According to an article in the Australian press, the boom in Marrakesh may well be over. This will come as some relief to those who feared that the market could not take many more small homestays or hotels.
Marrakesh's reputation as a centre for the glitterati might have helped boost the luxury property market. Europeans from countries including France, Italy, Spain and Britain have bought riads as holiday homes or to rent out.
They are drawn by the charm of houses whose inner sanctums traditionally contain shady orange trees, pools filled with rose petals and central fountains.
The thick, plain exterior walls, providing privacy for Muslim families and acting as a shield against the summer heat, hide often fabulous interiors.
"There is resentment in the poorer quarters, where Moroccans living in shared, rented accommodation see opulent riads built next door being used for only two weeks a year as holiday homes," says Dyer, who runs a guesthouse in an up-market district in the teeming, labyrinthine old town, or medina, which echoes to the regular call to prayer in the mosques.
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.
But riads can still command prices at least as high as 20 million dirhams ($2.97 million).
Read full article here: Marrakesh Boom ending?
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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