Do I need a visa to buy or sell properties in Egypt?

All important info about visa, when you are buying or selling property in Hurghada.

Decided to buy an apartment in Hurghada, but do not know what kind of documents do you need make legal registration and transaction?

There are two types of transfer of ownership for apartment in Hurghada. Depending on who you buy housing from: a private person or a developer. There are also different types and degrees of registration.

If you buy an apartment from the developer, then you only need a passport and money. Moreover, even if in your passport there is only a visa waiting stamp, or the visa is generally expired, this will not prevent you from legally buying an apartment.

The reason, is that when buying an apartment from the developer, you usually sign a contract of sale in the office of the developer. And a visa is not required for this.

Some companies also signing a Toukil (power of attorney) for the new owner, in the Notary public office of Hurghada - Shara El Kari, while you do not need a visa again!

Visa is needed ONLY to the one who signing the TOUKIL (trusts-transfer ownerships), and not to whom they write out !!!

When buying an apartment in Hurghada from a private person, the scheme is about the same. The contract is signed by the seller and the buyer, Toukil is written out in the Notary by the seller. The buyer does not need a visa, but the seller MUST !!! And not just a visa !!!

If you plan to buy a property in Egypt from a foreigner, make sure in advance that he is ready for a deal:

The waiting stamp from the visa passport office is not enough for signing the Toukil. Moreover, the usual, valid visa, which is put at the airport, is also not enough. Need a rectangular resident visa. And be sure that it’s with relief! Make sure that visa passport office ( Gauazat )employees do not forget to press your visa stamp through  the press! This is very important, as employees of the Notary, before you will sign PoA, they will manually, probe the passport page with the visa!

You can get it in the visa service (Gauazate) for a period of two months from the date of arrival, on any day during the first month of stay in Egypt, only a passport is required for this. After two months, such a visa can be extended on the basis of a rental contract for an apartment in Hurghada. But extend, unfortunately, not immediately. At first, you will be given a waiting stamp, in the presence of which, your stay in the country is legal, but you cannot sign documents in the Notary or open accounts in banks of the Republic of Egypt. And in 3-4 months, if you are lucky, you can get a visa for six months.

IMPORTANT: the validity of this visa does not begin from the moment of receiving, but from the moment of application, it’s mean from the day you have been stamped with waiting shtamp. Quite often it happens that the time, when you were waiting for a visa is delayed, and when, finally, the visa is ready, the waiting period is almost equal or even exceeds the period of the visa. For example, you waited for a visa for five months, and it came only for six months. So you only have a month for notarial acts in Hurghada! That is why, most of foreigner sellers in case of resale apartments in Hurghada, finally prefer to fly out of the country, to update the visa, so as not to wait and not lose a potential client, to sale them property in Egypt.

But even here there are loopholes !!! Read about it later in this article.

There are different types of resident visas:

Resident work visa can be issued by the employer.

Resident marriage visa from one to five years can be issued on the basis of a legal marriage contract with the Egyptian (not ORFI!), or you can receive resident visa to legalize marriage if you have just ORFI contract but only once and only for 6 months.

Also you can get resident visa on the basis of the Egyptian birth certificate of the Egyptian child, if you have Egyptian child.

A resident visa can also be obtained on the basis of a ticket for departure, for a period that remained until departure, but not more than two weeks. And on this two-week visa, you can perform legal actions in the Notary Ofisse in Hurghada.

To do this, you must visit the Hurghada visa office , show a ticket, transfer a color photo and show a passport with a waiting stamp or expired visa, pay penalties, if your visa is expired and that's it !!!

The visa will be put on the same, maximum the next day. I would like to note that if you submit a ticket for departure in five days, then you will be given a visa for a maximum of a week, so it’s more profitable to show the ticket with a later date. No one will check the authenticity of your ticket, so it’s enough to reserve a ticket on one of the websites and then cancel the reservation.

It is important to know that if you don’t take off within the specified time, then the next flight will have to pay a penalty for the extra time you spent in the country, but these penalties are almost equal to the cost of a legal visa for the same period, so many sellers go this way for speeding up the deal.

There are also options for resale of apartments, when a visa is not needed neither the seller nor the buyer. Many developers, when reselling apartments in their complexes, do not register transactions in the Notary, and themselves act as a Notary for a extra fee. Moreover, it is more legal and safety!

With this re-registration, the old owner formally canceling all rights to the residential unit and returns the contract to developer. In this case new owner receiving  new contract from developer by his name, or the old contract is transferred to the new owner with a certain paper is issued (certificate, power of attorney, ownership transfer documents.... depends from the developer), confirming the transfer of ownership.

In this case, neither the seller nor the buyer need a visa!

The developers themselves are perceived as the owner, only by the owner, who is registered on them databases or system, and all official letters and receipts are sent to him. In some complexes it comes to the fact, that a new owner, who bought an apartment through Toukil, registered  in Notary office, but did not register a deal with the developer, respectively, who did not pay for the transfer ownership fees, may not be allowed enter  the project area.

The cost of re-registration of ownership of different developers is different.

For example, the company "Oraskom" takes 4% of the original cost, "Orbit" 3000 €, "Pyramisa" 5%, and this amount can reach up to 12% in different companies!

VERY IMPORTANT!

To buy an apartment in Egypt, a visa is not required to the buyer, but for the further registration of the contract of sale in court or the execution of a green contract, you must make a power of attorney for a lawyer to represent your interests in court. To issue a power of attorney for a lawyer, you need a visa! Only resident visa! And be sure that it’s pressed and relief! A visa is needed to the one who signing out the toukil (transfer his ownership), and not to the person to whom they are written out. Remember?

But this registration is not urgent, it can be done later, if the documents for property are clean. Therefore, there is nothing to worry about if you buy an apartment in the absence of a visa, if the is good option you find, and you can make the final registration later.

For more information about the various options for registering the transfer of ownership in Hurghada and the cost of renewal in different cases, please contact the specialists of our real estate agency IdealHome by phone:

 +20144502299

Mobile, Viber, What’s app.

Full legal support of sales transactions in Hurghada and throughout Egypt, EVEN if you found the buyer / seller on your own!

Secure yourself and your property in Egypt with IdealHome Real Estate RedSea!