Note de renseignement urbanistique: how to read it and know what it allows
The note de renseignement urbanistique (planning information note) is the document that determines, before a single sketch is drawn, what a plot of land can actually accommodate. Almost all my clients have it in their file, very few know how to read it line by line, and that is often where the difference lies between a feasible project and six wasted months. Here I explain how to obtain it, how to translate each parameter into square metres and storeys, and why it never replaces the titre foncier (land title).
What a note de renseignement urbanistique is
The planning information note is an administrative document that sets out, for a plot identified by its land title number or its registration application, the planning rules that apply to it: the zone under the development plan, the building coefficients, the permitted height, the setbacks to be observed, any known easements and the road schemes affecting the land.
It answers a single question, but the most decisive one: what am I entitled to build here, and in what volume. It says nothing about ownership, nothing about soil quality, nothing about the availability of utility networks.
In my work, it is the first document I ask for, even before we discuss the brief or the style. A sketch drawn without the note is a sketch with a serious chance of being redone. When a client calls me about a plot they have found in Casablanca or Rabat, my first sentence is always the same: do you have the planning information note and the land title.
What it is actually used for
- Checking the feasibility of a land purchase before signing a preliminary sale agreement.
- Sizing a brief: number of storeys, floor area, number of dwellings or office floors.
- Framing a realistic budget by cross-checking the buildable area against typical construction costs in Morocco.
- Preparing a coherent permit application from the very first submission.
Who issues it, how to request it, how long it takes
The note is issued by the planning authority with jurisdiction over the area concerned: the urban agency, working with the local council. In Casablanca, the request is commonly made at the counter of the urban agency or the council, and an online request is available through the Rokhas platform, which centralises a large part of the region's planning procedures. In Rabat and other cities the process is similar, with local variations in forms and counters.
I deliberately do not reproduce here the official list of documents or an exact amount: these change and differ from one council to another. Refer to the portal of the relevant urban agency or to Rokhas for the current form and fee.
What you will be asked for, in practice
- The cadastral reference or land title number of the plot, or failing that the registration application number.
- A location plan or cadastral extract that identifies the land unambiguously.
- Proof of identity of the applicant and, depending on the case, evidence of standing to act.
- Payment of an administrative fee: in the region of a few hundred MAD (Moroccan dirhams) in 2026, to be confirmed with the council or the urban agency.
On timescales, I stick to what I observe: from a few days to a few weeks depending on the council, the time of year and the complexity of the plot. Land in a clearly defined zone, properly identified, comes back quickly. Land straddling two zones, affected by a planned road or located in a sector under review, takes longer. Never set a notarial signing date based on an assumed administrative timescale.
One important point: anyone can request a note on a plot, including before owning it. That is precisely what makes the document so useful at the acquisition stage.
Reading the note line by line
The note often runs to one or two pages, in French or Arabic, sometimes both. Every line translates into concrete built volume. Here is how I read them.
Zoning
This is the parent line: it refers to a zone of the development plan, designated by a code such as villa zone, apartment building zone, business zone, agricultural zone, non aedificandi zone. Everything else follows from it. A plot in a zone not opened up to urban development does not become buildable because a neighbour has built there.
COS, CUS, ground coverage
Watch the vocabulary, it is the number one source of confusion. Depending on the document, COS refers to the site occupancy ratio, CUS to the land use ratio, and CES to the ground coverage ratio. The definitions are not strictly identical from one set of regulations to another. The only safe rule: read the definition given by the applicable development plan regulations, not one learned elsewhere. One of these coefficients caps the ground area occupied by the building, the other caps the total floor area across all levels. Confusing the two means getting the brief wrong by a factor of two or three.
Maximum height and number of storeys
Often stated together, for example R+2 with a height capped in metres. Both limits apply simultaneously: if the height in metres is reached before the top storey, the height wins. Also check the reference point for the measurement, which may be the road level rather than natural ground level, as well as how basements, accessible roof terraces and technical structures are treated.
Setbacks and building line
Setbacks impose a distance between the building and the plot boundaries: front setback from the road, side setbacks, rear setback. The building line defines where construction may start relative to the public domain, and it may differ from the current position of the boundary wall. On a narrow plot, setbacks eat up more area than the coefficient itself.
Easements and planned roads
Pipe runs, power lines, rights of light, airport easements limiting height, flood zones, protection of a listed site. And above all road widening or creation: a planned road can cut a strip several metres deep off the frontage, reducing both the plot area used for the calculation and the position of the entrance.
The mention of a development plan under review
This is the line I read last and it changes everything. It means the rules stated are today's rules, but that the document being prepared may change them. In that case, the note retains its informational value as at its date, without guaranteeing that the same regime will apply a year from now. My advice then is to tighten the submission schedule and check with the urban agency whether a transitional regime or a freeze applies to the sector.
| Line in the note | What it states | Practical consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Zone | Intended use of the sector under the development plan | Determines whether the intended programme is possible, and which of the other parameters apply |
| Ground coverage ratio | Share of the plot covered by buildings | Maximum footprint of the building, hence the size of the footprint and the remaining open space |
| Floor area ratio | Total built floor area relative to the plot | Total number of saleable or habitable square metres across all levels |
| Height and storeys | Cap in metres and in floors | Number of storeys actually achievable, ceiling heights available |
| Setbacks | Distances to boundaries | Usable buildable footprint, often less than the theoretical maximum allowed by the coefficient |
| Building line / planned road | Reference line, planned widening | Possible loss of land area, relocation of the access and gate |
| Easements | Technical or protective constraints | Areas where building is prohibited, restricted height, constraints on foundations or networks |
| Parking | Required ratio of spaces | Basement or ground floor parking, often a heavy budget item |
Translating the note into buildable square metres
Here is the method I apply systematically, using a deliberately fictitious example. The values below are illustrative: they are there to show the reasoning, not to prejudge what any given zone allows.
| Parameter | Villa scenario | Apartment building scenario |
|---|---|---|
| Plot area | 300 m² | 300 m² |
| Ground coverage ratio | 50 % | 60 % |
| Maximum footprint | 150 m² | 180 m² |
| Floor area ratio | 1.2 | 2.4 |
| Total floor area | 360 m² | 720 m² |
| Building envelope | R+2 | R+4 |
| Realistic programme | Three-storey villa, roughly 120 m² per level | Building of 8 to 10 apartments depending on the unit mix |
Step two, and this is the one people forget: subtract from the theoretical footprint whatever the setbacks rule out. On a plot measuring 10 m by 30 m with a 4 m front setback, 3 m at the rear and 2 m on each side, the buildable strip drops to 6 m by 23 m, that is 138 m². The coefficient allowed 150 m², the geometry only permits 138. That is the figure that matters when drawing the villa plan.
Step three: apply the planned road if there is one, deducting the affected strip before any calculation. A 300 m² plot losing 20 m² to a road widening is no longer a 300 m² plot.
At the end of these three steps you have a usable figure for discussing budget and brief. This is also the stage at which I know whether the assignment is a design and permit application or a full assignment.
Planning information note and land title: two different documents
This is the most common and most costly confusion. The planning information note states what planning rules allow on the plot. The titre foncier (land title), issued by the ANCFCC, states who owns the plot, what its area is and what charges are registered against it: mortgage, registered easement, joint ownership, objection, pre-emption right. Two administrations, two logics, two documents. You need both.
| Document | Issued by | Answers | Order of magnitude 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning information note | Urban agency / council | What can I build, and in what volume | A few hundred MAD, to be confirmed with the council |
| Certificate of ownership | ANCFCC (land registry) | Who owns the land, what charges apply to the title | In the region of one hundred MAD, to be confirmed with the ANCFCC |
| Cadastral plan | ANCFCC | Exactly where the boundaries are and what the area is | In the region of one hundred MAD, to be confirmed with the ANCFCC |
| Development plan | Urban agency | The full regulations for the zone, beyond the summary in the note | Consultation, fee varies by city |
I have seen buyers sign on the strength of an excellent note, only to discover an unresolved joint ownership or a mortgage registered against the title. I have seen the opposite too: a perfectly clean title on land in a zone where the intended programme was not permitted. The two checks are carried out in parallel, not one after the other.
A final point on this subject: unregistered land held under an acte adoulaire (traditional deed) has no land title. A planning information note may exist, but the legal structuring and the permit application become considerably longer. Such cases warrant the advice of a notaire (notary), and this guide is not legal advice.
What actually causes problems
Here is what I really encounter on projects, in decreasing order of frequency.
- The note covers the wrong plot. One digit transposed in the title number and you are studying the neighbouring plot. Always cross-check the reference on the note against the certificate of ownership and the cadastral plan.
- The planned road discovered too late. It appears on the note, it goes unnoticed, and it cuts several metres off the frontage. The plan has to be redrawn from scratch.
- The gap between the title area and the actual survey. A boundary wall built two metres too far out twenty years ago is still two metres too far. A contradictory topographic survey costs little and avoids a refusal.
- Confusing ground coverage with floor area. A brief sized on the wrong coefficient, and the project exceeds the permitted envelope by 40 %.
- The subdivision not formally handed over. Until the infrastructure works have been formally accepted, processing of individual permits may be suspended. Check this with the council before buying, not after.
- The development plan under review. The known rules remain applicable as at the date of the note, but the uncertainty about what comes next weighs on the schedule. Better to know before launching the studies.
- A height easement. Proximity to an airfield, a protected site or a technical corridor: the hoped-for R+4 becomes R+2, and the financial balance of the operation changes.
- The parking ratio. Underestimated at the outset, it forces an unbudgeted basement, a heavy item on a tight plot.
None of these points is down to bad luck. All of them can be read on documents you can obtain before signing. The cost of these checks bears no comparison with that of a refused permit or an unusable plot.
What I do with the note at the start of a project
When a client sends me a note, I come back with a short analysis: real buildable area after setbacks and road schemes, achievable envelope, blocking constraints, and a first outline brief. That is the purpose of the feasibility assessment, priced between 1,500 and 2,500 MAD as a 2026 order of magnitude, to be confirmed by quotation depending on the location and complexity of the plot. This amount is deducted from the fee if the project goes ahead.
If the land stacks up, the rest follows: design, drawings and technical file, then submission. In Morocco, a permit is submitted through the Rokhas platform and requires the signature of an architect registered with the Ordre National des Architectes, in accordance with law 016-89 governing the profession. I set out the full process in the guide to the building permit in Morocco.
For a villa of 150 to 200 m², the design and permit assignment runs between 15,000 and 40,000 MAD, the full assignment with site supervision between 8 and 12 % of the works value, and an interior architecture assignment between 10 and 20 %. All these figures are 2026 orders of magnitude to be confirmed by quotation, set out in detail on the fees page.
I work mainly in Casablanca and Rabat, on villas, apartment buildings and professional premises, including office fit-outs. The other practical guides are gathered in the guides section, and if you are still unsure which type of assignment you need, the comparison architect or interior architect may help.
A useful reminder: this guide describes hands-on practice and a way of reading the document. It does not constitute legal advice. For official amounts, forms and timescales, refer to the relevant urban agency, the council, the Rokhas platform or the ANCFCC. For ownership questions, consult a notaire.
What clients ask me most
Is the planning information note mandatory in order to apply for a building permit?
It does not replace the permit file, but it determines whether that file is coherent: without it you are designing blind and the risk of comments or refusal rises sharply. Depending on the council, it is either required or strongly expected in the file. In my practice, I do not start a study without having read it.
Can I request a note on land I have not yet bought?
Yes, and that is in fact the right moment. The request is based on the plot reference, not on being the owner. Obtaining the note before signing a preliminary sale agreement is the most cost-effective check in any land purchase.
How long does a planning information note remain valid?
It describes the rules applicable as at its date of issue. As long as the development plan does not change, the information remains relevant. If the note mentions a review under way, or if it is more than a year old in a sector that is changing, I advise requesting a fresh one before submitting.
Can the note contradict what the seller tells me?
Regularly. Listings often mention a "possible" R+3 or "buildable" land with no supporting document. The note is the only element that carries weight in planning terms. When it contradicts the sales pitch, the note is what counts.
Are the planning information note and the certificate of ownership the same thing?
No. The note comes from the planning authority and states what can be built. The certificate of ownership comes from the ANCFCC and states who owns the land and what charges apply to the title. A serious file contains both, plus the cadastral plan.
What should I do if the development plan is under review?
First, do not panic: the rules stated remain those applicable as at the date of the note. Then check with the urban agency whether a transitional regime applies to the sector, and tighten the study and submission schedule. In some cases it is more prudent to wait for the new document to be published.
You have a planning information note and you are not sure what it allows
Send me the note, the certificate of ownership and the cadastral plan for your plot, along with a few lines about what you would like to build. I will tell you what the land really permits, in area, storeys and constraints, before you commit to anything. Write to me via the <a href="/en/contact">contact</a> page or call +212 661 25 78 84.
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