Furnished or Unfurnished Property in Egypt: What to Buy

Picture the moment. You have just bought a lovely two-bedroom flat by the Red Sea, the developer hands you the keys with a flourish, you open the door, and you find... a very clean, very empty concrete box with a sea view. Lovely view. Nowhere to sit. The only thing you can do with it is stand in the middle of the living room and say "right" in the tone of a man who has just realised there is a second budget.

That second budget is what this guide is about. In Egypt, "a flat" can mean four quite different things depending on how it is handed over, and the gap between them can be hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of tiles, kitchens and air conditioning. Get it right and you move in (or start taking bookings) within weeks. Get it wrong and you spend a winter arguing with a tile fitter in a language you are still learning. So let us sort out what to buy, what to skip, and who should be doing the furnishing in the first place.

The four states of an Egyptian flat

Property people in Egypt talk about "finishing", and it helps to know the vocabulary before you look at a single brochure. Nawy's guide to types of finishing splits units into three stages, and we add a fourth that the market uses informally.

Core and shell. Nawy describes it as the building's basic structure with its core systems (plumbing, electrical risers, air-conditioning provision) but no interior finishes: no floors, no ceilings, no internal walls, no fixtures. It is the cheapest way in and the most flexible, but it is not move-in ready and, as Nawy puts it, it demands real time and budget from you.

Semi-finished. Plastered walls, basic flooring, and sometimes rough electrics and plumbing. You add the paint, the tiles, the cabinetry and the lighting. A middle ground, though Nawy warns it can cost more up front than people expect and the standard features may not be to your taste.

Fully finished. Floors, painted walls, lighting and bathroom and kitchen fittings are done, and Nawy notes that sometimes furniture is included. You can use the flat immediately, and the total cost is more predictable, but you pay for the finishes inside the purchase price.

Furnished. The fourth state is the one the market sells informally: a finished flat with beds, sofas, wardrobes, kitchen equipment and appliances, often bought as a package. This is the one that matters most if you plan to rent the flat out to holidaymakers, and we will come back to why.

Here is the catch: these words are not standardised. One developer's "fully finished" includes a kitchen with an oven; another's stops at bare cabinets. Which brings us to the single most useful document in the whole process.

Read the spec sheet, not the brochure

Brochures show a sofa. Contracts show a list. Before you pay a deposit, ask for the unit specification schedule and read it the way you would read a restaurant bill. You want to know, line by line, what is in the price. Things to look for: the floor material in each room; whether the kitchen has units only or also a hob, hood and sink; whether the bathrooms include the mixer taps and shower screen; whether air-conditioning units are installed or just the pipework for them; the type of windows and doors; and whether there is a water heater.

The air conditioning deserves special suspicion. Along the Red Sea coast, summer highs sit in the high thirties, so a flat with ducting but no units is not "almost done", it is a flat with a surprisingly large bill waiting in the corner. Likewise, ask who handles the meters. The Real Estate Registry's guidance on registering and verifying a purchase is clear that a property is not legally yours until it is registered, and it is the same principle here: if it is not written down, it is not part of the deal. A verbal "oh yes, the kitchen is included" will vanish the day the sales manager changes jobs.

Also ask for the handover condition of any furnished unit in writing, with photos, and an inventory you can count. If the brochure says "furnished", the contract should say what, how many, and from which brand or quality tier.

The law has opinions about your sofa bed

If you are buying to let by the week, furnishing is not just a style choice, it is a legal one. According to a February 2026 briefing by Mohamed Eissa of Al Tamimi & Company on Egypt's holiday homes regime, Decree No. 209 of 2025 requires a licence for short-term furnished accommodation. Operators need a Touristic Eligibility Certificate from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and the unit has to sit in a designated tourist area or a distinguished residential compound.

The same briefing lists minimum standards, and they read like a shopping list. Bilingual signage with the property name and unit number. A working lift where the unit is on an upper floor. A kitchen or kitchenette with a fridge, stove, microwave, dishes and laundry facilities. In the rooms: proper beds, wardrobes, bins, blackout curtains, internet, a TV, a minibar, air conditioning or heating, emergency exit maps and peepholes. In the bathrooms: a basin with a mirror, hot and cold water, a toilet with a bidet spray, a shower or bath with a splash guard, non-slip floors and towel rails. Guests must also be registered through the ministry's online system.

In other words, an unfurnished flat cannot be a legal holiday let, and a furnished flat that is missing a microwave or blackout curtains might not pass inspection. The briefing does not describe penalties, so we will not invent any, but the sensible reading is that the furnishing is part of the licence. Check with an Egyptian lawyer whether your particular unit and compound qualify before you spend a pound on cushions. We cover how the licence changes the sums in our guide to holiday rentals in Hurghada and beyond.

What a furnished flat actually costs

Here we have to be straight with you: nobody publishes a neat, trustworthy price list for furnishing a flat in Hurghada, and we are not going to pretend one exists. What follows is our own working estimate for a mid-range, 85 m² two-bedroom flat, built from the Decree 209 list above. Treat it as a budgeting frame, not a quote, and replace every line with a real quotation before you commit.

Item (our estimate)

Budget (EGP)

Air conditioning, three split units installed

80,000

Kitchen units, hob, hood, sink and fridge

60,000

Beds, mattresses and a sofa bed

40,000

Living and dining furniture, TV unit

40,000

Built-in wardrobes

35,000

Blackout curtains, lighting, mirrors

15,000

Washing machine, microwave, kettle, TVs, small appliances

35,000

Linen, crockery, cookware, towels

15,000

Total

320,000

At the exchange rate of 1 GBP = 71.74 EGP (30Rates, 19 October 2026), EGP 320,000 is about £4,460. On a EGP 3,000,000 flat, that is roughly 10.7% on top of the purchase price. If a fully furnished package from a developer costs more than that for the same quality, ask why. If it costs less, ask what is missing, and then check the inventory item by item.

How fast does the furniture pay for itself?

This is where furnishing stops being an expense and starts being a business decision. In our holiday-rental worked example (the same flat, with a 3% platform fee, 20% management and cleaning of EGP 180 per occupied night), each occupied night at EGP 2,800 leaves about EGP 1,976 after those costs. Divide the EGP 320,000 furnishing budget by that and you get about 162 occupied nights.

How realistic is that? Airbtics' Hurghada market page, updated in March 2026, reports a median occupancy of 52% over the twelve months to January 2026 and an average daily rate of around EGP 2,786. At 52% a flat is occupied around 190 nights a year, so the furniture would pay for itself in roughly ten months of a good year, and in about a year and a half at the more cautious occupancy levels we use in our yield reality check. Not bad for a pile of mattresses.

The long-let comparison is much less exciting. A tenant who rents a flat for a year will usually bring a sofa and a rug of their own, and in our earlier maths a long let nets about 4.2% a year. Nobody has published a reliable "furnished premium" for Hurghada long lets that we trust, and we are not going to make one up, so ask local agents what a furnished flat actually lets for versus an empty one in your building. The honest answer in most blocks: the extra rent rarely repays a full package quickly. Furnish for the guest, not for the tenant.

What to buy, what to skip

Buy, and buy properly:

• Air conditioning. This is not a place to economise. Buy decent inverter units with a local service contract, because a broken one in July means one-star reviews by Tuesday.

• Mattresses. Guests forgive a lot, but not a bad night's sleep. Buy two good mattresses before you buy a single decorative lamp.

• Blackout curtains. Required for holiday lets anyway, and the Red Sea sun gets up very early indeed.

• Kitchen basics with a working oven or hob. The licence list expects it, and so do families with children.

• A water heater and a proper water filter. Tap water here is not something to rely on for drinking, and guests will notice.

Skip, or buy cheap:

• Expensive sofas in pale fabric. Sun cream plus pale sofa equals a conversation you do not want. Dark, washable covers last.

• Heavy decorative items. Guests break things and wind blows things off balconies. Choose light and replaceable.

• Fancy built-in units you cannot move. Flexibility is worth more than a feature wall.

• Big TV setups. One good screen in the living room is enough. Nobody comes to the Red Sea to watch television in the bedroom.

Local carpenter or ready-made package?

You have two routes. A furnishing package, sold by developers or by specialist firms, gives you one invoice, one delivery and one person to call. A local carpenter and a handful of shops give you flexibility and, often, a lower price for built-in pieces such as wardrobes and kitchens, but you manage the project.

If you live abroad, a package nearly always wins on peace of mind. If you will be on site for a couple of weeks, a mix works well: a carpenter for wardrobes and kitchen units, a store for beds, sofas and appliances, and a coordinator (a good property manager will often do this) for deliveries and snagging. Whichever way you go, get three quotes, ask to see finished work, pay in stages tied to delivery, and keep every receipt. Bank-traceable payments matter when you sell, and it is also how you prove the work was done.

Long let or holiday let: who needs what

Let us pull this together by owner type.

The holiday-let investor should buy fully finished, furnish to the Decree 209 list, and budget the furnishing as part of the purchase price. The sums above suggest it pays back inside a year or two. This is the owner who most benefits from a developer or manager offering a turn-key package.

The long-let landlord should usually buy fully finished and leave it unfurnished, or furnish lightly (air conditioning, kitchen, wardrobes) and let the tenant bring the rest. Spending more rarely lifts the rent enough to matter.

The retiree or snowbird who will use the flat for three or four months a year is the interesting one. Furnish it once, properly, to the standard you want to live in, and then decide whether to let it for the other eight months. If you might, furnish to the holiday-let standard from day one; it costs little more and keeps the door open. Our guide to buying in Hurghada has the neighbourhood side of that decision.

The off-plan buyer has the best option of all: you have years of instalments ahead of you, so ask the developer now whether a furnished option will be offered at handover, at what price, and in which quality tier. If you prefer to see the options on the table, browse the new developments on our marketplace and compare what each one hands over.

Five questions to ask before you sign

If you remember nothing else, take these five to the sales office.

• Can I have the full written specification schedule, room by room?

• Are air-conditioning units installed, or is it just the pipework?

• If the unit is sold furnished, can I have the inventory, with brands or quality tier, in the contract?

• Does the compound meet the standards for a holiday-home licence under Decree 209, and who applies for the certificate?

• What are the service charges and utility connection costs on top?

Our step-by-step walkthrough of buying property in Egypt shows where these questions sit in the wider process, and the cost headings that tend to surprise people.

The last word on furniture

The flat itself is the expensive decision. The furniture is the quick one, and the one that decides whether you spend your first week by the sea unpacking boxes or on a sunbed with a cold drink. Pick the finishing level that suits your plan, write down what you are getting, and spend your money on the things guests and your own back will actually notice: a good mattress and an air conditioner that works.

Ready to see what is on offer? Browse furnished and unfurnished flats along the Red Sea coast on Red Sea Listings, filter by finishing level, and message the owners directly. And if you already own a flat that just needs the right audience, list it with us: your future guests are looking for exactly that.