Amal Fathi, 55, who lives alone in Alexandria's Raml district following her husband's death, received news of the constitutional court's approval of the first challenge against controversial amendments to the rent law with relief but also caution.
Fathi is among dozens in Egypt who have legally challenged amendments to the rent law that could evict approximately within seven years due to a 20-fold rent increase. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed the amendments into Law 165 in August 2025.
Fathi and others' new before Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, the country's highest judicial body, contest both specific articles and the law as a whole.
"There's still hope they won't force us out. I can't move—this is my life's home. If they want to evict me, they'd better kill me instead," said Fathi, who pays 50 Egyptian pounds ($1 USD) monthly rent.
Sherif al-Gaara, president of the Old Rent Tenants Union, described these developments as "a turning point in the battle to defend housing rights," noting that the challenges target articles 2 and 7, with another lawsuit contesting the entire law.
"Accepting the lawsuit could open the door to a new wave of challenges. This time, the ball is in the Constitutional Court's court," al-Gaara remarked to The New Arab.
Disruption
Last August, Egypt's president signed , amending provisions of Law 4 of 1996, which affects and potentially could lead to the eviction of approximately 1.6 million households.
The controversial amendments cancelled rental contracts signed before January 1996. They provided a seven-year transitional period for residential units and five years for commercial properties, placing existing contract holders at risk of losing housing rights without alternatives or legal remedies.
Some estimates indicate thatof tenants in are pensioners, with rents sometimes not exceeding 100 EGP ($2) per month.
Amal's situation—living on a small pension while paying minimal rent—resembles that of many elderly pensioners, in which any potential rent increase creates genuine anxiety and makes leaving home unbearable.
Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 64, lives with his wife in a flat rented in 1988; he, too, could be evicted within seven years.
"My pension income of 1,800 [Egyptian] pounds isn't enough for living and medicine, so how can I afford eviction or instalment payments for alternative housing?" he told TNA. He views legal challenges against eviction provisions as offering new hope, adding: "If I can't pay rent, it will be beyond my control, and if I'm evicted from home, I'll sit in the street."
From the other side of the table, Hoda Hussein, who inherited a house with her siblings in Minya governorate, argues that earlier versions of the rent law had "robbed landlords' rights," and that rent increases and permission to evict were intended to fix those issues.
"My father's house collected trivial amounts not exceeding 300 pounds monthly, while I live in a rental for 2,000 pounds in the same area," she argued to TNA.
Current legal actions before the Supreme Constitutional Court fall into two tracks: execution-dispute lawsuits seeking a temporary suspension of law implementation, and direct constitutional lawsuits challenging the law's constitutionality or specific provisions.
Al-Gaara, the union's president, explained that several cases referred from the South Giza and Benha primary courts challenge articles 2, 4, 6, and 9 as unconstitutional, with rulings expected within approximately one year.
Another lawsuit challenges the Prime Minister's decision to form specialised committees to determine residential units offered as alternatives.
"We have twenty challenges before administrative courts in Alexandria against decisions in Giza, Qalyubia and Alexandria governorates," al-Gaara said.
Regarding rent adjustments, al-Gaara noted that the previous Constitutional Court ruling "didn't specify new rental value, but discussed rent adjustment without excess or exorbitance, yet what happened in reality showed clear excess and exorbitance."
On rental value disparities after area classification, Aya Ahmed, in her early forties, remarked that committees classified her father's flat as the medium category, even though it was expected to be classified "economic," which would have raised the monthly rent to 600 pounds, despite her father's pension not exceeding 4,000 pounds.
In terms of tenants' current position until final ruling, al-Gaara remarked, "Tenants will pay only 250 pounds, no more and no less, regardless of area classification. If the landlord doesn't agree, the tenant will proceed to pay in their affiliated court."
Reluctance
Following Sisi's approval of amendments to the law, the government an electronic platform to register those seeking alternative units on instalments, but only about registered—a low percentage relative to the number of tenants.
The Tenants Union doesn't recognise this platform, calling it "doesn't offer real solutions," with many officials in listening sessions acknowledging the lack of urban reserves for building alternative units.
For his part, Al-Gaara warned of what he called "forced displacement."
"There's no urban extension in Alexandria, Gharbia, Daqahliya or Sharqia. Is the solution forcing people's displacement to distant areas?" he said.
None of the tenants interviewed initiated applications for alternative housing, hoping to address the issues through cases before the Constitutional Court.
Following the law's entry into force, several linked to conflicts were recorded.
Dr Heba Arabi, a professor of sociology and population at Helwan University, warned that the current law reveals and likely fuels social conflict, noting that the function of any legislation should be to achieve social peace and ensure justice, not to push parties toward confrontation.
She views the issue as not merely legal but simultaneously economic and social, saying, "The law was issued at the wrong time, amid global inflation, price increases and clear economic suffocation," stressing that "any attempt to displace citizens will face severe rejection and may transform from a legal crisis into a security and social crisis."
Among efforts to recalibrate landlord-tenant relations, parliamentarian intends to submit amendments to the old rent law at the start of the new legislative session, focusing on protecting tenants in residential rental cases.
Until then, the battle continues in Egypt.
This story was published in collaboration with Egab.