Foreigners buy up big in Moroccan Housing Market

Not all investment is good investment but as Charles Dick explains in a recent article, Morocco is hot. Not just in Casablanca and Marrakesh, but plenty of other towns around the country. As Charles Dick points out..."Hundreds of Westerners, mostly Europeans, are buying up and often extravagantly renovating distinctive homes called riads, typically with scented oriental gardens in inner courtyards." (The italic emphasis is mine.)

Here is a taste of the article and you can read the rest by clicking on the title

Ancient Marrakesh feels pace of change. - Charles Dick

Morocco's historic walled city of Marrakesh is changing fast and a veneer of Western influence is contrasting ever more starkly with its native Islamic core.

The heartbeat of the ancient capital, once no faster than camel caravans plying the trans-Saharan routes before the trek across the snow-capped Atlas mountains to reach the city, is partly quickening because of Morocco's drive to boost tourism.

More luxury hotels are being built with foreign investment and some of the millions of foreigners flocking to the North African country, where the legendary Berber "Pearl of the South" is a prime destination, are not just fleeting visitors.

Hundreds of Westerners, mostly Europeans, are buying up and often extravagantly renovating distinctive homes called riads, typically with scented oriental gardens in inner courtyards, in the old quarters of Marrakesh and other historic cities like Fes and Meknes to the north.

"A hundred years ago there were only a handful of foreigners living in the old town in Marrakesh. That's not very long ago in historical terms," says Dr Peter Dyer, a British expert on the city's kasbah, or fortified district, explaining that this was forbidden under the French protectorate before Morocco's independence in 1956.

"It was the French protectorate which imposed its will on the local people to separate the old city and the colonial administrative quarter," he says, referring to the Europeanised Gueliz district outside the city walls where most big hotels are located today. "The gap between them was also a sort of cordon sanitaire."

As foreigners rushed to buy riads from the 1960s onwards, led by celebrities like designer Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakesh gained a reputation as a playground for the stars.

Founded almost a millennium ago and a former capital city during the Almoravids dynasty, Marrakesh has a mystique that has attracted statesmen and big names of pop, stage and screen.

For those foreigners tempted to buy, the journey to possessing a dream riad fit for a sultan can be arduous and prices are constantly rising, warns one foreign expert.

"Buying and selling riads can be a nightmare scenario," says Chris Lawrence of the British-based travel firm Best of Morocco, emphasising the need for an experienced legal representative, known as a notary, because of the many possible pitfalls.

"You have to get yourself a good notary, have nerves of steel and infinite patience," says Lawrence.

Foreigners are buying not just in Marrakesh, but in cities like the coastal resort of Essaouira, Fes and Meknes, Morocco's commercial hub Casablanca and the northern resort of Tangier.

PACE OF CHANGE

In Marrakesh, a sign of the pace of change is that the riad buying spree in the old town in recent years may have peaked. The trend may now be towards property in the fertile Ourika valley south of the city, under dramatic snow-capped Atlas peaks, or quieter areas on the Atlantic coast, says Lawrence.

But riads can still command prices at least as high as 20 million dirhams ($1.3 million pounds), .

Tags: Morocco, Fes, Maghreb, news