The median rent across Cairo has reached 10,000 Egyptian pounds (about $200) a month in the second quarter of this year, while the minimum wage in Egypt currently stands at 8,000 pounds ($160), as revealed in the first edition of the Cairo Rent Index, a study released by Marsad Omran (the Built Environment Observatory).
The report found a 15% rise in rents over the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, an increase it describes as “a major jump compared with the increase recorded between 2024 and 2025, which stood at 6%.”
Marsad Omran is a research and rights-focused project supporting equitable urban development; its Cairo Rent Price Index, authored by researcher Sahar Nasser, analyzes city-wide asking rents and their year-on-year development. It uses the median rather than the average to avoid distortion from exceptionally high rents in some neighborhoods.
Marsad Omran director Yehia Shawkat told Al Manassa that rents varied widely across neighborhoods, ranging from 3,500 pounds ($70) a month in Al-Marg to 31 times that figure in Zamalek.
The index draws on an analysis of more than 18,000 rental listings posted on real-estate marketing websites between January and June 2026, alongside the Observatory’s own database for 2024 and 2025, covering 26 residential neighborhoods across Cairo.
The report found that monthly rents moved unevenly over the course of 2026: they rose in 11 neighborhoods, with increases reaching 55% and 60% in Zamalek and Rod El-Farag respectively; held roughly steady in seven, including Al-Matareya, Al-Zeitoun, and Ain Shams; and fell in eight, led by Al-Salam, New Cairo, and Al-Amiriya, at 23%, 25%, and 27% respectively.
In terms of monthly rent per square meter, the report found prices across Cairo’s neighborhoods ranging from 32 pounds ($0.63) in Al-Salam to 500 pounds ($9.80) in Zamalek, a 16-fold difference.
The report noted that rent per square meter increased less than monthly rent, reaching 22% in Downtown and 21% in Sayeda Zeinab and Zamalek, which Shawkat attributed to larger residential units entering the market rather than higher prices for the same amount of space.
By contrast, the report found seven neighborhoods with stable or near-stable price per square meter in 2025 and 2026, including Nozha, the Administrative Capital, and Al-Amiriya, while price per square meter fell in four, led by New Cairo, at 31%.
The relationship between total rent and rent per square meter also helps explain neighborhood-level trends. In Al-Amiriya, for example, total rents fell by 27% even as the price per square meter remained broadly unchanged, suggesting the decline may reflect smaller units being advertised rather than a broad drop in rental prices.
The report also notes that advertised rents do not necessarily reflect what current tenants are paying.
