Mountain View Makes its Debut in the Gulf

As one of the country’s leading innovative real estate developers, Mountain View (MV) is set to bring its signature style to the rest of the MENA region after announcing earlier this year its expansion plans. Unveiling its plans for its entry into the Gulf market, MV has stated that it is seeking to replicate the success it has had in the Egyptian market by establishing communities based on the Science of Happiness.

Mountain View’s Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member, Eng. Wael Ezz, sat down with Business Today Egypt to share more details on its local and regional projects and goals.

MV has recently announced its plans to expand in the region, could you share any details?

Mountain View Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member - Eng. Wael Ezz

At Mountain View, we are seeking to explore new locations and bring our exceptional success and style in the real estate sector to other international markets this year through our distinctive and unique residential projects. Accordingly, MV recently revealed its expansion plans across the region by entering the Gulf market to build upon its success in creating communities based on the Science of Happiness.

The Saudi real estate market is relatively new, yet has a promising future with strong purchasing power. Additionally, the Saudi market is witnessing a wide urban movement, especially in major cities, and real estate investment is characterized by a wide profit margin. Therefore, our expansion strategy also contributes to the Kingdom's 2030 goals of achieving a 70% ownership rate of residential units within the upcoming 10 years.

In your opinion, what differentiates MV’s projects from its competitors in a region with such fierce competition?

If we weren’t as distinctive as we are now, the competition within the real estate market wouldn’t be as fair and varied. Mountain View contributes greatly with our individuality by working with prestigious international entities that can assist us in introducing high-end real estate projects that meet international standards on Egyptian land.

When Mountain View first entered the real estate market 18 years ago, our goal was to change the standards of the Egyptian real estate industry. We have a clear vision that constantly guides every step we take and that is to “Bring Life to Land and Spread Happiness around Us”.

MV has a wide portfolio of innovative projects, new creative concepts, and high-profile collaborations. In fact, we put together a team of renowned young minds with extensive expertise to create designs and products that can fill the current market gap and add real value to the Egyptian real estate scene, followed by a regional expansion strategy.

How would you describe Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s real estate sectors today?

The Egyptian economy, in general, as well as the real estate industry, are both dealing with the volatile global economic landscape, with Egypt’s two biggest challenges being the Egyptian pound’s sharp devaluation against the US dollar and a shortage of foreign currency.

Despite the difficulties the country has encountered over the past few years, the Egyptian real estate market has consistently demonstrated resilience and is recognized as the safest form of investment in the long run. As part of our overall strategy, MV has prepared several plans according to different scenarios which has enabled us to meet these challenges.

By implementing these strategies, Mountain View has seen remarkable progress, recording a 56% increase in sales year-on-year, bringing in EGP 31 billion in 2022 as opposed to EGP 20 billion in 2021. Saudi Arabia plays a fundamental and major role in the Middle East region, in terms of its economy and growing population of 38 million individuals. And as I mentioned earlier, the country’s focus on urban development, growing consumer purchasing power, and demand for unique high-quality real estate projects make it a prime location for MV to kick start its regional expansion.

Understanding local demand and culture is essential for successful expansions, please tell us more about MV’s regional partnerships and their role in supporting the company’s expansion strategy

We have collaborated with Sisban and Alesayi Investment Group, two trustworthy entities; Sisban is a leading Saudi investment holding based in Jeddah with global subsidiaries in the real estate and F&B sectors. In order to deal with the region’s retail clutter, we worked together to establish a new firm in KSA and introduce a fresh retail concept through the creation of a fresh Saudi brand.

Since Mountain View and Sisban collaborated to launch iCity in 2015, this is not the first time we have partnered with them and we are eager to collaborate closely with them once more.

As for our collaboration with Alesayi Investment Group, we are working to establish a joint venture company to carry out construction and real estate development in Saudi Arabia with the goal of creating integrated urban projects of the highest caliber as well as resorts for tourists.

Given the depth of experience in investment and real estate development shared by all stakeholders, these collaborations seek to promote investments in Saudi Arabia’s retail industry while also driving more cooperation and experience exchange.

With today’s economic climate and evolving consumer needs, how does Mountain View remain in touch with trends and new developments in such challenging times?

Eighteen years ago, Mountain View set out to transform the standards of the Egyptian real estate market. Since then, Mountain View has earned a reputation as an entity that does not just ride the wave—it actually creates it! This is achieved by having innovation at the center of everything we do and placing our family-like clients as our first priority.

As part of our mission, “together building a lighthouse to inspire meaningful and happy communities,” we have ongoing studies of consumer needs and demands, and have the constant goal of exceeding them.

We’ve become trendsetters in the industry by bringing new innovative concepts and products that keep up with the radical changes in the real estate market, in terms of the concepts of housing, unit designs, non-residential components, and much more.

Once more, we follow an efficient three-step plan to execute this, starting with a thorough market analysis to identify some of the consumers’ present and future needs. Second, we work with renowned global entities that can assist us in introducing premium real estate projects with international standards on Egyptian land. Last but not least, we assembled a team of renowned young minds with extensive expertise to create designs and products that can fill the current market gap and add real value to the Egyptian real estate scene, and, now, regionally.

As one of MV’s flagships, iCity continues to make headlines. How would you describe the project’s progress during the past months?

Mountain View “iCity New Cairo,” which is the most prominent example of the company’s rapid project completion rate, was successfully developed during the current year. Throughout this year, the company delivered around 1,500 diverse housing units at iCity’s New Cairo project.

I can now state with even greater pride that the company intends to surpass its previous record by investing EGP 6 billion in 2023 to accelerate project construction, broaden the scope of our projects and services, and find new investment opportunities locally and in other markets. We also intend to deliver a total of 2100 units during the current year across all our projects.

Considering iCity’s “The North Park” phase, the final phase of iCity New Cairo, it will feature 350 units spanning across 4-acres with units ranging between Millennial Apartments and iVillas, with a range of spaces that will meet consumers’ changing needs.

In addition, the North Park phase was included as part of our close attention to detail in order to offer the latest real estate products that meet changing consumer demands. Mountain View implemented the concept of Activity PODS in the latest North Park phase which are locations for residents to enjoy a quiet atmosphere away from the noise of the city and encourage them to work, study, or read in a quiet environment outside. Without the hassle of traveling far, the Activity PODs are also ideal for hosting social and sporting events and activities that will improve resident interaction and help them grow personally.

Will MV develop its future KSA projects using the same pillars that have defined iCity’s success?

The iCity project is one of our company’s innovative and pioneering Mountain View projects. It is known as the best integrated residential project in Egypt because it relies on cutting-edge designs developed by leading international companies to meet customers’ ever-changing needs and because it merged the science of happiness and the science of design for the first time in Egypt and the Middle East.

We will not rely on duplicating our projects executed in Egypt in KSA only; instead, we continue to research the market’s needs, similar to what we do when launching any project.

Through this research we are studying the market, we are investing in to bridge the gap and explore its needs. We hope to offer the Saudi market a very distinctive experience by introducing a new product to their real estate market and developing fresh and successful partnerships.

We are also introducing our latest innovative concept “Lighthouse” to the KSA market. The Lighthouse will be the first experiential happiness destination and meaningful happiness incubator initiated by a real estate developer in the KSA with the sole objective of building meaningful happy communities. We believe this new offering will be an impressive success and fill certain gaps left open in the market.

Finally, through the development of our new partnerships, we hope to deliver brand-new experiences to the Saudi market and we promise to launch a number of new innovations in the coming months.

*This article was published in our August - September 2023 issue. You can find our latest issue here