I almost paid 180,000 dirhams in capital gains tax on a property sale I didn’t need to pay at all. Not because I was doing anything wrong. I just didn’t know the exemptions existed. My notary mentioned the tax, I panicked, and I nearly wrote the check before a friend who works in real estate…
I sold an apartment in Casablanca in 2021 and spent three months trying to figure out how to get my money back to Europe. Nobody warned me how complicated it would be. Banks gave me conflicting information. One notary told me I didn’t need anything special. He was wrong. If you’re looking at repatriating money…
I almost lost 60,000 dirhams because I assumed Morocco’s tax rules worked the same way they did back home. That was my first mistake. And it nearly cost me a significant chunk of profit on a riad I sold in Marrakech after holding it for three years. If you’re a foreigner who owns property in…
I almost wired €180,000 to the wrong person. Not a scammer. A real seller. But the property had three co-owners, two of them living in France, and the one in Marrakech had been signing documents as if he owned the whole thing. My notary caught it at the last minute. That single detail could have…
A French couple I know spent fourteen months renovating a riad in the medina. Beautiful place. Tiled courtyard, original cedar ceilings, rooftop terrace with a view over the old city. Six weeks before they planned to open it as a guesthouse, a neighbor filed a legal challenge claiming partial ownership of the terrace. They hadn’t…
Morocco’s property system is genuinely unique. It runs on two completely different title structures at the same time, and they don’t play by the same rules. The first is called Titre Foncier, a registered, modern land title that works similarly to what you’d expect in France or Spain. It’s clean, traceable, and gives you solid…
Most foreign buyers arrive in Marrakech with genuine excitement and leave with questions nobody warned them about. Which title deed is real and which is a mess waiting to happen. Why the agent is pushing so hard on a particular property. What the notary actually does and whether they are working for you. Whether you…
The agent smiled, handed me mint tea, and told me the riad had three other serious buyers lined up. There were no other buyers. There never were. That was my introduction to property hunting in Marrakech. And honestly, it was one of the tamer tricks I encountered. Over two years of searching, negotiating, and eventually…
I almost lost €40,000 because I trusted the wrong advice. When I started looking into buying & financing a property in Morocco, I thought it would be straightforward. I had budget. I had time. I even had a local contact who promised to “handle everything.” What I did not have was a clear understanding of…
A lot of people assume the answer is no. They think Morocco is one of those countries where, as a foreigner, you simply pay cash or you do not buy. I thought the same thing before I started seriously looking into it. The truth is that non-residents can absolutely get a mortgage in Morocco. Several…