as the analysis of the realization of the seven key aspects through calculating the numerical averages according to the experts’ questionnaire results for a diverse sample of 57 academic and nonacademic experts in the field.
Legal security of tenure
The legal security of tenure is an essential aspect that has been provided in affordable housing projects. The experts’ questionnaire indicated that it was the most fulfilled aspect during the four phases of affordable housing programs in Egypt. Although there was an increase in its realization during the period of the transformation to the ownership system instead of rent, it decreased slightly in the current social housing program as a result of the inauguration of the Social Housing Law [9], which provides the right to withdraw housing from beneficiaries by the law in case a set of conditions are violated ([3], P. 27, 47). Figure 4 shows the change in the realization of the secure tenure aspect during the four phases of affordable housing programs in Egypt, based on the results of the experts’ questionnaire.
Availability of services and infrastructure
The availability of infrastructure during the affordable housing programs in Egypt is one of the aspects that have been fulfilled. The Egypt housing profile confirms that subsidized housing projects built in the new towns were provided, in most cases, with a good standard of basic off-site and on-site infrastructure (roads, water, electricity, telephones, and water-borne sewerage), public spaces, and social services, although on average the overall level of quality and operation was low and there were some cases of serious neglect, especially for older projects ([10], page: 38).
As shown in Fig. 5, the Availability of infrastructure aspect increases with the progress of the four phases of affordable housing programs in Egypt; according to the experts’ questionnaire results, it is possible to notice the improvement in the availability of infrastructure with the progress in the phases of affordable housing programs; especially, it can be seen during the current social housing projects, as a result of setting some quality standards. As for the level of service availability, it is less achieved if compared to infrastructure.
Affordability
Before 2005, almost all of the families in Egypt were able to purchase governmental housing units as the down payments were affordable, and the required fixed installments did not exceed 25% of the household income at that time; besides, the installments are paid over a period of 30 years. After 2008, housing prices have rapidly increased ([11], Page: 51-77), which made it difficult for Egyptian families to find adequate housing at an appropriate cost, especially for vulnerable and marginalized groups (VMGs) and low-income groups. The current social housing projects work to provide housing units at a reasonable cost but housing units still not affordable to low-income groups.
Based on the experts’ questionnaire results, it can be read that the decline in the ability to sustain the cost of housing during the Affordable housing programs is quite obvious, as shown in Fig. 6, whereas the diversity of housing units improves to suit all income groups.
Habitability
The quality of the affordable housing production in Egypt is generally appropriate in terms of structural safety and environmental and health suitability; as for the level of housing units’ areas and their suitability to meet the living activities, it has become more adequate in recent projects.
In the National housing projects the housing unit area used to be 60 m2 then increased to 90 m2 during the current social housing programs. In the period from 1952 to 1981, the rental projects included small apartments in three- to five-story buildings with good ventilation and lighting, in the period from 1982 to 2005 the various ownership projects had high planning standards and included a variety of units: low-cost housing (45 m2), economical (60 m2), housing medium (90 m2), above-average (125 m2), and luxurious (greater than 125 m2). In the period from 2005 to 2011, the national housing project axes varied between plots of land and housing units with an area of 63 m2 in five-story buildings on average with good ventilation and lighting. The current social housing programs provide fully finished housing units with an area of 90 m2 in five-story buildings with good ventilation and lighting ([12], page: 23-30).
The experts’ questionnaire results show that the building structural quality is most fulfilled in the aspect of habitability during the four phases of affordable housing programs in Egypt followed by environmental and health quality, and adequate spaces to meet the living activities, as shown in Fig. 7. In general, an improvement is noticed in the aspect of habitability as its indicators increase over time in affordable housing programs.
Accessibility
Most of the Egyptian affordable housing programs focus on providing housing with a subsidized ownership system, while some provide rental units or plots of land (site and services projects) with limited numbers. Until 2011, the affordable housing programs in Egypt rely on a traditionally paper-based process for having a housing unit within a lottery system, and during the current social housing programs applying relied on electronic submission and classification of applicants into segments according to specific priorities set by the Social Housing Fund taking into account VMGs as a priority ([12], page: 125, 137, 139).
In spite of the numerous housing programs in Egypt, and the increase in the current production rates of residential units, the aspect of accessibility for housing is still of concern as it did not reach the required level to keep up with population growth, as well as the low-income groups’ limited accessibility as a result of the terms and conditions related to the allocation of units according to the family income. The current social housing programs have only been able to reach between 15 and 25% of the annual housing needs of the low-income groups ([10], page: 13). While the social housing programs only managed to serve 16% of the 160,000 households formed every year below the poverty line, the better-served governorates were Cairo, Suez, and Sharqia, with a coverage of 75% or over. However, in Upper Egypt, which has a high concentration of poverty, 7 out of 8 governorates there had coverage of 10% or less ([13], Section 4).
Experts’ questionnaire results show that there is a weakness in the accessibility to housing units for low-income groups and VMGs, as well as a weakness in providing land to low-income groups through all affordable housing programs in Egypt, although there is a slight improvement in housing accessibility for low-income groups and VMGs during the current social housing programs as shown in Fig. 8.
Location
All government housing programs are based on the continued availability of costless remote desert land. In spite of many problems associated with these new housing complexes in remote desert locations, such as evidenced by their extremely slow increases in population, the dependence on the private sector in transportation and services provision, as well as limited connectivity between work location and housing project which costs people more time and money in terms of transporting between home and work ([10], page: xxii).
From the results of the experts’ questionnaire, it is noticed that the distance of housing projects from the pollution sources has been achieved because most of the housing projects in Egypt are in remote desert locations. On the contrary, the connectivity between housing projects and work locations has not been achieved enough which appeared to increase costs in terms of time and money to transport between housing projects and work. Overall, the location aspect has been achieved averagely, and the level of its achievement has not changed in affordable housing programs till now, as shown in Fig. 9.
Cultural adequacy
Most of the affordable housing projects for the low-income groups are related to the use of standard housing models that do not reflect regional climatic and cultural differences, and which result in very uniform and rigid housing estates with neither mixed land usage nor a mixing of social classes, as a result of the criteria that determine the shape and area are based on statistical data of numerical averages for the families of the beneficiaries assuming the economic and social level of the beneficiaries ([10], page: xviii).
From the experts’ questionnaire results, slight progress can be seen in the realization of the diversity in housing patterns while retaining the construction method and building materials, as shown in Fig. 10. Consequently, the aspect of cultural adequacy still did not achieve beyond the average during affordable housing programs in Egypt.