To take us inside this new asset class, I'm joined by Amir Ismail, entrepreneur, real estate expert, and CEO of Elite Trust, whose work spans investors across Egypt, the Gulf, and Europe. Welcome to the show. You divide your time between Egypt, the UAE, and Poland, working with international property investors. When those investors look at Egypt's new fractional real estate framework, what convinces them and what still makes them hesitate?
Thank you for having me. We operate at the intersection of real world asset tokenization, sustainable commerce, and hospitality technology — bridging high-yield investment corridors between Central Europe, where we are based in Poland, the fastest growing economy in Europe with a $1 trillion economy, and the GCC, where we are based in Abu Dhabi with our Elite Trust Properties license and ADGM benefits. And of course Egypt, through our company in South Sinai, one of the fastest growing economies in Africa and the MENA region.
Since we are connecting Central Europe, the GCC, and Egypt, this is a genuinely significant triangle — geopolitically, culturally, and economically. Egypt is the fastest growing country in mainland Africa, Poland the fastest growing in Europe, and Abu Dhabi offers the regulatory infrastructure and incentives to unlock cross-border fractional technology and digital models for real world assets — from Red Sea resort villas to high-yield export-oriented agro tourism land.
To answer your question directly — investors in Poland or Dubai love Egypt's yield potential, but have historically feared currency volatility and operational friction. Egypt's new regulated fund certificate framework is excellent. It is legally secure and builds institutional trust. But it works only within that specific structure for now.
That's an important distinction — Egypt's framework currently works through regulated fund certificates on licensed platforms, not blockchain tokens. From the investor's chair, what is the real difference between the two, and is the regulated fund route the right step?
We are talking about three different models. In Poland, you have 26 blockchain technology incubators with some of the best programmers in the world — extraordinary innovation. But Poland is still launching its digital currency, perhaps by 2029, so companies cannot monetise blockchain there yet. Fintechs are establishing entities in Cyprus and Estonia instead — the ecosystem is not ideal. Abu Dhabi is different — you can monetise, you can use SPV structures, you have a clear framework. And Egypt is unprecedented. It is the first African and MENA country where you can do this with full government support and legally certified documentation. That is genuinely historic.
You are putting these ideas to work in your own project — a proposed agricultural export hub in South Sinai with an agro tourism community and a Citizen Farmer programme, where investors would receive a subplot and a cabin bundled with shares in the wider project. Where does the return actually come from?
I have to be honest — South Sinai is a sensitive area, and we are currently in the process of obtaining final approvals from certain authorities. I cannot share full details of the project yet. But at a high level — we are talking about a flagship 20,000-acre agricultural export hub in South Sinai, where water corridors sit just 10 to 12 metres below the earth. This is an area of extraordinary natural resource potential. We are confident we will get full support from the authorities.
In one phrase — what would you say to foreign investors about this opportunity?
Three words: food, water, and energy. And I would add a fourth — sustainability. These are the pillars of success. That is what this project is built around.
We would love to have you back once the approvals come through. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Thank you.
