Housing policy in Egypt
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10280425 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gil Feiler (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 295-312 |
| Publication date | 1992-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle Eastern Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-3206 • E-ISSN: 1743-7881 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00263209208700902 |
| OpenAlex | W2081559234 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 8 |
Pressures of urban growth have led to interest in the establishment of New Towns in Egypt. This paper analyses the construction of New Towns, and their possible contribution to the housing and demographic crisis in Egypt. Egypt has a total land area of roughly one million square kilometres. However, Egypt's habitable area is only 38,500 km2, located mainly along the Nile River and in its Delta. The population growth rate is high, but the cultivated area has increased only marginally. By 1978 each feddanl was expected to support 3.5 persons, compared with 2.1 persons in 1947. In spite of the sharp increase in emigration in the past two decades2, population pressures against a relatively fixed land base are likely to continue to exert a strong influence on the course of economic development in Egypt. The housing exigency in Egypt is related to the demographic dilemma. The population doubled during the period 1897-1947, and nearly doubled once again during the succeeding thirty years (1947 and 1976). The 1986 census reveals that the total population was 50.5 million3; in mid-1990 the population was estimated to be 56 million people and is expected to reach 76 million by the year 2000. The growth rate which was 1.5 per cent at the beginning of the century increased to 2.5 per cent in the 1950s. After having decelerated steadily over the period 1960-72, the growth rate stood at 2.8 per cent in the 1980s. The high rate of population growth coupled with limited land created one of the highest population density rates in the world 1,170 inhabitants per square kilometre.4 Conditions are particularly severe in the two large urban centres: Cairo has a density of 26,148 inhabitants per km2. In Bab al-Sharia (a poverty-stricken neighbourhood in Cairo) the density reached in 1986 a figure of 132,000 inhabitants per km2. In Alexandria, where the average density is 1,088 inhabitants per km2, the slum areas have also a hige density (152,000 inhabitants per km2 in the Goumruk area).5 The urban population is increasing much faster than the population of Egypt as a whole.6 Between 1947 and 1960, Egypt's population grew at a rate of 2.4 per cent annually, while the urban areas grew at a rate of 4.2 per cent. The percentage of the total population residing in urban areas
Development economics · Economics · Political science · Housing Market and Economics · Urban and Rural Development Challenges
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2022 (27) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |