In her village in Egypt’s Nile Delta, 35-year-old Shaimaa Saleh has spent sleepless nights worrying how to raise almost $1,000 to save her unfinished three-storey home. Like hundreds of thousands of others, and many dependents, she faces a deadline at the end of October by which residents of buildings without permits – mostly in poor areas – must apply to regularise their property for a fee, or face demolition. Officials say that the law introduced last year is part of a crackdown on illegal buildings that violate safety standards, hinder traffic and development, and encroach on arable land. It’s part of a drive by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to upgrade infrastructure and housing and deal with decades of haphazard construction that accelerated after a 2011 uprising. But for some residents the demolition threat is a fresh blow after years of economic austerity, rising prices and, most recently, the fallout from the coronavirus. “I have been struggling to make a living as a farm hand to feed my three children since my husband died in Kuwait last year,” said Saleh, a resident of Defriya village in Kafr El-Sheikh province.