ABSTRACT
This chapter examines housing crises within Greater Cairo’s metropolitan gated communities. The impact of the Greater Cairo Master Plan and the New Towns Policy on the housing crisis is investigated, focusing especially on New Cairo City, to the east of downtown Cairo. The chapter uses empirical research to attempt to examine the complex reasons for the failure of various policies (for instance, the GCR Master Plan, the New Settlements Schemes, and policies for New Towns) in meeting the housing needs of middle- and low-income people. Such policies have resulted in the emergence of nearly empty new towns, and the increasing fortification of the affluent nouveaux riche within exclusive desert condominiums and gated communities, a phenomenon that has aggravated social injustice and housing inequality.
These communities’ global architectural styles and marketing strategies are linked to neo-liberal economic policies and private entrepreneurial urban governance related to individualized rights of seclusion, privacy and consumption. Influenced by expatriates in the Gulf monarchies, these desert enclaves are located in Greater Cairo’s western desert (6th October City: Dream Land, Gardenia and Beverly Hills) and in the eastern suburbs (New Cairo City: Katameya Heights, Golf City, Al Rehab City, Mirage City and Arabella). Surrounded by golf courses, recreational and commercial facilities, these luxurious residential districts tend to be ex-territorial, with their construction, maintenance and economies being largely controlled by international property development firms, locally underlining the ever-sharper social disparity between rich and poor. The relationship between spatial transformation and territorial governance within New Cairo City is expressed through the predominance of private firms managing enclosed and demarcated communities, and through the reconstruction of urban space and re-definition of public-private boundaries. The study examines the on-going contest between the local population and real estate and property speculators within Greater Cairo’s urban policy, whilst calling for a stakeholder approach to tackle the problems of housing access and vacant dwellings. This would involve public-private partnership and grass roots co-operation between tenants, resettled people, NGOs and local authorities, whilst emphasizing the significance of creating inclusive urban spaces in the context of housing and infrastructure-led regeneration.
