One of Egypt’s largest fintech firms, MNT-Halan, is making a significant play for the country’s real estate market. The non-bank financial services giant has partnered with asset manager Azimut Investments to launch the “Halan-Azimut Real Estate Investment Fund,” the first digital platform for fractional property ownership approved by Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA).
The move signals a major convergence of fintech and proptech in the region. It aims to lower the barrier to real estate investment — traditionally a capital-intensive and illiquid asset class — by allowing retail investors to purchase and trade fund units representing fractional ownership in a portfolio of properties.
The Digital REIT Explained
The new platform, which has received final approval from the FRA’s FinTech Committee, will function as Egypt’s first licensed digital Real Estate Investment Fund (REIF).
Unlike traditional real estate investment, which requires purchasing an entire property, the Halan-Azimut fund will allow individuals to buy small stakes. These investments will be accessible through licensed digital applications, including MNT-Halan’s app, Azimut’s Azinvest, and the brokerage platform Thunder.
This initiative is the first to be greenlit under the FRA’s new framework (Resolution №125 of 2025), which was specifically designed to regulate digital REIF platforms, protect investors, and foster growth.
The fund’s board signals its high-level backing, chaired by MNT-Halan CEO Mounir Nakhla and including Azimut Egypt CEO Ahmed Abu El Saad. The board also features independent members Hassan Allam, a heavyweight from one of Egypt’s largest construction and development families, indicating strong ties to the physical real estate sector.
“We are continuously expanding our offerings… aimed at empowering our clients to invest and build their wealth,” said Nakhla, framing the launch as part of MNT-Halan’s broader financial inclusion strategy.
Ahmed Abu El Saad of Azimut added, “By combining our expertise with MNT-Halan’s technology… we will be able to create more opportunities for Egyptians to participate in the growth of the real estate sector.”
The fund is planned as a multi-issue vehicle, with different tranches set to invest in a diverse range of assets, including residential, commercial, and administrative properties. Azimut will serve as the fund manager, with Banque du Caire acting as custodian.
The Regulator’s Role
This approval is not a standalone event but the culmination of a deliberate push by the FRA to formalise Egypt’s booming, and at times unregulated, proptech sector.
For the past few years, various platforms have offered forms of fractional real estate investment, often operating in a regulatory grey area. The FRA has been actively meeting with these platforms and major real estate developers to bring them under a new, formal licensed structure.
The Halan-Azimut approval is the first major outcome of this standardisation effort. The FRA’s framework aims to create a transparent environment where digital platforms can operate safely, and crucially, allows real estate developers to present their projects to investors through these new licensed channels, potentially unlocking a new source of capital.
A Different Model
The Halan-Azimut digital REIT is not the only high-profile financial innovation in Egyptian proptech. It follows closely on the heels of a sophisticated deal by proptech marketplace Nawy.
Last month, Nawy, in partnership with asset manager Synergy Capital, launched and closed an oversubscribed EGP 443 million ($9 million) mortgage-backed fund.
This is a fundamentally different financial product.
- Halan-Azimut (REIT): Offers investors equity in a fund that owns properties. Returns come from rent and asset appreciation.
- Nawy (Securitisation): Offers investors a debt product. The fund buys a portfolio of mortgages originated by Nawy’s “Move Now, Pay Later” financial arm. Returns come from the mortgage repayments.
Nawy’s move is a clear example of a proptech platform acting as a financier. By originating mortgages and then selling them to a fund, Nawy unlocks its capital, allowing it to finance more home purchases without tying up its own balance sheet.
Significantly, Nawy’s fund was also a market-first, securitising an Ijarah (an Islamic-finance lease-to-own structure) portfolio and making it accessible to qualified individual investors, not just institutions.
“This fund proves… how a proptech platform can directly shape financial innovation by bridging real estate with capital markets,” said Amr Malek, CFO of Nawy, at the time of the launch.
Two Sides of a Fintech-Proptech Coin
Together, the Halan-Azimut and Nawy deals show a clear maturation of the Egyptian proptech market. Startups are moving decisively beyond simple listings and marketplaces into complex, embedded financial services.
While one (Nawy) is creating a capital-recycling engine for mortgage debt, the other (MNT-Halan) is creating a retail-focused platform for property equity.
Both initiatives, however, share two common threads: they leverage technology to open a traditionally closed asset class to a wider investor base, and they are doing so with the direct guidance and approval of a regulator intent on fostering innovation within a structured framework.