Morocco has seen a market growth in property purchase enquiries from Brits, from an average of 36 per month in 2006 to 60 per month in 2007 and more than 100 per month in 2008. Low cost airlines including Ryanair EasyJet and royal air Maroc have helped to open more business opportunity investments in Morocco, making the country increasingly accessible from the UK, the whole Europe and the north America, therefore, attracting British, Irish, French, Belgian, Dutch, American, Canadian and Middle East investors. In recognition of its increasing importance on the tourism and investment map, the Moroccan government is currently spending over $20 billion developing the country’s supporting infrastructure. New roads, rail links like TGV train and a massive airport upgrade are all underway.

When considering a purchase on a popular resort complex such as in Tanger Med, the development's situation within the resort is as important as the location of the resort itself: The Views is enviably positioned just across from the new free zone international port of Tanger Med which is going to be open in July 2008, Resorts with hotels, villas, apartments and shoping centres with Andalusian-style gardens and the 5 stars hotels, making it one of the most attractive and desirable low-density plots on the entire resorts. Mediterranean beaches and the proximity to Marina Tangier and Tetouan, along with a full range of on-site resort facilities all make The Views ideal for holiday properties and international business investments.
All discerning property investors realize the importance of taking advantage of the most lucrative real estate opportunities as soon as they arise, before they become common knowledge. The International Property Investment Network Myasilah operated by Luxury Living In Morocco - Property Investment helps all types of investors in their quest to access up-to-the minute information on the very latest investment opportunities in the worldwide property market today especially in Morocco.

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Luxury Living In Morocco

It's all very well promoting these so called fantastic investment opportunities in Morocco but I think it is high time prospective purchasers were given the full story including the pitfalls. Having just sold a villa we now know all the drawbacks and can advise anyone on exactly what happens when selling and more importantly, when trying to get the funds transferred out of the country again!

lurcher21

If you get time to post this, I am sure that myself and lots of other viewers of this site would be very interested to hear how you got on and the pitfalls you encountered.

MP

Lurcher, one reason we bought the lejardindefleur Saidia product was that they set up pre arranged systems to ensure money comming in from me was tracked and left a clear audit trail such that repatriation is supposed to be straight forward. They warned us up front that without such a system investoprs could struggle.

Yet another reason I steered clear of small one off developments

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Been investing abroad a few years. Always amazed people invest in places that produce just a few months rent per year

Yeah, sorry, been very busy all day today so will give you all the details this evening.

Lurcher21: I and above wait for your postings.

Investy. Whilst i agree with your views. In any third world country what should happen & what happens are two different things. I however cant see that Morocco can get to where, they want to reach without resolving some outdated business practices.

Regarding repatriation of funds first. We bought a plot of land in 1999 and built a villa. I realise that this is a complicated way to go about things in a foreign land - but at the time we had been looking to buy over there for some time and the opportunity came up to buy from a large, very reputable company (CGI) All the funds used for the purchase and the subsequent construction were transferred bank to bank from the UK, and fully traceable. We are both British citizens, although one of us is of Moroccan origin, but not born in Morocco.
We are not resident in Morocco, and have never really had much benefit from having the villa over there, it was really a bit of a waste (due mainly to personal circumstances) so last year we decided to sell it.

Although paying for a proportion of a property 'on the black' is widespread in Morocco, we put the villa in the hands of a local Notaire (solicitor), who agreed an asking price with us, and after a few months telephoned us with an offer, which we accepted. This was last December. We went to Morocco mid-March to finalise the sale. We declared every penny of the sale price. The purchasers were buying with a large bank loan and the Notaire said that the whole amount had to be declared in that case. We then found out that all the running around to pay the various charges and taxes due on the sale would have to be done by ourselves - and the Notaire would with-hold a large chunk of the funds until we provided all the 'Quittus' to prove we had paid all the taxes due (TPI, TVA, Tax Urbaine etc) This was fair enough - we knew we would have taxes to pay. We spent 2 months running around from a to b to deal with the calculation and payment of the taxes due. We paid the whole of the TPI (capital gains tax equivalent) due on the sale price, only to find to our horror that the Tax office decided that the house was worth 550000 dirhams MORE than we had sold it for, and presented us with a bill for a further 140000 dirhams on top of the 85000 dirhams TPI we had already paid! PLUS if we didn't pay up within a month there would be a majoration added on top every month until it was paid. It seems that they know many sellers do not declare the whole amount, so they penalise everyone regardless of whether they are honest or not! They are holding us to ransom, as until this amount is paid, the Notaire will not release the remainder of the purchase funds into our accounts.
As for the transfer of funds out of the country when you sell - well, unless you want to do it on the black market and carry thousands and thousands of euros in cash in a suitcase, you have to go through the `Office de Change'. The transfer can be done just the once. As one of us is a foreigner resident abroad, one half of the purchase funds has to go into a 'Compte en Dirhams convertibles' - and can only be transferred out of Morocco at 25% per year over 4 years. The other 50% in theory can be transferred as the other one of us is an MRE (Moroccan resident a l'Etranger) We have been getting the transfer dossier together for another trip back to Morocco later in the year, when hopefully the taxes will have been sorted out and paid and we have the necessary 'Quittus' to allow us to have our OWN money from the sale! In any event - if we end up with the original amount we invested almost 10 years ago, after the taxman has finished with us, we will consider ourseves lucky.
Just another point about Tamesna (near Rabat) I have seen apartments advertised there off-plan by several UK websites. We went to look at what seemed like a very attractive development, until, whilst in Morocco, we read a newspaper article stating that the Government has agreed to build a large number of 'social housing' flats on that development - where they re-house families moved out from the shanty towns in the centre of the city. When we pointed out the article to one of the UK companies selling on that development they didn't want to know, even when we offered to scan and email them the newspaper article.
We have returned from Morocco traumatised and now wish only to warn prospective buyers of what to be aware of - as neither the selling agents nor the Notaires handling the purchase seem to be prepared to point out the pros and cons honestly. It takes 2 minutes to transfer your money to Morocco but getting it back out again is an entirely different kettle of fish. Imagine, if you are a retired married couple (and we won't yet go into the ins and outs of the succession laws over there!!) and one of you sadly dies, the hell that the remaining partner is going to have to deal with alone in that country should be more than enough to make anyone seriously reconsider their decision to buy.

Thanks Lurcher.

I imagine those of us buying on Saidia will benefit from onsite legal and Tax assistance which is a bonus.

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Been investing abroad a few years. Always amazed people invest in places that produce just a few months rent per year

Thanks Lurcher: Do you think as Morocco evolves, this rather in efficient/incompetent system will have moved on.