The 2025 rent law for tenants in Egypt: your rights, rent increases and notice

First, which kind of lease do you have?

Egypt has two rental systems, and the 2025 laws treat them very differently. Look at the date your lease began.

Any lease you sign today is a new-rent lease. If that's you, read the next three sections. If you hold an old-rent home, skip to old rent.

New rent: your contract is the law

Law 4 of 1996 applies the Civil Code to every home that was never let before, or whose old lease ended with nobody left with a right to stay, furnished or unfurnished. Article 147 of the Civil Code then says a contract is the law of the parties: it can't be cancelled or changed except by agreement, or for reasons the law sets. For you, that means:

• The term is what you agree. If the lease names no term, or the term can't be proven, it counts as running for one rent period at a time, such as a month (Article 563).
• Increases follow the contract. The law sets no cap on new-rent increases and no standard rise. A landlord can't raise your rent mid-lease unless the contract says so. If yours has no increase clause, the rent stays as written until the term ends.
• The rent can change at renewal. When the term ends, the landlord can offer a new lease at a new rent, and you can say no.
• Subletting is allowed unless the contract forbids it. Article 593 lets you sublet or assign the lease unless you agreed otherwise. Banning one bans the other (Article 594).

When a new-rent lease ends: notice, renewal and eviction

• A fixed-term lease ends on its end date, with no notice needed (Article 598).
• If you stay on with the landlord's knowledge and no objection, the lease renews on the same terms but with no fixed term (Article 599). If either side has already given notice, staying on doesn't count as a renewal (Article 600).
• A renewed lease ends with notice under Article 563:

• Since August 2025, a faster route to evict at the end. Law 165 of 2025 added Article 2 bis to Law 4 of 1996: when the lease ends, the tenant must leave and hand the home back. If you don't, the owner can ask the summary judge (qadi el-umur el-waqtiya) at the court where the home is for an eviction order. You can still bring a full case, but it doesn't suspend the order.
• A notarised lease is enforceable on its own. Under Law 137 of 2006, a new-rent lease notarised with both parties present has the force of an enforceable instrument for its terms and its ending.

In practice: agree any renewal and its new rent in writing well before your end date, and don't assume you can stay on while you look.

Your rights during a new-rent lease

• Repairs. The landlord must keep the home in the condition you received it in and do all necessary repairs, but not the small "tenant's repairs" that custom puts on you (Articles 567 and 582). If the landlord delays after a formal notice, a court can let you do the work and deduct the cost from the rent; for urgent or minor repairs that are the landlord's job, you can do this without a court if the landlord doesn't act in reasonable time after notice (Article 568).
• If the home is sold. Your lease binds the new owner only if it has a certain date earlier than the sale (Article 604). If it doesn't, the new owner can still only make you leave after notice under Article 563 (Article 605). Certifying your lease's date at a notary office of the Real Estate Registry gives you that protection; since Technical Circular 29 of 2023, new-rent leases can be dated at any connected office, wherever the home is.
• If your job moves you. An employee whose work requires a change of residence can end a fixed-term lease on their home early, giving notice under Article 563, and any clause saying otherwise is void (Article 609).
• If the tenant dies. A lease doesn't end with the death of the tenant or the landlord. The heirs can ask to end it within six months if the rent has become too heavy for them or the home is more than they need, giving notice under Article 563 (Article 601).
• If the landlord says you broke the contract. To end the lease for a breach, such as unpaid rent, the landlord must first give you formal notice and then ask a court, which can give you time to pay (Article 157), unless the contract says it ends automatically on a breach (Article 158, and even then formal notice is needed unless the contract expressly waives it) or the lease is notarised with executory force.

Old rent: what Law 164 of 2025 changes for you

The law was published in the Official Gazette on 4 August 2025 and took effect the next day. It covers homes, and non-residential units let to individuals, under Laws 49 of 1977 and 136 of 1981. Non-residential units let to companies follow a separate law, Law 10 of 2022.

• Your zone is set by your governorate. Committees formed by each governor classify areas as prime, medium or economic (Article 3). Until the committees finish, the tenant pays EGP 250 a month; any difference is then paid in monthly instalments over a period equal to the one it built up over, starting the day after the governor's decision is published (Article 4).
• You can be evicted earlier in two new cases: if you, or whoever the lease passed to, left the home closed for more than a year without a reason, or if you own another unit usable for the same purpose. The grounds in Article 18 of Law 136 of 1981 still apply too. If you refuse to leave, the owner can ask the summary judge for an eviction order; a full case you bring doesn't suspend it (Article 7).
• You can end it sooner by agreement with the landlord at any time (Article 2).
• You can apply for a state home, to rent or to buy, before your lease ends, with an undertaking to hand back your current home once the new unit is allocated and received. The state must allocate homes to the original tenant, and to a spouse the lease passed to before the law, at the latest a year before the seven years run out (Article 8). The Cabinet sets the rules and deadlines: check the current ones with the Ministry of Housing or on the Digital Egypt portal.
• The old laws go in 2032. Laws 49 of 1977, 136 of 1981 and 6 of 1997 are repealed from the day after seven years pass from the law's start (Article 9).

If the Supreme Constitutional Court rules on any part of these laws, its ruling is published in the Official Gazette and binds everyone. Check for one before you act on a deadline.

What the 2025 laws don't change

• A new-rent lease keeps its rent and its term. Law 164 sets no rent and no increase for leases under the Civil Code.
• An old-rent lease doesn't end now. Unless one of the eviction grounds applies or you agree to leave, you keep your home until the transition ends.
• You keep your day in court. The summary judge's order is quick, but you can still bring a full case before the competent court.

Your checklist

• Check when your lease began to know if you're on new rent or old rent
• New rent: read the term, the end date and the increase clause, and diary a reminder well before the end
• New rent: check the subletting clause and any clause that ends the lease automatically
• New rent: certify your lease's date at a Real Estate Registry notary office
• Keep every rent receipt and every written notice
• Old rent: find your zone in your governor's decision and check the rent you're asked for
• Old rent: if you want a state home, check the current deadline and apply in time
• Ask a lawyer before you sign anything about leaving, or if you receive a court order

When you're ready to move, search homes on Feinh: every one is checked before it goes live.

General information from official sources, checked on 31 October 2026. Not legal advice; for your own case, ask a lawyer or the office named above.