Developer offers in Egypt use their own vocabulary: down payment, quarterly installments, maintenance deposit, loading ratio, over price. Misread one word and the final figure can move by hundreds of thousands of pounds. This glossary collects the terms that come up most often in sales offers and contracts, with a short definition for each and a link to the guide that explains the calculation where one exists. Most terms also carry the Arabic word you will hear in the market. The definitions are general; the contract you sign sets the binding meaning of each item.
Prices and payment plans
Down payment (المقدم)
The part of the unit price paid at signing, usually stated as a percentage of the price. Whatever is left is divided into installments. Always ask whether the percentage is taken from the price before or after any discount, and whether it is paid at once or in parts.
Read more: Down payment and installments
Monthly and quarterly installments (الأقساط الشهرية والربع سنوية)
The payments that settle the rest of the price after the down payment, made monthly, every three months, every six months or yearly. The number of installments equals the plan's years times the payments per year, so eight years of quarterly installments means 32 payments. If the remaining amount and the years are the same, the total is the same; only the timing and size of each payment change.
Read more: Down payment and installments
Delivery payment (دفعة الاستلام)
An extra amount in some plans that falls due when you receive the unit, on top of the regular installments. It means the installments are not all equal, and you may need a large sum in a single month, especially if it lands at the same time as the maintenance deposit.
Read more: Down payment and installments
Cash price and cash discount (السعر الكاش وخصم الكاش)
The cash price is what the unit costs if you pay it in full at signing or within a short period. The cash discount is the gap between that and the installment price, shown as a percentage or an amount. Comparing the two totals alone misleads, because money that stays with you for years has value.
Read more: How developer discounts and cash prices work
Discount before or after the down payment (الخصم قبل المقدم وبعده)
Two ways of applying the same discount percentage that give different numbers. A discount before the down payment comes off the full price, so both the down payment and the installments fall. A discount after it leaves the down payment in full and reduces only what is paid in installments. The CalcRealty payment plan calculator handles both.
Read more: Down payment and installments
Price per square metre (سعر المتر)
The unit price divided by its area. The result depends on what you divide: gross or net area, and the contract price or the total cost after the garage and maintenance deposit are added. Compare two offers only on the same definition.
Read more: Total cost of owning a unit
Present value (القيمة الحالية)
What a future payment is worth in today's money, after discounting it at a yearly rate you choose, such as the return your money could earn elsewhere. Adding up the present values of every payment in a plan lets you compare a short plan with a long one, or with a cash price.
Read more: Comparing payment plans
Implied yearly cost (التكلفة السنوية الضمنية)
The yearly rate at which the present value of an installment plan exactly equals the cash price. It is the interest hidden in the gap between the two prices. If the rate you apply to your own money is higher, the installment plan is cheaper in today's money; if it is lower, cash is cheaper.
Read more: Comparing payment plans
Booking and contracts
Expression of interest, EOI (طلب الحجز أو إبداء الرغبة)
A form a buyer submits, often with a payment, to register interest in a project or phase before any contract, in return for priority when units are picked. Each developer sets the amount and whether and when it is refunded, so get those terms in writing before you pay, and remember that an EOI is not a contract.
Read more: Off-plan vs ready units
Booking amount (مبلغ الحجز أو جدية الحجز)
A payment that holds a specific unit before the contract is signed. A legal study reported by Masrawy in September 2026, which analysed more than 40 contracts, found non-refundable booking amounts that reached EGP 250,000 in some cases, and cases where buyers did not receive the contract template before signing.
Preliminary contract (العقد الابتدائي)
The sale contract you sign with the developer or seller, setting out both sides' obligations: the price, the payment schedule, the delivery date and the penalty clauses. Enterprise lists it among the ownership documents accepted when you apply to register, but it is not itself registered; registration is the next step to full ownership.
Read more: Off-plan vs ready units
Allocation (التخصيص)
Assigning a specific unit to the buyer, by number, floor and building, after booking or at signing. Check that the allocated unit's details and area appear in the contract as they were shown to you.
Registration and the registered contract (التسجيل في الشهر العقاري)
Recording ownership officially at the Real Estate Registration Authority (الشهر العقاري). An Enterprise report from September 2023 describes the registered contract, known as the blue contract, as the complete ownership document, and notes that the government amended parts of the registration law in May 2022 to simplify procedures and move more of them online.
Project account (الحساب المستقل للمشروع)
A separate bank account for each project or phase, where buyers' payments go in and construction costs are paid out. According to Masrawy on 24 October 2026, a draft law the government is preparing to regulate real-estate development would require such an account and would keep maintenance funds apart from project funds. These are proposals in a draft and were not law as of that report.
Penalty and forfeiture clause (الشرط الجزائي والمصادرة)
The clause that sets what the buyer loses if they stop paying or cancel, and what the developer pays if it delivers late. The study Masrawy reported in September 2026 found contracts where forfeiture rose to 30% of the unit price, while delay compensation was capped at 2% of the price. Read this clause before you sign, not after.
Delivery and unit condition
Off-plan, under construction (تحت الإنشاء)
Buying a unit that is not finished, sometimes before building starts, based on plans and a delivery date in the contract. It often comes with longer payment plans, but the buyer carries the risk of delay. According to Masrawy in October 2026, the draft real-estate development law would bar advertising units for sale before the project's master plan is approved by ministerial decision.
Read more: Off-plan vs ready units
Ready to move, immediate delivery (استلام فوري)
A finished unit you can receive right after signing. Being ready does not rule out installments: in July 2026 Daily News Egypt reported an agreement between the National Bank of Egypt and Ramtan Developments to market fully finished, immediate-delivery units in the New Administrative Capital with payment plans of up to 10 years.
Read more: Off-plan vs ready units
Delivery and delay compensation (الاستلام)
The handover of the unit from developer to buyer on the date the contract sets. The study Masrawy reported in September 2026 found delays of 10 years or more at some developers, and delay compensation that fell in some contracts to 0.25% a year. The draft law Masrawy reported in October 2026 proposes a grace period of up to 12 months after the agreed date, and a buyer's right to a refund if the delay passes 24 months.
Resale (الريسيل)
Buying a unit from a previous owner rather than from the developer. The unit may be finished or still under construction with installments left, which the seller passes to the buyer. The study Masrawy reported noted that an owner who resells competes with the developer itself when it offers new units in the same project with lower down payments and longer plans.
Read more: Off-plan vs ready units
Transfer fee (رسوم التنازل)
A fee the developer charges to move a contract from one owner to a new one on a resale. The study Masrawy reported in September 2026 found transfer fees of 1% to 5% of the unit's value. The contract decides whether the seller or the buyer pays it.
Read more: Total cost of owning a unit
Over price (الأوفر)
The amount a reseller asks on top of what they actually paid the developer. As Al Borsa News described it in November 2019, the buyer pays the seller the down payment and installments already paid plus the over price as the seller's margin, then takes over the remaining installments. Count it inside your total cost, not as a separate matter.
Read more: Total cost of owning a unit
Semi-finished (نصف تشطيب)
A unit delivered without final finishing, so the buyer chooses the finishing that suits them, as Al Mal described in a report on buyers' preference for such units. What semi-finished includes differs between developers, so ask for the specification list in writing in the contract.
Fully finished (تشطيب كامل)
A unit delivered ready to live in, with interior finishing done. It saves you the finishing work and its separate cost, but in Al Mal's report it was priced higher per metre than semi-finished, and its fittings may not be to your taste. Compare it with a semi-finished unit after adding the finishing cost you would carry.
Core and shell (كور آند شل)
The structure, facade and shared parts are complete, while the inside is left for the buyer or tenant to fit out. Designing Buildings Wiki defines the developer's scope here as the design and construction of the base building, with fit-out finished before occupation. Add the fit-out cost to your figure before comparing the price with a finished unit.
Areas and measurements
Gross and net area (المساحة الإجمالية والصافية)
Gross area, sometimes called the selling area, is the area you pay for, including your share of the common parts. Net area is what you actually use inside the unit's walls. Ask for both figures in writing before you sign.
Loading ratio (نسبة التحميل)
The gap between gross and net area as a share of gross area, representing the unit's share of stairs, entrances, corridors and similar spaces. In a March 2021 El Watan report, a property consultant said no law sets a cap on it. So work out the net price per metre yourself.
Built-up area (مسطح البناء)
The covered, built area of the unit, as opposed to open spaces such as a garden or an open terrace. The CalcRealty area calculator separates built-up area from outdoor and covered areas.
Garden (الجاردن)
A private garden attached to a ground-floor unit. Check in the contract whether its area is included in the price, and at what price per metre if it is charged, because developers do not all count it the same way.
Roof (الروف)
The private roof terrace attached to a top-floor unit. As with a garden, read how the contract counts its area and price, and what you may build or cover on it.
Plot coverage ratio (نسبة البناء)
The share of a plot's area that may be built on, as a percentage, set by the building rules for each area. For example, draft building rules for Cairo reported by Masrawy in October 2020 included a general condition that building coverage should not exceed an average of 60% of the plot. The app's area calculator works out this ratio.
Fees and costs
Maintenance deposit (وديعة الصيانة)
A sum the buyer pays the developer, separate from the unit price, to fund upkeep of the project. It does not reduce the down payment or the installments. The study Masrawy reported in September 2026 found contracts where the deposit reached 10% of the unit price, and contracts with no clear rules on how the money is managed.
Read more: Maintenance deposit and service charges explained
Service charges (رسوم الخدمات)
Recurring amounts, often yearly, paid after delivery for security, cleaning and upkeep of shared areas. Ask whether they are separate from the maintenance deposit or paid from its returns, and how the amount is set each year.
Read more: Maintenance deposit and service charges explained
Residents' association (اتحاد الشاغلين)
The body that represents a building's or project's owners and residents in managing the common parts. The study Masrawy reported recommended holding maintenance deposits in a separate account that earns a return, with regular statements, and handing their management to the residents' association on a binding schedule.
Read more: Maintenance deposit and service charges explained
Total cost of ownership (التكلفة الكاملة للتملك)
The contract price after discount plus everything paid outside it: the maintenance deposit, a garage, club membership, and on a resale the transfer fee and over price. Divide that total by the area to get the real price per metre.
Read more: Total cost of owning a unit
Returns and finance
Return on investment, ROI (العائد على الاستثمار)
The Corporate Finance Institute defines it as a ratio of the benefit an investor receives to the cost of the investment. For a property, that is the net gain from sale and rent divided by everything you paid. Because the ratio ignores time, convert it to a yearly rate before comparing.
Read more: ROI on a property
Return on equity, ROE (العائد على حقوق الملكية)
Net income divided by equity, in the Corporate Finance Institute's definition. For a unit, equity is its value minus what you still owe in installments or on a loan, so the return looks higher while part of the price is unpaid.
Read more: ROI on a property
Gross and net rental yield (العائد الإيجاري)
Gross yield is one year's rent divided by the unit price. Net yield first subtracts the owner's yearly costs, such as empty months, maintenance and management, so it is always lower and closer to what you will receive.
Read more: Rental yield
Cap rate (معدل الرسملة)
A property's annual net operating income divided by its current market value, according to the Corporate Finance Institute, where net operating income is income after operating expenses. It follows the same logic as net rental yield; the difference is the denominator, today's market value rather than the purchase price.
Read more: Rental yield
Mortgage finance (التمويل العقاري)
Finance from a bank or a mortgage finance company to buy a unit, repaid in installments with interest. According to the Financial Regulatory Authority's information brochure (last updated June 2021), it is governed by Real Estate Finance Law No. 148 of 2001 as amended by Law No. 55 of 2014, and the financed unit is generally subject to a first-degree mortgage in the financier's favour until the loan is repaid. CalcRealty models developer payment plans and does not model bank loans with interest.
Read more: Mortgage finance routes in Egypt
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a maintenance deposit and service charges?
The deposit is usually a one-off payment, due on a date the contract sets, to fund the project's long-term upkeep. Service charges recur after delivery. Some contracts link the two and some keep them apart, so ask the developer about both.
Can I compare two offers by the price per metre written on them?
Only if the definition matches: the same kind of area, gross or net, and the same items inside the price. Divide the total cost by the net area for both offers, then compare.
Is resale cheaper than buying from the developer?
There is no general answer. Add the over price, the transfer fee if it falls on you, and the remaining installments to what you pay the seller, then compare the total with the developer's offer for a similar unit.
Run the numbers
The payment plan calculator in the CalcRealty app takes the price, the down payment, a discount before or after the down payment and the maintenance deposit, then builds a full schedule with the date, amount and percentage of every payment. It sits alongside calculators for price per square metre, area, ROI and annual return on equity. Get CalcRealty on Google Play, free, in Arabic and English.
Results are planning estimates; the developer contract sets the final amounts.
For real estate consultants: the consultant's client questions glossary gives a short, ready answer for each term clients ask about.