One bedroom, one developer, August 2026: EGP 5,900,000 in one project and EGP 10,280,000 in another. Both sit in New Cairo, minutes apart. The gap is 74%, and it is not about the building.
Most of that difference is location and handover date. Which is why this New Cairo areas guide answers a different question from the one most buyers open with. Not “should I buy in New Cairo”, but “which part of it”.
Reading this from outside Egypt, you have a second problem on top of that one. The names in the listings do not map onto anything you can picture, and half the market uses “Fifth Settlement” and “New Cairo” as though they were one place. They are not.
Every price below is in Egyptian pounds, from an August 2026 developer sheet, and is a starting price the developer can change. Where we hold no sheet, this page says so and gives no number.
Send the district you are weighing up and your budget on WhatsApp, and we will come back with what is officially available in that band, from the developer’s own sheet.
Any useful New Cairo areas guide starts with the names
| Name | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| New Cairo | The whole city. Everything else here sits inside it or just east of it |
| Fifth Settlement | One district inside New Cairo. The best known and most serviced, not the city |
| Golden Square | An area inside the Fifth Settlement, around the North 90th axis |
| First and Third Settlements | Older districts, also inside New Cairo |
| Sixth Settlement | An eastern extension, between New Cairo and the New Administrative Capital |
| Mostakbal City | A separate city east of New Cairo, closer to the New Capital |
Three lines hold the map. The North 90th and South 90th axes, which run through the Fifth Settlement. The Mid Ring Road. The Ain Sokhna Road.
Hyde Park Central’s sales kit map puts that project between South 90th Street, the Mid Ring Road and the Ain Sokhna Road, with the New Capital direction to the east, which is a fair picture of where the Sixth Settlement sits. Travel east from the Fifth Settlement and you head towards the New Capital. Come back west and you head towards the American University, the malls and the international schools.
Crossing New Cairo end to end can cost half an hour in traffic, and millions in price.
So when an advertisement says “apartment in the Fifth Settlement from 5 million”, the useful reply is a question about the plot, not the district. Ask for the sales kit map with the project marked on it. From abroad, that map is the closest you get to standing on the land.
The Fifth Settlement: finished services, top of the price range
This is the most complete district in New Cairo. North and South 90th, the malls, the international schools, the American University, the administrative headquarters.
What you are buying: services that already exist rather than promised, compounds genuinely lived in, and an active resale market because demand keeps arriving.
That middle point matters more than it looks from abroad. A lived-in compound is one you can send a cousin to walk around on a Tuesday evening. A rendering is not.
What you pay: the highest prices in the city, and real congestion on the main axes at peak hours.
The numbers we hold for this band come from the August 2026 sheet for Hyde Park New Cairo, on the Ain Sokhna Road. Starting prices in Egyptian pounds, developer set, subject to change.
| Phase | Finishing | Handover | 1 BR from | 2 BR from | 3 BR from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greens | Core and shell | 1 year | 9,400,000 | 14,490,000 | 19,530,000 |
| Parkway | Fully finished | 2 years | 10,280,000 | 13,200,000 | 19,690,000 |
The same project has standalone villas, ready to move or a year out, from 74,200,000 to 385,000,000, on 10% down and six years.
Look at the terms, not the totals. Apartments run on 5% down, another 5% after three months, and up to eight years. Villas are 10% down over six years. Maintenance on Greens and Parkway is 7%.
Eight years is shorter than the projects further out will give you, and that is the rule under the whole market: the nearer the handover, the larger the down payment and the shorter the term. Nobody further east is being generous. You are being paid to wait.
The full sheet for every Hyde Park project, North Coast included, is in our August 2026 Hyde Park price list.
Golden Square: the name that needs a question attached
Golden Square is an area inside the Fifth Settlement, around the North 90th axis. It took the name from the number of residential projects concentrated there and its closeness to the main axes.
We hold no developer price sheet for any project inside Golden Square in the form we publish: a starting price per unit type, a handover date, a payment plan and a maintenance percentage, from official material.
So there is no number here. The figures circulating on aggregator sites for this area mix different projects, different phases and different years. In a market that moves monthly, a blended number is worse than no number, because it reads like information. Name a specific project in Golden Square instead, and we will ask the developer for the official quote.
The Sixth Settlement: the strip most overseas buyers skip
The sales kit map for Hyde Park Central places the project between South 90th Street, the Mid Ring Road and the Ain Sokhna Road, with the New Capital direction to the east.
In practice the Sixth Settlement is the eastern extension of the Fifth: closer to the Capital, quieter than the middle of the Fifth, and ten minutes or more further from the American University.
August 2026 starting prices, Egyptian pounds, set by the developer and subject to change:
| Phase | 1 BR from | 2 BR from | 3 BR from | Handover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water Residences launch | 5,900,000 | 8,900,000 | 10,900,000 | Launch phase, no date on the sheet |
| Open inventory | 6,430,000 | 9,520,000 | 11,430,000 | 3 years |
The launch runs on 5% down with instalments up to ten years. The open inventory is 5% down, another 5% after three months, up to ten years, maintenance 8%.
The cheapest apartment we hold an official price for anywhere in New Cairo is here: a one bedroom of 63 to 71 square metres in the Water Residences launch, from 5,900,000, on that 5% and ten year plan.
And here is the gap this page opened with. A one bedroom from 5,900,000 in the Sixth Settlement, against 10,280,000 in Parkway in the Fifth, same developer. The two reasons are location and handover date, not the standard of the project.
Who it suits: a budget under 7 million that still wants New Cairo and a developer of known size, and a buyer who will accept waiting three years or more for a ten year plan.
Who it does not suit: anyone whose daily life runs around 90th Street and the American University, and anyone who needs somewhere to live inside a year or two.
Torn between the two bands? Tell us where you would be working and where your children would study, on WhatsApp. The daily drive never shows up on a price sheet, and you cannot renegotiate it later.
Mostakbal City and the eastern edge
Mostakbal City is a separate city east of New Cairo. Its position, between the built city and the New Capital, defines it.
We hold no developer price sheet for it that we would publish today, and the same is true of the New Administrative Capital. That is a statement about what we have in writing, not a verdict.
How to use this New Cairo areas guide when you cannot drive the route
1. Draw the triangle of your day
Three points: where you will work, where your children will study, and the family home you would visit every week. The right area falls inside that triangle or on its edge, not the one with the best offer in it.
Then have someone drive the route in rush hour on a Sunday or a Monday. Not on a Friday, and not on a holiday visit, when the roads flatter every option.
2. Turn the gap into time and money
The difference between a one bedroom in the Sixth Settlement and one in Parkway is 4,380,000. Divide it across the years of the plan, then set three things beside it: an extra half hour a day in the car for ten years, one or two more years before you hold keys, and whatever you pay to live somewhere else meanwhile.
At 25,000 a month in rent, every year of waiting costs 300,000. If you are abroad and not moving in on handover, that rent line is not yours and the waiting is risk rather than a monthly bill. The arithmetic is in resale against buying from the developer.
3. Ask about the neighbours before you ask about the unit
In districts still being built, the empty plot next door is a project next year. Ask what is planned around the site, which roads are due to open and when, and get the answer in writing from the developer, not in a forwarded voice note.
Our honest view, and how we get paid
Services already running, a near handover and a live resale market: the Fifth Settlement, and you pay for it.
Under 7 million and willing to wait: the Sixth Settlement is the logical step before jumping further east.
A five year horizon or longer, and the stomach for a market still forming: then the New Capital and Mostakbal City belong in the comparison properly.
Keys inside a year: the shortlist ends at near handover phases like Greens, or at the resale market.
The mistake we see more than any other is choosing the district from the lowest number in an advertisement, then discovering the commute after handover. The commute cannot be renegotiated afterwards. The price can be, before.
On the fee, plainly. For primary units the developer pays it, so the price you get through us is the developer’s own price. Resale works differently, and we agree those terms with you in writing before we start. We never call the service free: the fee exists, it is just not on your side of the table.
Send us your three points and your budget on WhatsApp. You will get the official quotes available in the band that actually fits, from more than one developer, and our blunt read on the commute before the price. No obligation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between New Cairo and the Fifth Settlement?
New Cairo is the whole city. The Fifth Settlement is one district inside it, the best known and most serviced, but not the city itself. New Cairo also holds the First, Third and Sixth Settlements, with Golden Square sitting inside the Fifth. When an advertisement says “Fifth Settlement”, ask for the location on the map, not the name of the area.
Where exactly is the Sixth Settlement?
The sales kit map for Hyde Park Central places it between South 90th Street, the Mid Ring Road and the Ain Sokhna Road, with the New Administrative Capital in the direction of east. In practice it is the eastern extension of the Fifth Settlement: closer to the New Capital, and ten minutes or more further from the American University.
Why do prices inside New Cairo vary this much?
In the August 2026 sheets from the same developer, a one bedroom starts at 5,900,000 in the Sixth Settlement and at 10,280,000 in the Parkway phase in the Fifth, a gap of 74%. The reasons are location and handover date: Parkway hands over within two years, while the Sixth Settlement launch phase is much further out. All figures are Egyptian pounds and are developer starting prices, subject to change.
Do you publish prices for Golden Square and Mostakbal City?
Not so far, because we have no developer price sheets for them in the form we publish: a starting price per unit type, a handover date, a payment plan and a maintenance percentage, from official material. We do not publish figures gathered from advertisements. Send us the project name and we will request the official quote.
What is the cheapest apartment you hold a price for in New Cairo?
In August 2026 it is the one bedroom of 63 to 71 square metres in the Water Residences launch phase at Hyde Park Central, in the Sixth Settlement, from 5,900,000 Egyptian pounds, on 5% down and instalments over ten years. That is a starting price the developer can change.
Can I do all of this from outside Egypt?
Much of it. Price sheets, official quotes and sales kit maps travel over email and WhatsApp, and the sequence is in our guide to buying property in Egypt from abroad. Anything touching ownership rules, powers of attorney, inheritance or tax turns on your nationality and residency, so confirm it with an Egyptian lawyer or the relevant authority for your own case.
Tell us what you're looking for. We'll tell you what's worth it.
A short conversation about your goals, budget, and horizon is enough for us to start a shortlist. No obligation.