HCP

Here’s a breakdown of the provided text, focusing on the challenges and proposed solutions for relaunching the Moroccan housing market, particularly for the medium and modest strata:

The Problem: A Stagnant Housing Market

The Moroccan housing market is facing significant challenges, leading to a decline in demand and a slowdown in activity. Key issues include:

Declining Demand from Moroccans Residing Abroad (MRE):
The summer season, typically a peak time for MRE investment, saw a significant drop (nearly 41%) in acquisitions.
Reasons cited include:
High cost of credit.
Economic uncertainty in host countries. Scarcity of affordable housing in major urban centers.

Rising Construction Costs for Developers:
The production price index in the construction industry has increased by 6.3% year-on-year.
This is driven by:
Higher material prices (steel, cement, aluminum).
Increased international oil prices.
Persistent logistical chain tensions.
These rising costs are squeezing developer margins, especially in the medium and economic segments.
As a result, many developers are slowing down or postponing projects, further limiting the supply of new housing in high-demand areas. This creates a cycle of scarcity and price tension without stimulating demand.

Structural Blockages Hindering Dynamism:
Administrative Delays:
Lengthy delays in processing building permits.
Slow land record management, exacerbated by a cyberattack on the Tawtik platform in May 2025, which temporarily paralyzed notarial activity.
Notaries in Casablanca and Rabat have reported a near halt in transactions since june,particularly for older properties.
Local Taxation:
The tax on undeveloped land (TNB) is seen as a deterrent.
Increases on fallow land within urban perimeters, while intended to combat land hoarding, add pressure on developers’ costs.

Ineffective Government Support Programs:
The DAAM SAKAN program, launched in January 2024 to provide direct subsidies (up to 100,000 dirhams) for homeownership, has had a limited impact. Less than 17,000 files had been validated by May 2025, falling short of initial objectives.
Reasons for its limited success include:
Concentration of eligible projects in unattractive, peripheral areas.
Inability to assist households with low or irregular incomes with the remaining payable amount.

The 2030 World Cup: A Hypothetical Lever:
While the joint hosting of the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal has generated expectations for real estate growth (land mobilization, new stadiums, infrastructure), its impact on the residential sector is slow to materialize.
Hotel construction is increasing, but the production of housing for temporary fan accommodation (furnished studios, rental residences) remains marginal.
The seasonal rental market is largely informal and unstructured.

The Demand for Reform: key Areas for improvement

Players in the sector are calling for a complete reform to revitalize the market. They highlight the need for:

Operational Town Planning: streamlining and improving urban planning processes. Simplification of Procedures: Reducing bureaucratic hurdles for developers and buyers.
Land Reform: Addressing issues related to land availability and management.
Supervision of Speculation: Implementing measures to curb speculative practices.
* Renovation of Housing Assistance Models: Rethinking and improving the effectiveness of government support programs.

The text emphasizes that without “rapid political impetus,” these reforms risk delaying the market’s recovery. The IMF’s February 2024 report also suggests that a revival of the Moroccan real estate sector requires “better targeted policies and reinforced governance mechanisms.”