Buying property in Morocco as a foreigner: what I tell my clients
Most of the people who contact me have already fallen in love with an apartment in Casablanca, a riad in a medina or a plot near the coast. My job is not to sell it to them, it is to tell them what the building actually is, what the paperwork actually says, and what it will cost to make it work. Here is the same briefing I give every foreign buyer, written by a practising architect rather than a listings portal.
Can foreigners buy property in Morocco? Yes, with one exception
Morocco is one of the more open property markets in the region. A foreign national, resident or not, may buy an apartment, a house, a riad, a commercial unit or an urban building plot in their own name. There is no residency requirement, no nationality quota, no limit on the number of properties you may own, and no special government permission for an ordinary urban purchase.
The exception is agricultural land. Land classified as agricultural cannot be acquired by foreign nationals unless it has been reclassified for non agricultural use, what everyone here calls the VNA (vocation non agricole). That reclassification is an administrative authorisation, it is not automatic, and it is not something a seller can promise you on a handshake. If a plot outside the urban perimeter is being offered at a price that feels too good, agricultural classification is usually the reason.
Two things I ask buyers to note before they get creative:
- Setting up a Moroccan company with foreign shareholders is not a reliable workaround for the agricultural rule. It is a question for a Moroccan lawyer, not for a broker.
- Succession over property located in Morocco can be governed by Moroccan rules. If you have children from a previous marriage, a same sex spouse, or assets in several countries, get estate advice before you sign, not after.
One more point that costs people real money later: transfer your purchase funds through the banking system into a convertible dirham account, with the bank recording the foreign currency inflow. That record is what allows you, under Office des Changes rules, to repatriate the sale proceeds and the capital gain when you eventually sell. Cash brought in a suitcase cannot be sent back out.
Titre foncier versus melkia: the single most important check
If you remember one sentence from this guide, make it this one: in Morocco, the price difference between a clean title and an unregistered one is not a bargain, it is a risk premium.
Property here sits in one of three situations, and they are not equivalent.
| Status | What it means | Buyer risk |
|---|---|---|
| Titre foncier (registered, immatriculé) | A unique title number held by the ANCFCC land registry, with surveyed boundaries, a plan and a register of charges. Ownership is guaranteed by the State and definitive. | Low. This is what I tell clients to insist on. |
| Réquisition d'immatriculation | Registration has been applied for but is not finished. Third parties can still file oppositions during the process. | Medium to high. The outcome and the final boundaries are not yet fixed. |
| Melkia (adoular deed, unregistered) | A traditional ownership deed drawn up by adouls, based on testimony. No State guarantee, no surveyed plan, boundaries often described by neighbours' names. | High. Undisclosed heirs, indivision, overlapping claims and surface discrepancies are common. |
Melkia property is legal and it does get sold every day, particularly in medinas and rural areas. But converting it into a titre foncier takes time, money and a surveyor, and the process can surface heirs nobody mentioned. Unless you are experienced and well advised, my standing advice to a first time foreign buyer is simple: buy titled property, or make registration a condition of the sale at the seller's cost.
The certificate to ask for
For any titled property, ask for a certificat de propriété issued by the ANCFCC and dated less than three months before signature. Read it with your notaire and check:
- the name of the registered owner matches the person selling, and their marital status;
- the exact registered surface, which frequently differs from the surface quoted in the advertisement;
- mortgages (hypothèques), seizures, easements, rights of way, pre notations;
- for an apartment, whether the lot has its own title issued from the parent title of the building.
The notaire, the compromis and how a sale actually completes
In Morocco the deed is normally prepared by a notaire (a Latin style notary) or, for unregistered property, by adouls. For a foreign buyer I recommend a notaire, and I recommend that you choose them rather than accepting the seller's or the agency's default. The notaire is the person who verifies title, holds your money, calculates and pays the taxes, and files the transfer at the land registry. Their fee is small relative to what a bad file will cost you.
The usual sequence:
- Offer and compromis de vente. A preliminary contract setting the price, the deposit (commonly around 10%), the deadline, and the conditions precedent. This is the document to negotiate carefully, not the final deed.
- Conditions precedent. Clean certificat de propriété, seller's tax clearances, syndic clearance for a co-ownership, mortgage release if there is one, and, if you are financing, the bank's written offer.
- Deposit into the notaire's client account. Never pay a deposit directly to a seller or an agent.
- Final deed and payment. Signature, then registration and payment of duties, then transfer of the title at the ANCFCC in your name.
Expect four to twelve weeks from compromis to a title issued in your name, longer if a mortgage release, a division of the parent title or a succession is involved. If you cannot travel, you can sign through a procuration given to someone you trust, legalised and apostilled or consularised in your country and translated into Arabic or French. Keep the power of attorney narrow: one property, one price ceiling, one deadline.
What buying really costs in 2026
Buyers usually budget the asking price and nothing else. Transaction costs in Morocco are moderate by European standards but they are not trivial. The figures below are 2026 orders of magnitude in MAD and must be confirmed in writing by your notaire for your specific file.
| Item | Typical order of magnitude | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Registration duty (droits d'enregistrement) | 4% of the declared price | Higher rates apply to some categories of bare land |
| Land registry (conservation foncière) | around 1.5% plus fixed fees | Title transfer and new certificate |
| Notary fees | around 1% plus VAT, with a minimum | Plus disbursements and stamps |
| Stamps, copies, translations | 2,000 to 10,000 MAD | More if documents must be translated |
| Agency commission | 2.5% plus VAT, negotiable | Often charged to both sides |
| Total, no agency | roughly 6% to 8% | On top of the purchase price |
| Total, with agency | roughly 9% to 11% | Budget this from day one |
A worked example on a 3,000,000 MAD apartment: around 120,000 MAD of registration duty, around 45,000 MAD of land registry costs, around 33,000 MAD of notary fees, plus a few thousand in stamps and copies. That is roughly 200,000 to 210,000 MAD, before any agency commission.
Then there is the holding and exit side: annual taxe d'habitation and taxe de services communaux, a tax on undeveloped urban land if you buy a plot and leave it empty, syndic charges in a co-ownership, and capital gains tax on resale with an exemption for a genuine principal residence held and occupied for a legally defined period. Ask your notaire for the current thresholds, they move with finance laws.
Finally, the works budget. Renovation and fit out costs vary enormously with quality, but the design side is easier to anchor: my fee ranges are set out on the architect's fees page, with a full mission at 8 to 12% of the works, interior architecture at 10 to 20%, and a design plus permit mission for a 150 to 200 m² villa in the 15,000 to 40,000 MAD range.
The traps I see foreign buyers fall into
These are not theoretical. They are the recurring patterns behind the calls I get, usually after the deed has been signed.
1. Believing the built reality matches the permitted drawings
Closed terraces, added mezzanines, a fourth floor on a three floor permit, a shop carved out of a ground floor flat. All of it is visible on site and none of it appears in the certificat de propriété. An unauthorised extension is your problem once you own it, and it will block your own permit application later.
2. Assuming a riad can be gutted
In a medina, structures are shared, party walls are load bearing, and works are subject to heritage and local authority controls. A riad that looks like a blank canvas may not allow a single new opening in a façade.
3. Under declaring the price
A seller who asks for part of the price in cash outside the deed is asking you to take three risks at once: a tax reassessment on the real value, a higher capital gains bill when you resell, and money in Morocco that you cannot repatriate because it never entered through a bank.
4. Buying off plan without checking the permit
For VEFA (sale before completion), ask to see the building permit, the approved plans, the developer's guarantee and the notarised VEFA contract. Marketing brochures are not planning documents.
5. Ignoring the co-ownership
Ask the syndic for the accounts, the arrears on the lot, the state of the roof, the lift maintenance contract and the minutes of the last general meetings. Unpaid charges attach to the lot, not to the person who ran them up.
6. Assuming you can add a floor
Height, setbacks, coefficient of land use and coefficient of built surface are fixed by the local urban plan, not by ambition. Two identical plots on the same street can have very different rights.
7. Forgetting the permis d'habiter
For a house or an apartment, the certificate of conformity and the occupancy permit tell you whether the building was signed off as built. Their absence is a negotiating point at best and a serious warning at worst.
Why a pre-purchase architectural survey pays for itself
A notaire secures the title. A surveyor confirms boundaries. Neither of them tells you whether the roof terrace will leak next winter, whether the layout you have in mind is buildable, or whether the price reflects 400,000 MAD of hidden works. That is the gap I fill.
A pre-purchase review from me typically covers:
- comparison of the permitted drawings, if they exist, with what is actually built;
- structure, cracks, settlement, previous interventions on load bearing elements;
- damp, terrace waterproofing, drainage and façade condition, the three biggest recurring costs in Moroccan buildings;
- electrical and plumbing installations, water pressure, evacuation;
- common areas and the general maintenance culture of the building;
- feasibility of your project: can the kitchen move, can the wall come down, can a pool go there, can the roof be occupied;
- an order of magnitude works budget so you can renegotiate before signing, not after.
| Your question | Who answers it | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Is the title clean and unencumbered? | Notaire, ANCFCC certificate | Included in notary fees |
| Where exactly are the boundaries? | Géomètre topographe | A few thousand MAD |
| What state is the building in and what will works cost? | Architect (feasibility review) | 1,500 to 2,500 MAD |
| Can I build, extend or change the layout? | Architect, against the local urban plan | Feasibility review, then a design mission |
| Can the works be legally permitted? | Architect registered with the Order, file via Rokhas | Part of the design and permit mission |
On the permit point, be clear about Moroccan law: under law 016-89, a building permit application must be signed by an architect registered with the National Order of Architects, and files are submitted through the Rokhas platform. Any renovation that touches the structure, the façade, the surface or the use of the property goes through that route. Budget for it from the start.
The order I recommend, and how I work with buyers
The sequence matters more than the speed. Buyers who lose money almost always did the right steps in the wrong order.
- Define the project before the property. Holiday use, rental, retirement, family base. It changes the neighbourhood, the size and the acceptable works budget.
- Shortlist two or three properties and ask each seller for the certificat de propriété and, if it exists, the building permit and permis d'habiter.
- Feasibility review on the front runner, 1,500 to 2,500 MAD, before you sign anything. It is the cheapest decision in the whole process.
- Appoint your own notaire and negotiate the compromis with proper conditions precedent.
- Transfer funds through a convertible dirham account and keep the bank certificates.
- Sign, register, take the title, then start the design work with a realistic budget.
I work between Casablanca and Rabat, in architecture and interior architecture. If you want a sense of how I handle a brief and a site, the projects page includes the My Laser centres in Casablanca and Tangier, which the practice designed. For city specific context, see my pages on working as an architect in Casablanca and as an architect in Rabat, or the interior architecture page if the building is sound and the question is really about the interior.
Other guides for international and diaspora clients are collected in the guides section, and the fee structure is on the fees page. If you already have a property in your sights, send me the address, the photographs and any documents the seller has given you through the contact page, and I will tell you honestly whether it is worth a site visit.
What clients ask me most
Can foreigners buy property in Morocco without living there?
Yes. There is no residency requirement, no quota and no limit on the number of properties a foreign national can own. You can buy an apartment, a house, a riad or an urban building plot in your own name. The one significant restriction is agricultural land, which foreign nationals cannot acquire unless it has been reclassified for non agricultural use through a VNA authorisation.
Do I need a Moroccan bank account to buy?
It is strongly advisable. Transfer your funds into a convertible dirham account so the bank records the foreign currency inflow. That record is what allows you to repatriate the sale proceeds and any capital gain later under Office des Changes rules. Money that never entered through the banking system generally cannot be sent back out.
What is the difference between titre foncier and melkia?
A titre foncier is a registered title held by the ANCFCC, with a unique number, surveyed boundaries and a register of charges, guaranteed by the State. A melkia is a traditional adoular deed based on testimony, with no State guarantee and often no surveyed plan. For a first time foreign buyer I recommend titled property, or making registration a condition of the sale at the seller's cost.
How much are the total costs of buying, on top of the price?
As a 2026 order of magnitude, budget roughly 6% to 8% of the price without an agency, and 9% to 11% with one. That covers registration duty of around 4%, land registry costs of around 1.5%, notary fees of around 1% plus VAT, and stamps and copies. Ask your notaire for a written breakdown for your specific file.
Can I renovate or extend what I buy?
Usually yes, within the limits of the local urban plan, but any works touching the structure, the façade, the surface or the use of the building require a permit. Under law 016-89 the application must be signed by an architect registered with the National Order of Architects and filed through the Rokhas platform. Check feasibility before you sign, not after.
Is a pre-purchase survey by an architect really necessary?
It is the cheapest insurance in the process. A notaire secures the title and a surveyor confirms boundaries, but neither tells you whether the terrace waterproofing has failed, whether an extension was built without permission, or whether your intended layout is possible. A feasibility review costs 1,500 to 2,500 MAD and regularly changes the negotiation.
Send me the property before you sign
Share the address, the photographs and whatever documents the seller has provided. I will give you a straight reading of the building, the works involved and the order of magnitude cost, so you negotiate with facts rather than hope.
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