CAIRO (Reuters) - Real estate firm Egyptian Resorts has sold a plot of land on the Red Sea for $13.3 million, marking its first sale in over a year and signalling renewed interest in Egyptian property, an executive said on Sunday.
The firm, which makes most of its money selling land to developers, has seen renewed appetite for Egyptian real estate since the end of Dubai's property boom, investor relations manager Abu Bakr Makhlouf told Reuters.

"We're seeing more interest from developers to resume their expansion plans," he said. "The real estate market in Egypt was not as affected as the rest of the region, so Egypt is becoming more attractive."

Egyptian Resorts sold 44,354 square metres of its Sahl Hasheesh land bank to a Saudi Arabian investor planning to build a high-end hotel, Makhlouf said. The sale was the company's first since the third quarter of 2008.

The sale was also important because the price of the land, $300 per square metre, was more than double the firm's average selling price in 2008, Makhlouf added.

The company's shares rose 5.3 percent by 1029 GMT, outperforming the main index, which gained 0.8 percent.