Egyptian property and tour specialists

Furnishing your Property – A Client’s Perspective proffer

Having purchased a 2 bedroom apartment with a large roof terrace I was faced with the challenge of furnishing both in unchartered shopping waters. Like most ladies I consider myself to be an accomplished shopper but with a difficult language barrier and a city full of locals all quite rightly trying to make the best of the tourist dollar, I had no idea where to start or how to get the best value for my money.

Yes the developer offered me a furniture package and it was an attractive and simple option but I found it to be rather too hotel like, apathetic and uninspiring. In fairness these packages are designed to prepare your property for guaranteed rental schemes or the like, however but from a couple of pictures they do not provide any personal touches.

If you have purchased purely as an investment and wish to rent your property full time then go for it. Do beware though, they do not come cheap and the quality can sometimes be questionable.

Ok, I have to be honest here, after all that is why you’re reading my story. I did relent and purchase a few select items from my developer, mainly beds and a wardrobe but only on the assurance from my agent, whom we will meet later, that the quality and price was very good.

Not wishing to rent full time (only the occasional private rental) and not liking the idea of spending my hard earned rest and relaxation time in a “hotel feel” apartment I opted to furnish myself!

Was I being brave or just downright stupid?

Fortunately for me I bought my property through Uncover Egypt, a reputable agent with offices in both London and Sharm El Sheikh. These people know how to look after their clients and were only too happy to assist me on my mission to furnish personally whilst keeping the costs to an agreeable amount for my husband to cope with!

Having looked in Sharm for the basics such as kitchen and bathroom essentials I was horrified at the tourist prices, I mean £5 UK for a potato peeler, that’s just having a laugh, surely!

Uncover Egypt suggested a trip to Cairo may be more appealing to my sense of value so off I went, under the protective and watchful eye of Ezat from their team in Sharm.

We landed in Cairo at 8am where we were met by a driver who then whisked us off to Carrefour where I saved an absolute fortune on the aforementioned essential items (and a massive fridge freezer at just under £400 UK). Next door to this was “In and Out” a large store full of wonderfully priced furniture; albeit some was a little too Egyptian for my taste, I did walk away with some fabulous pieces at a fraction of Sharm and indeed London’s prices. All the while Ezat did the talking for me and always managed to obtain the “Egyptian price” as opposed to the “tourist’s price”.

Next step was sheets, pillows, towels, bins and so on. For this our driver suggested a visit to a store known locally to him. Intrigued I agreed to be led by the all knowing local. We arrived at a spurious looking store in the middle of nowhere and my heart sank just a little, but nothing ventured gained I thought so I soldiered on. To my surprise what I found inside was a treasure trove of top quality goods at ridiculously low prices.

My Egyptian cotton towels put others to shame. Turns out this was a government funded department store for the Egyptian people, the long and arduous task of selection and then payment (elsewhere in the store) was exhausting but well worth the effort.

To summarise if you want to make your property a home, do it yourself. If you are happy take the easier route and spend more on a furniture package then do so, both choices are easy, mine was just a lot more fun!

For personal shopping you must engage the following:

• A sense of adventure, a permanent smile, a good sense of humour and a huge amount of patience.
• A good local English speaking guide to accompany you on your mission and for £5- £10 an hour you are insane not to.
• A decent driver in Cairo, I was instructed to pay mine just £150 Egyptian, a mere £20 for 8am to 10pm!

I ended up paying the driver £300 Egyptian pounds, after all he did take me to his home for tea where his family, who had dressed up for my arrival, promptly wrapped my purchases up in a mad amount of protective plastic for their journey through the desert to Sharm the following day.

Ezat had somehow managed to arrange a delivery truck for all of my purchases to be collected from the various stores the following day and driven to my door for just £80 UK. The driver had also agreed to meet said truck somewhere in the middle of Cairo to give them the smaller items that his family had by now become wildly protective over.

I had a wonderful time, I saved thousands of pounds and I would do it all again. Perhaps I should set up my own little business arranging all of the above for others, this is a tempting thought as I am now so enamoured with my second home I don’t ever want to leave it.

Cassandra Mason-Jones
Naama Bay
Sharm El Sheikh

Editors Note:
At the time of writing Cassandra’s costs were calculated at £7.9 LE for £1.00 Sterling

Shopping trip package

Uncover Egypt offers clients a furniture shopping trip to Cairo with Arabic speaking for £195.00 plus travel expenses. Call 0800 980 2316 or email for more details.

Furniture Packages

In Egypt most properties are purchased without furniture. This also includes no kitchen, apart from the sink and taps and no air condition or water heaters.

interchangeable

These are all purchased within the furniture packages. With our experience of seeing disasturous furniture packages that last a few weeks, especially if the property is for rental and receives hard wear and tear, Uncover Egypt have put together three beautiful furniture packages of handmade to order furniture. The packages are named Cosmopolitan, Fusion and Classic and are interchangeable.

You decide

We would suggest keeping the room package at least from all the same range as we have designed each piece within a package to work well together but if you prefer you can select any pieces from any package and in most cases there is a choice of colours. You can buy this furniture even if you don’t buy your property through us.

Prices is 120.00 per square metre fitted.

Please contact us for further details.