Payment & finance
How to calculate the cash you need before buying a home
BREKMEN decision guide · Published 8 October 2026
The down payment is not always the whole amount needed at the beginning. Build your starting budget from the payments due before and shortly after the contract, then keep future installments in a separate calendar. This prevents a low advertised percentage from hiding a larger immediate commitment.
Use the actual quotation as the base
Write down the exact unit identifier, quoted total price, the applicable down-payment percentage and the date it becomes due. Confirm whether the reservation is part of this payment. An old project starting price or a price for another unit cannot supply the missing base. Where BREKMEN shows “request current prices”, ask the developer for the unit quotation before calculating.
A deliberately hypothetical calculation
Suppose a unit quotation were EGP 6,000,000 and its applicable down payment were 10%. The calculation would be 6,000,000 × 10% = EGP 600,000. If a separately confirmed fee were EGP 50,000 and a first installment of EGP 75,000 were due shortly afterward, the corresponding initial cash would be EGP 725,000. These figures are arithmetic examples, not BREKMEN inventory, a developer offer or an estimate of market prices.
Protect the timing, not just the total
Group payments by their actual due dates: before reservation, at contract, during the first months and at delivery. Keep a separate amount for costs you have not yet confirmed, instead of treating them as zero. If your cash limit applies before a particular date, use that date consistently across projects. A later large payment may still be unaffordable even when the initial deposit fits.
Turn the budget into a search requirement
Set both your total-price limit and your initial-cash limit in the property search, along with the region and unit type. Treat a missing complete payment schedule as pending confirmation. Keep a general shortlist if the exact offers are incomplete, then compare confirmed units once their schedules are available. This guide provides a calculation method; deciding what you can safely commit depends on your own finances.