Before you lease a warehouse in Egypt: 14 things to check yourself

Most problems in Egyptian warehouse leases come from the tenant measuring only the floor area. Area is the easiest number and the least important. Below is the order in which we actually inspect a warehouse.

The building itself

• Clear height to the underside of the truss, not to the roof peak. The difference can be a metre and a half, and it decides how many racking levels you get.
• Floor loading in tonnes per square metre. If you are installing heavy racking, get the figure in writing. Inspect the slab itself too: cracks, falls, level.
• Column spacing. Columns through the middle reduce usable capacity far more than people expect.
• Roof insulation and ventilation. An uninsulated warehouse in an Egyptian summer becomes an oven, which affects both stock and staff.
• Water ingress: look for staining on the slab and at roof joints, and if you can, inspect after a day of rain.

Movement and operations

• Loading docks: how many doors, dock-height or ground-level, and whether they have levellers.
• Turning yard: measure the distance in front of the doors. A full articulated trailer needs real turning space, and there is no fix if it is not there.
• Site access: can a trailer even get in off the road? Check gate width and the bend in the approach.
• Power supply: how many KVA, single or three-phase, and whether there is a standby generator. If you are running refrigeration or charging equipment, this is your first constraint.

The paperwork

• An operating licence that is current and matches the activity you will run. A storage licence is not a manufacturing licence.
• Civil defence approval and a fire system that is live and maintained, not just extinguishers on a wall.
• Industrial register entry if the activity is manufacturing.
• The landlord's standing: owner, or a head tenant subletting? If subletting, confirm in writing that their lease permits it.
• Outstanding liabilities: utility bills and industrial zone charges, and who carries them.

Lease terms people forget

• The annual escalation: rate, timing, and whether it is capped or open.
• A rent-free fit-out period — usually negotiable, and rarely offered unprompted.
• Early termination: whether you have the right, on what notice, and at what penalty.
• Who is responsible for structural versus operational maintenance.
• Reinstatement at the end of the term: do you hand it back as you found it, or with your fit-out in place?