Established in the 1960s as an extension to Heliopolis, Nasr City is a 250 square-kilometer sprawl that’s so big it had to be divided into 10 subdistricts. The area today has possibly the largest concentration of shopping and food options in the capital. It is also close to the airport, and houses the International Conference Center, five-star hotels and, of course, the jewel in its crown: the ubiquitous CityStars entertainment complex.

Nasr City is without contest the mall capital of the nation, with a shopping complex of some sort on almost every block. The biggest and the best is CityStars, an expansive sea of fast food outlets, restaurants, cinemas, upscale Khan El-Khalili souq outlets, a funfair and, of course, countless international and local retail chains. A favorite day out for families and young crowds alike, CityStars boasts chains such as Mango, Benetton and Morgan. There are some high-end stores like Givenchy and Mont Blanc, as well as a huge Spinneys supermarket. The mall has become the nicest place in Nasr City to have coffee, window shop or take in a movie.

Other significant malls serve primarily as hangouts rather than shopping options. Among them are Genena, which has an ice-skating rink and multiple cinema screens, and the smaller Wonderland and El-Aqqad malls. Still coming up is City Lights, which is right beside the airily designed City Center.

Outside of the malls, Nasr City’s four main thoroughfares, Abbas El-Aqqad, Makram Ebeid, Mustafa El-Nahhas and El-Tayaran, are all major commercial high streets, with a dizzying concentration of shoes and clothing stores flanking scores of furniture shops, banks and fast food restaurants.

Although packed with restaurants and coffee shops, Nasr City isn’t exactly the place to see and be seen for the in crowd — except, that is, for CityStars.

Nasr City is also an economic center; aside from the popular malls, it is home to endless company headquarters and government offices. Traffic is generally horrendous here, particularly on the four main streets. The streets are choc-a-bloc with massive, tightly packed residential buildings that have ground floors reserved for various types of stores. You can’t get more crowded or noisy than Nasr City, but the hustle and bustle until the wee hours seem to be a perpetual attraction for residents and visitors, particularly Gulf Arabs who have taken a shine to the area over the past couple of years.

Although there aren’t many well-known schools here, (Futures, Horus and Saint Fatima stand out the most), Nasr City is just a hop and skip away from New Cairo where all the schools have smashing new campuses. There are endless nursery options to choose from and for higher education, there’s the Arab University, the Open University and, of course, the Al-Azhar campuses. The area also lies directly on the Ring Road, which means you can be in the suburbs in a matter of minutes.

The main areas in Nasr City, including the four main streets, have a lot of open real estate, with prices for a square meter ranging from LE 1,300 to LE 3,000 and averaging 220 square meters of area for a semi-finished apartment. The prices for land around the main streets range between LE 6,000 to LE 10,000 with rental prices ranging from LE 2,500 to LE 5,000. The non-central parts of Nasr City, being the far ends of the area, range from LE 1,200 to LE 1,800 per square meter of semi finished apartments with areas averaging 180 square meters. Land carries from LE 2,000 per square meter to LE 4000 with the prices of areas surrounding CityStars shooting up due to the huge investment value.  et