We are often asked questions about what budgets might be required to open an office or branch of a company in Egypt and what costs should be taken into account when budgeting. We have prepared for you a brief overview of the costs that you need to consider in order to open an office in Egypt and provide accommodation for your employee.
First Step
To open an office or branch, it is better to choose Cairo or its agglomeration. The advantages are proximity to government buildings, international exhibition centers, the airport and convenient transport accessibility to other cities and industrial centers.
Office rent can be found from 15,000 EGP (485 USD), however, for office rent, we recommend considering the area of New Cairo, where the cost of renting an office is higher and the final cost of rent depends on the class of the office center, the size of the office, the availability of bathrooms and other criteria. Office rental prices in New Cairo can start from 30,000 Egyptian pounds (970 USD). At the same time, a good office with 1 or more bathrooms can cost around 60,000–100,000 EGP (1,939–3,231 USD).
Step Two
After you find your dream office, you need to think about the staff. For the requirements of opening a company in Egypt, you must have one local employee in the position of manager. You can hire an office manager and offer him a salary of 6,200 EGP per month (200 USD). Do not worry, for low-skilled personnel it will be a good salary. If you need an office manager with higher education and knowledge of languages, you need to offer a higher salary. If you are looking for an employee with experience, you will need to offer a salary of 750 USD per month. But this is not so necessary for a start, you can just hire a secretary for the position of a manager and save on salaries and headhunting.
Third Step
Will your employees work at your office in Egypt? You need to understand that to start a successful project in Egypt, you will need a long-term business trip of your specialists who will build the foundation of your Egyptian business. Employees need to eat, drink, use cell phones and take taxis. In order not to guess how much money you need to lay down for the relocation of employees to Egypt, we calculated the main costs that may await them.
| Average living expenses per month | EGP | USD |
| Payment (electricity, heating, water, garbage) for an apartment of 85 m2 | 761 | 24,4 |
| 1 min. prepaid mobile local tariff | 0,19 | 0,01 |
| Internet (60 Mbps and above, unlimited data, cable/ADSL) | 435 | 13,9 |
| Rent an apartment with 1 bedroom in the center of Cairo | 4900 | 156,8 |
| Rent a 1 bedroom apartment outside the center of Cairo | 3000 | 96 |
| Rent an apartment with 3 bedroom in the center of Cairo | 9 600 | 307,2 |
| Rent a 3 bedroom apartment outside the center of Cairo | 5 800 | 185,6 |
The table shows the average prices for renting an apartment in Cairo, so the more comfortable the housing conditions, the higher the price, and vice versa, you can save on an apartment for your employees. If you take an apartment outside the center of Cairo with 1 bedroom for 3000 Egyptian pounds, add utility bills of 761 Egyptian pounds, add internet 435 and an approximate cost of a mobile phone of 220 Egyptian pounds, we get 4416 Egyptian pounds per month for housing.
Step Four
Just as a car needs gasoline, so a person needs food. Your employees need something to eat to do their job effectively. We have calculated the average food prices in Cairo for you.
| Average food prices | EGP | USD |
| Milk, (1 liter) | 28 | 0,9 |
| Loaf of fresh white bread (500 g) | 16 | 0,5 |
| Eggs (12 pcs.) | 40 | 1,3 |
| Local cheese (1 kg) | 102 | 3,3 |
| Water (1.5 liter bottle) | 6,3 | 0,2 |
| Bottle of wine (medium quality) | 200 | 6,4 |
| Local beer (bottle 0.5 l) | 35 | 1,1 |
| Imported beer (bottle 0.33 l) | 57 | 1,8 |
| Pack of cigarettes | 53 | 1,7 |
| Chicken breasts (without skin and bones) – (1kg) | 137 | 4,4 |
| Apples (1 kg) | 31 | 1 |
| Oranges (1 kg) | 10 | 0,3 |
| Potatoes (1 kg) | 10 | 0,3 |
| Salad | 6,6 | 0,2 |
| Rice (white) (1kg) | 20 | 0,6 |
| Tomato (1 kg) | 9 | 0,3 |
| Bananas (1 kg) | 16 | 0,5 |
| Onion (1 kg) | 8,4 | 0,3 |
| Beef meat (1 kg) | 226 | 7,2 |
| Pears (1 kg) | 37 | 1,2 |
| Cucumber (1 kg) | 5 | 0,2 |
| Perrier water (bottle 0.33l) | 4,3 | 0,1 |
| Sausages (1kg) | 171 | 5,5 |
| Curd (1kg) | 146 | 4,7 |
Based on the prices and required calories for your employee, we roughly calculated how much money it might take to feed one employee in Cairo.
| Recommended minimum amount of money for food (2400 calories/day) | |
| Milk, (0.25 l/day) | 208,8 |
| Loaf of fresh white bread (125.00 g/day) | 130,8 |
| Rice (white), (0.10 kg/day) | 65,4 |
| Eggs (2.5/day) | 267,3 |
| Local cheese (0.10 kg/day) | 322,2 |
| Chicken fillet (0.15 kg/day) | 683,1 |
| beef meat (0.15 kg/day) | 1071 |
| Apples (0.30 kg/day) | 292,8 |
| Banana (0.25 kg/day) | 120,9 |
| Oranges (0.30 kg/day) | 94,2 |
| Tomato (0.20 kg/day) | 54,3 |
| Potatoes (0.20 kg/day) | 60,9 |
| Onions (0.10 kg/day) | 27,3 |
| Salad (0.20 heads/day) | 40,5 |
| TOTAL PER MONTH | 3439,5 |
| USD | 110 |
We also looked at the taxi rates in Egypt for you, as your employees will have to move around:
| Districts of Egypt | Starting, EGP | Starting, USD | Cost of 1 km, EGP | Cost of 1 km, USD | Waiting hour cost, EGP | Waiting hour cost, USD |
| Al Jizah | 7 | 0,22 | 3 | 0,1 | 25 | 0,8 |
| Alexandria | 10 | 0,32 | 5 | 0,16 | 50 | 1,6 |
| Cairo | 10 | 0,32 | 4 | 0,13 | 28,5 | 0,91 |
| Giza | 7,5 | 0,24 | 5 | 0,16 | 30 | 0,96 |
| Hurghada | 10 | 0,32 | 6,5 | 0,21 | 25 | 0,8 |
| Sharm El Sheikh | 10 | 0,32 | 6 | 0,19 | 15 | 0,48 |
| Sheikh Zayed | 10 | 0,32 | 3 | 0,1 | 21,5 | 0,69 |
Final budget calculations
To summarize, the approximate minimum budget that you need to lay in order to open an office in Egypt will be:
1) Office rent – 30,000 EGP * 12 = 360,000 EGP (11,631 USD);
2) Secretary (local employee) – 6,200 EGP * 12 = 74,400 EGP (2,404 USD);
3) Housing for an employee (employee relocation) – 4,416 EGP * 12 = 52,992 EGP (1,712 USD);
4) Employee food costs (employee relocation) – 3,439 EGP * 12 = (1,333 USD);
5) Taxi costs (travel from home to work and back) – 3,500 EGP *12 = (1,357 USD);
6) The cost of maintaining the company’s current account in the Egyptian Bank – 20 USD * 12 = 240 USD.
TOTAL: 18,677 USD budget for a year of office maintenance with 1 local employee and one of your employees (employee relocation).
The calculations show only fixed costs, without the cost of office furniture, cars, the cost of opening a company in Egypt and others.
If you want to get more detailed information, our team is always ready to help you.
