Where to live in Egypt
We track 4 cities in Egypt: Alexandria, Cairo, Luxor and Port Said. Average temperatures run from 21°C to 27°C. We estimate a couple needs €1,845 to €2,048 a month to live centrally. Egypt sits in our low to medium tax tier. For foreigners, long-term residency is possible, with conditions.
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- Tax tier
- Low to medium
- Moderate personal income tax
- Languages
- Arabic
- Limited English
- Safety
- 58/100
- country-level
- Healthcare
- 50/100
- country-level
- Internet
- ~50 Mbps
- median fixed broadband
The 4 cities we track
| City | Size | Setting | Avg temp | Rain a year | Est. cost a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandria | major | coastal | 21°C | 174 mm | €1,988 |
| Cairo | major | near the coast | 23°C | 22 mm | €2,048 |
| Luxor | mid-sized | inland | 27°C | 1 mm | €1,845 |
| Port Said | mid-sized | coastal | 22°C | 75 mm | €1,880 |
Source: City size from GeoNames, temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages), rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals), coast distance from Natural Earth. Cost is our model estimate for a couple living centrally.
Taxes
Egypt sits in our low to medium tax tier: moderate personal income tax. The tier applies to every city here, and couples who cap tax below it will not see these cities in their results.
Source: OurNextCity tax tiers, assigned by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation, with no fixed rate cut-offs. Coarse by design; not tax advice.
Residency and visas
Possible, with conditions. Egypt's only self-funded long-term path is investor residency via a property purchase or a bank deposit under the 2023 investor-residency decree (renewable temporary residency, not permanent residence or citizenship); there is no passive-income or retirement visa, with other routes being employment, study, or family sponsorship.
The cheapest self-funded routes we track for Egypt:
- Investment: about $50k (Egypt investor residency, lowest tier: USD 50,000 registered-property purchase or USD 50,000 bank deposit for a 1-year renewable permit under PM Decree 3326/2023 (figures set in USD by the decree); as of June 2026)
For short visits, 9 of 198 passports can enter visa-free, 119 can get an e-visa or visa on arrival and 70 need a visa in advance.
Source: OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed approximations researched against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. Not legal advice: check the official source before you apply. Short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT).