About Me – Anis Chity
I’m Moroccan. I Grew Up in Naples. And in 2023, I Came Back to buy a property in Marrakech.
My name is Anis. I’m 31 years old.
I was born in Morocco and raised in Naples, Italy. I grew up between two cultures, two languages, two completely different ways of doing things. I always felt connected to both.
In 2023, I decided to come back to Morocco, not just to visit, but to actually put down roots. I bought three apartments in Marrakech.
And honestly? The process nearly drove me insane.
Not because Morocco is a bad place to invest. It is genuinely one of the best opportunities in the region right now. But because nobody prepares you for what buying property here actually looks like on the ground.
This website exists to change that.
Why I Came Back to Morocco
Growing up in Naples, I always had Morocco in the back of my mind. My family kept the connection alive. I visited regularly. I knew the culture, I spoke Darija, I understood how things worked, or so I thought.
When I started looking seriously at real estate in 2022, the numbers made sense in a way that Italy simply could not match. Marrakech, in particular, was a city I believed in. The tourism numbers were growing. Infrastructure was improving. International buyers were arriving. And the entry prices, compared to Naples or Milan, were in a completely different league.
So in 2023, I moved. And I started buying.
Three Apartments. Three Very Different Experiences.
I did not buy all three at once. Each purchase came with its own process, its own complications, and its own lessons.
The first one taught me how little I actually knew.
The second one taught me how to protect myself.
The third one I handled almost like a professional, because by that point, I had already paid for my education the hard way.
Here is what that education actually looked like.
The Notary Fees Nobody Mentioned
Before my first purchase, I did the math on the apartment price and thought I knew my budget.
I was wrong.
In Morocco, buying property comes with a stack of fees on top of the purchase price. Notary fees. Registration fees. Conservation foncière fees. Stamp duties. By the time everything was added up, I was looking at roughly 6 to 7 percent on top of what I had agreed to pay.
For a first-time buyer who did not budget for this, that is a real shock.
Nobody, not the agent, not anyone showing me the property, volunteered this information upfront. I had to find out by asking directly, and even then, I got vague answers until I sat down with a notaire myself.
The lesson: always calculate 7 percent on top of the purchase price before you decide what you can afford. Not after.
The Scams I Ran Into
I want to talk about this openly because it does not get discussed enough.
Morocco’s real estate market is full of informal actors. Not everyone showing you a property is a licensed agent. Not every “opportunity” someone brings to you is clean. And when you are a buyer who clearly has European money, you become a target for certain types of people very quickly.
The most common situation I encountered was inflated pricing for foreign buyers. Properties are being listed at one price for locals and a significantly higher price the moment they hear an Italian accent. I caught this more than once by cross-referencing what I was being told with what similar properties had actually sold for.
I also encountered one situation where the person presenting themselves as the owner’s representative had no legal authority to negotiate anything. The actual owner knew nothing about the meeting. That could have gone very badly if I had signed anything or handed over a deposit.
The lesson: never pay a deposit before a notaire has verified that the person you are dealing with has the legal right to sell. Full stop.
Surprise Taxes That Caught Me Off Guard
Morocco has a tax called the Taxe de Profits Immobiliers (TPI), a capital gains tax applied when you sell a property.
Most buyers do not think about this at the purchase stage. I did not in my first apartment.
But the way TPI is calculated, and the exemptions that apply depending on how long you have held the property and whether it is your primary residence, can make a significant difference to your net return if you ever sell. Understanding this before you buy changes how you think about which property to buy, in which name, and with which holding period in mind.
There is also the Taxe de Services Communaux and the Taxe d’Habitation to factor into annual holding costs. Small individually, but worth knowing about.
I am not a tax adviser, and you should always speak to one before making decisions. But knowing these taxes exist — and that most agents will not bring them up unless you ask — is already half the battle.
What I Actually Know That Most People Writing About This Do Not
I am not writing this from a desk in Europe, having read some articles about Morocco.
I live here. I own three apartments here. I have sat across a table from notaries, negotiated with sellers, dealt with agents of varying levels of honesty, navigated the banking system as a foreign currency buyer, and figured out how to transfer funds correctly so that I can legally repatriate rental income.
I am Moroccan, so I understand the culture and the language. I grew up in Italy, so I understand what European buyers go through when they encounter a system that works completely differently from what they know.
That combination is not something you will find on most websites covering this topic.
What This Website Is About
Every article I publish here is about one thing: helping foreigners buy property in Morocco without getting burned.
I cover the legal process, the costs, the taxes, the title deed system, how to find trustworthy professionals, which questions to ask, and which red flags to watch for. I write about Marrakech specifically because it is where I live and where I have bought, but many of the things I cover apply to Morocco broadly.
I do not have properties to sell you. I do not earn commission. I am not affiliated with any agency. I share what I know because I genuinely believe good information changes outcomes, and the information available right now for foreign buyers in Morocco is not good enough.
One More Thing
When I am not thinking about real estate, I am thinking about football.
I grew up in Naples watching Napoli. Moving between two countries gave me a habit of following football across different leagues, different styles, and different approaches to the game. It is the one thing that has nothing to do with property, and I will probably mention it on this site at some point anyway.
Get in Touch
If you have a question about buying property in Morocco, about the Marrakech market, or about anything covered on this site, reach out via the contact page.
I answer honestly. If I do not know something, I will tell you. If your question needs a notaire or a tax professional rather than a blog post, I will tell you that too.
But if you want to talk to someone who has actually done this, made the mistakes, paid the unexpected costs, and come out the other side with three apartments and a clear picture of how it all works, I am here.
Anis, Marrakech, Morocco
Connect with me: