Sodic, one of the region's leading real estate development companies, will soon launch the first phase of Villette, its integrated community project in New Cairo, Egypt.

The project, which has been master-planned by renowned American company SWA, will comprise 2,000 apartments and stand-alone villas in a vibrant downtown area of the new satellite city of Cairo.

As a first step, Soreal for Real Estate Investment, a fully-owned subsidiary of Sodic, inked a deal with the Egyptian ministry of housing officially handing over the company's newly-acquired 301-acre land in New Cairo for the project.

The agreement was signed by Ahmed Badrawi, Sodic's managing director and Magdy Farahat, the new urban communities authority's (NUCA) vice president at Sodic's Sheikh Zayed Sales Centre, in the presence of Moustafa Madbouly, the Minister of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities.

The project, which will be developed at an investment of more than E£7 billion ($969 million), aims to create over 20,000 jobs over the span of its development.

Sodic is currently developing a number of large and diversified projects in Egypt. Its developments range from residential projects of different types to retail, commercial and large-scale mixed-use city centres in east and west Cairo.-TradeArabia News Service