Palm Hills says wants Aswan money back

Egyptian real estate company Palm Hills said on Sunday it had given a company that sold its land in southern Egypt until mid-September to return money from a cancelled deal or it would take legal action.

Palm Hills bid to buy the 238 feddan (247 acre) plot of land in Aswan from Misr Aswan Tourism in 2008 but later discovered the land was the subject of an ownership dispute, spokesman Bassem El Shawy said.

The Gezirat Amoun Tourist and Real Estate Investment Company claimed it had previously been awarded the land and told Palm Hills not to purchase it, Palm Hills said in June.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a decree in June cancelling the Palm Hills contract following a parliamentary debate about the price paid for the land, state and independent media reported.

Palm Hills paid 12.6 million Egyptian pounds ($2.2 million) as a partial instalment for the land, and will take legal steps against Misr Aswan to recover that amount if the deadline is not met, Shawy said.

Misr Aswan has until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, expected on or about September 10.

Misr Aswan was not available to comment.

Palm Hills also said on Sunday it had its highest ever reservations of new units, helped by Egypt's buoyant housing demand and a new advertising campaign.

Aswan, on the Nile river, is home to pharaonic ruins that help draw millions of tourists to Egypt each year.

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