Heliopolis City of the Sun Under Destruction

When Heliopolis was planned in 1905, the suburb was zoned with designated areas for villas, others for apartment buildings and others for entertainment and commercial use. Restrictive zoning and adherence to certain architectural styles is what gave Heliopolis its special character that is worth celebrating 100 years later.

Heliopolis was laid out for villas, and Empain had very strict building regulations for his European-style garden suburb. The maximum built area could not exceed 50 percent of the plot, villas could not exceed 15 meters in height and no building could exceed five stories. The villas typically housed extended families and domestic staff, about 10 people on average.

Now real estate companies are looking primarily for a license for destruction. Investors are seeing fresh opportunities in the historic districts, as property values have steadily risen in the wake of the centennial.

Although Heliopolis villa owners have had the freedom to alter their properties since 2006, the demolitions seem to have picked up steam during the past year.

It seems less important to invest in restoring villas or preserving the architectural value of quiet villa districts when the reality of decentralized families and an expanding population is factored in.

In some cases, the people residing in the villas are grandparents whose children and grandchildren have moved away; they are no longer able to financially or physically maintain their home so they end up selling it to make money and move to smaller, quieter places. In other cases, as more tall buildings crop up on the street, the remaining villas lose that sense of privacy, leaving the residents little choice but to sell and move to the suburbs in search of more secluded property. Some villa owners barter with the developers to get an apartment or two in the new building as part of the sale of the villa.

Excerpted from a story by Nadine El Sayed for Egypt Today

Related posts:

1. New Hilton property in Cairo
2. An American living the rural life in Egypt
3. Cairo: New urban plan will turn the City of the Dead (Arafa) into a large public park
4. India to help Egypt in conserving a key tourist destination
5. Making Cairo's Garbage City Green

Tags: baron empain palace, cairo, city of the sun under, city of the sun under destruction, Heliopolis, heliopolis city of the sun, Heliopolis villa, nadine el sayed, under destruction

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Modern Egypt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.