Moroccan Property
Why buy property in Morocco?
MAKING THE RIGHT INVESTMENT CHOICE IN MOROCCO.
Morocco has always been a desirable tourist destination due to its exotic culture and desirable
location just to the south of Western Europe. Morocco now attracts high quality tourism with many
world class 5-star hotels and resorts.. In the 21st century, the country’s favourable geopolitical location is being keenly exploited by the Moroccan Government to incentivise economic growth and foreign investment.
The focal point of Morocco’s plans for development and economic growth lies in Tangier. Tangier is
Morocco’s gateway to Europe. The new Tangier-Med project to the north of the city of Tangier will
contain the biggest container port in Africa and the Mediterranean. It represents a strategic priority
for the Moroccan government to considerably and sustainably increase social development in the
north of Morocco.
The project is to include a number of free trade zones, which will function under the free trade agreement with the European Union which is due to be implemented by 2012.
At just 15km from the European Union, Tangier-Med will serve hundreds of millions of consumers via
the industrial and commercial free zones due to be run by well-established private operators. The
container port will be a leading hub in the growing container transhipment market.
The port is currently operational with a capacity for 3.5 million containers, but is expected to reach full capacity of 8 million containers, 7 million passengers, 0.7 million trucks and 2 million vehicles by 2015.
At the same time, whilst the European Union is currently experiencing some of the slowest growth
rates since World War II, Morocco has enjoyed 7 per cent growth rates for a number of years and
benefits from predicted growth of higher than 5 per cent until the end of the decade.
Morocco has been developing strongly and consistently in all sectors, with a particular focus on attracting foreign tourism and investment. His Majesty King Mohammed VI has, in recent times, headed dozens of major initiatives to increase the size durability of Morocco’s economy. Vast amounts of money have been spent on developing infrastructure and public services, and much focus and effort has been
afforded to the tourism industry in order to consolidate classic Moroccan tourist destinations and
create new tourist centres.
Morocco is a fascinating holiday destination. But it has plenty to offer the property investor and second home buyer.
It has:
- 330 sunshine days a year
- a low cost of living
- 2,000 plus miles of attractive, sandy beaches
- strong tourism development backed by King Mohammed VI, in the ambitious, Vision 2010 programme
- flight time averages of 3.5-4.5 hours plus it's in the same time zone as the UK and
- good access from Europe through several discount air flight carriers.
Specific Moroccan property buy benefits include:
- rental yields of up to 20% are currently being realised in some areas. This means that mortgage payments for properties can be achieved in peak tourist season rents, allowing profit making for the remainder of the year
- a double taxation treaty agreed by Morocco and the UK means that capital gains tax, called TPI in Morocco, has to paid in just one country
- timing is good. The market is sufficiently established but it's still new enough to gain from some years of high level capital growth and
- 0% inheritance tax is paid on Moroccan properties left to a family member.
Tourism's influence on Moroccan property for sale or rent
Tourism and property development are mutually dependent. Morocco has recognised this.
Launched in 2001, the Vision 2010 strategy aims that tourist activity should by 2010:
- reach annual tourist visitors of 10 million
- make up 20 per cent of Morocco's gross domestic product.
Vision 2010 has already achieved total tourist visitor numbers of 5.8 million in 2005.
The tourist strategy also stipulated six new coastal resort building programmes called Plan Azur. There will be five resorts on Morocco's Atlantic Coast and one on the Mediterranean Coast. The latter, 'Mediterrania-Saidia' is well underway. As they will be highly prestigious holiday centres, they should all attract significant tourist traffic, helping boost rental returns for Moroccan properties in the six resort areas.
Travel to Morocco
As a recent member of the 'Open Skies' programme - Morocco now enjoys regular and cheap flights to and from the EU. Discount air carrier, EasyJet started flights to Morocco in 2006. There are now 100 plus flights a week between London and popular Marrakesh.
Whilst it's a few years away, it should be possible to travel quickly by direct train from London to Marrakesh in 2025. French president, Nicolas Sarkozy signed a deal in late 2007 agreeing to this high speed link between Tangiers and Marrakesh.
Useful Morocco links
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