After three months of living in a holiday apartment which is located right next to the wakepark Sliders in Waterside, El Gouna, and which is financially not feasible for a long-term stay – at least not feasible for us – Dan and I were looking to get our own place and rent our own apartment in El Gouna. Turns out, renting in El Gouna is not as straight forward as you would imagine.
Two months in (Egypt) and no word from the Australian visa admin (at this time we were still waiting for our Australian visa to come through so that Dan can start work remotely), we decided to stay in Gouna somewhere near the wakepark for as long as we can or actually, until Australia gives us green light and, finally, lets us in. Really no clue what time frame we’re talking – it can take one month or 12. As the time frame was so vague and since we had been able to extent our Egypt visa until January 2022, we thought the easiest would be to stay in Gouna for the time being and enjoy our time here. Easy as with a wakepark in your backyard!
Where is the best place to live in Gouna?
That’s a no brainer – right next to the wakepark of course. If you’re a wakeboarder and know Gouna a little bit, you know Waterside is the place to be. There are a couple of other areas which are fairly close to the wakepark, however, they do not seem as nice as Waterside. The Waterside compounds come with a shared infinity pool, gardens with palm trees, cacti and some nicely arranged grass bits. Also, they’re only around five years old, quite modern, light and come with a roof terrace, private garden area or a balcony. You also can easily walk to the wakepark’s dock within five minutes max. However, living in Waterside is not cheap: For a one-bedroom apartment you pay around 13000LE bills included; European prices, but that’s El Gouna.
When you look around within the Sabina and West Golf area (which also fairly close to the wakepark) – and we did look at a couple of apartments there – you’ll quickly see that distance-wise it would be an option to live there since it’s a bearable 10-minute walk to the wakepark. But, and here it comes: It would be a huge compromise. A compromise which rather feels like a lost battle. Deep down you will always know that, actually, you want to live in Waterside.
Here is the reason why: The two apartments we looked at in person and the countless ones we saw available online were old, dark and they seemed quite dirty and also, quite frankly, were just run down. The furniture looked like it came straight out of the 70s, uncomfortable and grimy. It gets even worse: The price for a one-bedroom apartment over there would still be around 10000LE (!!!) plus bills. When one of the brokers told us the rate they’re asking for, we couldn’t help but laugh out loud considering you can get a super modern nice Waterside flat for only 2000LE more. Obviously, the broker tried it on as we look like the perfect tourists/expats to rip off. Anyway, with the ones in Sabina you are able to haggle down the price a bit as we found out, but for a run-down, dirty flat which you actually don’t really want, I thought to myself the struggle of haggling is not worth the sweat, especially if we could try and get a super nice flat right in Waterside. However, finding something in the Waterside area seemed to be a bit of a struggle.
The only reason why we looked at other areas than Waterside was that there were not a lot of one-bedroom apartments available at that time. It’s a weird one, so, all the units over here seem to be sold to investors or private individuals, but the landlords either don’t want to rent them out, don’t care about renting them out, are not able to arrange to rent them out or want to use them for themselves (last one is fair enough.)
Nothing in Waterside came up when we started the search online via El Gouna Facebook groups which seems the only way of getting in touch with landlords, brokers or people who know people who might be able to help finding a place to rent who of course also call themselves brokers. What came up though was a big number of leads for places around West Golf, Sabina and A L L the other areas in Gouna, but Waterside. Even when we emphasised within a post specifically asking for leads in W A T E R S I D E the sheer number of brokers and people who call themselves brokers repeatedly kept messaging us images of places in Sabina, West Golf, Tawilla – like flats literally everywhere but Waterside. Very helpful.
When two become one lead in Waterside
After a couple of weeks, we, finally, had two leads for two one-bedroom flats in our beloved Waterside. Since in Egypt the simplest things take longer than we are used to, we got a bit nervous as our lease was going to expire soon. At that time, we were in touch with two brokers: a man called Samir and a lady called Laura (if I remember right).
Samir had a Waterside flat available for us, furnished, modern, a blue wall, balcony and a very spacious roof top terrace, three minutes’ walk to Sliders – we could have not asked for more. We really liked it and said we would like to rent it from April 15 onwards. But Samir said that there is another person interested in the apartment who will view it on the upcoming weekend. He said, that party would be able to move in earlier than us and therefore, they are a more attractive tenant to the landlord than us. As soon as I heard that, my heart dropped, I got so scared that they might take this lovely apartment right before of our eyes and we might end up having to move to Sabina or West Golf as there are so few options available in Waterside.
Then the other broker, Laura, with whom we have been in touch at the same time said we can view her property on the upcoming weekend, too. She sent us pictures and the location of the place: it’s a Waterside flat, furnished, modern, a blue wall, balcony and a very spacious roof top terrace, three minutes’ walk to Sliders – well, that looks and sounds suspiciously familiar. As it turned out, both Laura and Samir work at the same company and advertised one and the same flat. So, basically Dan and I were competing with ourselves for that apartment. Sure thing, we got it in the end, duh!
Contracts are to be broken…
When we viewed the flat which we finally agreed to, the oven wasn’t installed properly (it worked, but was put on a Styrofoam base just under the kitchen bench) and the glass cover for the lamp in the living room was missing. No biggies, you might think, as did we. It should be easy to have both fixed within a day, maybe two, if the oven needs fitting. So, we had Samir include the oven installation in our rental contract (we were not too fussed about the lamp shade). The lease papers said the oven is to be installed before the move-in date of April 15. Basically, the landlord and Samir had around two weeks to get it fixed. Plenty of time aye? Looking back at it now three months down the line, nice try of us. Nice try. This job did not get finished until last week, July 9. July 9! It took the landlord, the admins of El Gouna and the electricians three months to sort out a job which should have been done before April 15. Without us being pushy and coordinate the whole process, it still wouldn’t be done, I’m sure. Having been in Egypt now for more than six months I’m not even surprised anymore by stuff like that. I just wonder how anyone ever gets their stuff done over here in time. It really baffles me, man!
Never pay commission to a broker!
Big piece of advice when renting in Egypt
If any broker ever tells you to pay commission on a flat, run. In Egypt, the landlord pays commission on rental agreements. That’s common knowledge around here and weirdly, that seems to be the one and only rule which is commonly adhered to, too. However, some brokers obviously try it on, especially if you have a western name and look as white as us. One of them, I think his name was Ahmed, asked for one month commission if he finds us a flat. Sly bugger! Of course, I called him out. He didn’t even apologise, but rather tried to wiggle his way out of that awkward situation he put himself in. A few hours later he came back to me and said that he talked to his boss and, very generously, only for us since we’re his “good friends”, they will scrap the commission fee out of good will. Not sure when we became mates. So courteous of Ahmed. What a truly nice guy. Bullshit. When I replied to him, I said we’re not interested in doing any business with him and don’t want to proceed with any kind of communications. He didn’t even have a lead in Waterside anyway!
Getting back your deposit is a gamble
We paid a two a two-month deposit on a nine months’ lease with a one-month notice period if we want to terminate the contract early. The two-month deposit however, we probably won’t ever get back. I’m saying this because it seems to be a normal thing over here that landlords just keep the deposit after you move out, no matter the state of the property. So, either you stop paying the last two months’ rent, or you probably won’t see your money back. Sad, but this is what people who have been living in Egypt for a long time have experienced and told us. I’m not a fan of these kinda games. Not a fan at all.
So, I guess if we leave early before our contract runs out (handing in our notice in time), we lose out. If we stay until the end of our lease, we won’t pay the last two months’ rent. I’m sorry, but it just doesn’t feel right – of course I would go with it, but man, if everyone just sticks to what has been agreed beforehand people no one would have to worry. And, from a renter’s point of view there is no chance of fighting for getting the money back as there is no organisation whatsoever you can turn to. Well, there is court, but for them to get a simple case like this sorted it would take around two or three years over here. Anyway, I guess different country, different habits. I don’t have to like it.
What I do like a lot though is our flat, the balcony which we kitted out with beanbags and a homemade cardboard table, decorated with fairy lights which gives it a nice light at night. And, I love the view onto the Waterside gardens, the pool and the wakepark. A place we’re happy to call home at least for a few more months.
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