Women around the world face significant challenges in realizing their right to adequate housing. Some obstacles are rooted in explicitly discriminatory laws, while others arise from laws and policies that, although not overtly discriminatory, fail to consider women’s specific circumstances. In addition, persistent customs biased against women further hinder their access to secure housing. These realities mean that any fundamental changes to housing policy raise important questions about their impact on women from different social groups. In Egypt, such concerns are especially pressing in light of the authorities’ dismantling of the old rent (rent control) system with the issuance of Law No. 164 on 4 August 2025.
The African Charter on the Rights of Women defines the right to adequate housing as women’s right to equal access to housing and to acceptable living conditions in a healthy environment, regardless of marital status. Adequate housing also includes affordability, access to services and facilities, and habitability. It is closely linked to civil rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of association, and protection of privacy. From this perspective, this article examines the relationship between women and housing in the context of recent legislative changes, and the potential impact on women’s right to adequate housing.
Historical Background
Egypt’s rent control system began as a temporary measure in 1920, renewed annually before returning to free contracting in 1925. However, during the Second World War, the legislature reintroduced restrictions through temporary laws in 1941 to prevent rent increases and protect tenants from eviction. This culminated in Law No. 121 of 1947—the first comprehensive and stable legislation governing rent control, without a fixed period limiting its validity.
After the establishment of the Republic and the adoption of a socialist-oriented socio-economic system, the authorities in the 1960s reinforced rent control through further legislation. These new laws reduced rents and allowed contracts to be extended across generations. Despite a shift toward economic liberalization under Presidents Sadat and Mubarak, the rent control system persisted and was even reinforced by Law No. 49 of 1977 under Sadat and the Unified Rent Law No. 136 of 1981 under Mubarak.
The dismantling of rent control and the move toward liberalization began with Law No. 4 of 1996 (popularly known as the new rent system). As a result, tenants under the old rent system became a fixed, non-increasing group in Egyptian society. The Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) then issued two important rulings, in 1997 and 2002, which restricted the legal extension of leases to a single generation, signaling that the system would disappear within a generation. Another major change came in 2018, when the SCC declared old-rent contracts for legal entities unconstitutional; all such units are now set to be fully liberalized by 2027.
Consequently, old-rent tenancies have been steadily diminishing in Egypt: in 1986, 29% of households lived in units under the old rent system (at that time there was no distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ rent; all rental housing fell under the former system), but by 2017, this proportion had declined to just 7%. In November 2024, the SCC ruled that permanently freezing rental values was unconstitutional and called for new legislation. The government responded with Law No. 164 of 2025, which not only raised rental values but also set a transitional period—seven years for residential units and five years for non-residential units—after which all old-rent contracts would be liberalized or terminated. The law also invited occupants to apply for alternative state-provided housing and introduced new grounds for eviction before the end of the transitional period.
Women in Different Tenure Forms
Globally, women tend to have less security of tenure than men. In many countries, “the husband is automatically given the status of head of household, with implications for women’s control over the marital property during the marriage or upon separation or divorce. In the absence of joint title or secure tenure, many women are expelled from their home or land upon separation or divorce.”
In Egypt, there are no available statistics on the proportion of women tenants—that is, cases where the rental contract is in a woman’s name—under either the old rent system or the new one. However, data on ownership provides some insight: 14% of Egyptian households are female-headed (World Bank), yet only 5% of women in Egypt own assets (either alone or jointly), compared to 95% of men. “[O]nly 5% of ever-married women of age between 15-49 are homeowners”. The share of Egyptian women with tenure over agricultural land is around 3%, a proportion lower than in other Arab countries and far below the global average of about 20%.
By analogy, we can expect that in most Egyptian households living in rented accommodation—whether under the old rent system or in new rent housing—the rental contract is in the man’s name rather than the woman’s. This is due to a combination of economic factors (income and wealth gaps between women and men); legal factors (an inheritance system that differentiates between women and men); and social and cultural factors, whereby the man is expected, prior to marriage, to provide the dwelling.
Consequently, if rental contracts are, in any case, predominantly in men’s names, what do women stand to lose, in terms of their right to adequate housing, from the elimination of what remains of the old rent system? And are the other housing arrangements currently existing in Egyptian society women‑friendly?
Rents Following the Liberalization of Rental Relations
With the liberalization of tenant–landlord relations, women who seek to rent new housing under the new system face significant challenges. One major issue is instability: fewer than one-third of contracts last more than five years, and “the most popular term is between one and three years.” There are no regulations controlling rent values or contract duration—these are left entirely to supply and demand. Other obstacles include landlords refusing to issue written contracts, abruptly terminating agreements, demanding rent increases during the contract period, or insisting on locations that may require women to “change their lifestyle, travel patterns, and sometimes even their clothing.”
Customary interventions and cultural biases against women’s housing—particularly for single women living independently, whether or not they have children—are widespread and well-documented. These prejudices have at times resulted in crimes of violence against women tenants, especially in lower- and middle-class areas. Personal status laws, which deprive divorced women and their children of secure tenure in the marital home, intersect with the weakness of legal and policing frameworks for preventing violence against women and with the chaos of the market rental sector, further undermining unmarried women’s access to stable housing. In short, we can confidently say that the new rent system is hostile to women, whether in terms of security of tenure, affordability, or freedom and safety.
Gender Wage Gap
A clear gap exists in monthly income between men and women in Egypt, largely due to women’s low participation in the labor force. According to a 2024 World Bank report, women’s labor force participation does not exceed 18%, compared to 73% for men.
The gender wage gap per hour is approximately 4%. However, this gap jumps to over 20% when monthly income is considered, as women generally work fewer hours than men due to family responsibilities and care burdens. Even after controlling for factors such as education and experience, the wage gap remains significant—ranging from 13% to 26%. The disparity is especially sharp in the private sector, where women earn about 38% less than men, compared to a 19% gap in the public sector. When factoring in women who are not part of the labor force, the actual monthly income gap increases to around 46%, revealing the true extent of economic inequality between men and women.
Therefore, even if men and women had equal access to alternative housing and faced no legal obstacles, women’s ability to afford housing costs remains much lower than men’s for the same housing unit.
Unmarried Women
The old rent (rent control) laws in Egypt did not contain any provisions specifically addressing women, but the system was profoundly family-oriented. As the courts have stated, “the lease of a dwelling is of a familial character, in which the tenant includes the members of his family.” This framework ensured stability for women living with their husbands, but what about unmarried women?
Women in the tenant’s family—whether wife or daughter—were entitled to remain in the dwelling, provided they had been living there during the tenant’s lifetime. This contrasts sharply with the new rent system, under which the tenancy ends with the expiration of the contract, and even with homeownership, where inheritance rules apply regardless of whether the heir had been living with the deceased.
For custodial divorcees, for example, a divorced woman with custody of the children automatically acquires the right to remain in the marital home with her children for the duration of the custody period. Under the new rent system, however, the custodial mother must go to court and claim a housing allowance (ʾajr al‑maskan) from the father once the lease expires—an issue that has sparked debate among tenant groups about the fate of custodial mothers.
Even in old-rent contracts for non-residential purposes (such as commercial and administrative uses), the extension of leases retained a family character: a 1997 SCC’s ruling determined that business partners did not have the right to benefit from lease extensions, which were instead reserved for sons and spouses who had participated in the same business activity as the tenant.
Thus, the abrupt dismantling represented by Law No. 164 threatens to deprive a segment of women of stable housing, against a backdrop of uncertain alternatives at best, and under conditions of vulnerability characterised above all by advanced age, low income, and employment in the informal sector.
Is Homeownership an Appropriate Alternative?
The private-sector homeownership market in Egypt, like the new rental market, is governed by supply and demand, with no regard for social considerations in pricing or allocation. Against the backdrop of rising construction costs and the effects of macroeconomic policies, housing prices have been increasing sharply. The private sector dominates real estate development, accounting for about 86% of projects up to the last quarter of 2023. For example, the average asking price for apartments in 2023 rose by 38% compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, millions of privately owned units remain vacant, whether sold or unsold, and the state lacks the legal means or policy tools to compel owners to occupy, rent out, or sell these units.
In 2014, the One Million Unit housing project was launched to target low-income groups. Government social housing programs now include gender-related criteria in allocation, giving priority to female-headed households and including single women among eligible beneficiaries. As a result, the share of women benefiting from the program rose from 8% in 2014 to 27% in 2020.
However, women face several problems in this area. Some challenges are shared with men (such as delays), but others are exacerbated by gender. Affordability remains a significant barrier due to the gender wage gap and the rising prices of units in social housing programs, which often do not match the incomes of the target groups. Funding is also difficult for people working in the informal sector—a large segment of Egypt’s workforce, particularly women, 58% of whom work informally and are thus unable to benefit from these programs and other financial services.
Location is another key issue. Most old-rent apartments are found in older districts of the urban centers of various governorates, while social or state housing projects are typically built “in areas far from beneficiaries’ workplaces and daily routines.” Consequently, residents will be uprooted from their usual social environment, whether they are widowed, married, or single women whose rental contracts were extended from their parents.
Eviction Violence
Another critical dimension of the dismantling process is the potential for violence accompanying evictions once the seven-year transitional period lapses. Egypt has previously experienced similar turmoil in 1997, when agricultural lease contracts were liberalized. That period saw widespread protests across rural areas, with security forces intervening to evict tenants and return land to owners, resulting in deaths, injuries, arrests, not to mention the potential for communal violence between landlords and tenants.
The United Nations has noted that “the impact of these forced evictions… is profoundly devastating for women and is correlated with heightened rates of physical, psychological, and economic violence against women before, during, and after the evictions.”
Finally
Many tenants are hoping that the SCC will declare the new law void and unconstitutional, especially the provision on liberalizing the rental relationship. However, I am not optimistic, given the SCC’s track record of prioritizing property rights over social considerations. In my view, what is needed now is strong, organized pressure from old-system tenants—women foremost among them—to push the political authorities to reconsider their position.
The authorities have passed legislation dismantling what remained of the rent control system without providing reliable alternatives to guarantee people’s right to housing. The shift toward a completely free and unregulated housing market—and the elimination of the “old rent” system—further threatens women’s right to adequate housing in Egypt. It dismantles a traditional “patriarchal” social arrangement without providing a social and emancipatory alternative, or even a viable market-based option that the majority of women can realistically access.
