Eagle Hills, an Abu Dhabi-based developer of international projects, plans to build a new city near Cairo, Egypt, with a large number of homes for low- and middle-income buyers, according to a report.

The project will be privately funded by an "investor developer" and possible international partners and will cost $75 billion to $80 billion over 12 years, Ashraf Salman, Egypt's minister of investment, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Thursday.

Salman said the choice of developer has been narrowed down to two companies from the UAE, declining to name them.

The new city will include an airport, hotels, and a mall as well as amenities such as hospitals and schools, the sources said, asking not to be identified because they weren't authorised to speak on the matter.

The project will be formally announced by Egypt's government at an international investors conference next month, they said.

It will be built to the east of Cairo and form a natural progression toward a new development area on the Suez Canal, according to Salman.

Eagle Hills has emerged as one of Middle East's largest developers, with planned projects for Serbia, Nigeria and Bahrain.

The Abu Dhabi company is led by a team of executives who worked at Emaar Properties, including Emaar's current chairman, Mohamed Alabbar.