Buying property in Morocco as a European: the complete guide (2026)

I wrote this because the guide I needed in my first Moroccan purchase did not exist. There were agency pages that said everything was easy, forum posts that said everything was a trap, and nothing in between with the actual law in it. This is the in-between. It is long on purpose. Read the section you need, and read “The ten mistakes” whether you think you need it or not.

Where I quote a rate or a rule, it was checked in October 2026 against the official text: the Code général des impôts, the Office des Changes’ Instruction générale, the land registry’s tariff decree and the off-plan sales law. Where sources disagree or nothing official exists, I say so. Confirm the current position with your notary before you sign anything; this is a guide, not legal advice.

1. What a foreigner may own

Any foreign individual or company may buy and own urban residential and commercial property in Morocco, in their own name, with full registered title. There is no residency requirement, no quota, no obligation to form a local company and no local partner.

The exception is agricultural land. Since the dahir of 2 March 1973, agricultural land cannot be held by foreigners, and the state still enforces this: in 2026 alone, several official orders transferred foreign-held plots back to the state. If a plot lies outside the urban perimeter, a foreign buyer needs an attestation de vocation non agricole (VNA) from the regional investment centre before the purchase. The regional commission has 30 days to decide. Without it, do not buy, whatever the seller says about “arranging it afterwards”.

Owning property does not give you a right to reside in Morocco. See section 9.

2. The two title systems

This is the single most important thing to understand, because it decides whether your purchase is safe.

Titre foncier (registered title). The property is entered in the land registry (Conservation foncière, run by ANCFCC) under the 1913 land registration law as amended by law 14-07. The title is definitive and enforceable against everyone; registration wipes out unregistered earlier claims. You can get a certificat de propriété for 100 dirhams showing the owner, the surface and any mortgages or seizures. This is what you buy.

Melk / moulkia (traditional deed). Ownership is evidenced by a deed drawn up by adoul (religious notaries) on the basis of witness testimony. It is not a registration. It can be challenged, several deeds can cover the same land, and Moroccan banks rarely lend against it. Many old-medina riads and most rural plots are still held this way. Converting a moulkia into a registered title (immatriculation) is possible but is said to take between eight months and two years, and the outcome is not guaranteed.

Our rule: we present registered property, or property where registration is complete before you pay. No title number, no conversation.

3. Who draws up the deed

Under law 39-08 (the Code of real rights), article 4, any transfer of ownership must be made either as an authentic act by a notary or by adoul, or as a deed with certain date drawn up by a lawyer admitted to the Court of Cassation. A private agreement between buyer and seller (sous seing privé) is void. That is not a technicality: a deed in the wrong form cannot be registered, and an unregistered purchase is not a purchase.

For a European buyer the practical answer is a notary. The notary checks the title, holds the funds, pays the taxes, files the deed and hands you the registered title. Notary fees are usually around 1 percent of the price plus 20 percent VAT. A fee grid was approved in draft in 2018 (a flat 4,000 dirhams up to 300,000, then 1.5 percent and falling brackets) but I could not confirm it was ever published in the official bulletin; treat the fee as negotiable within reason.

Choose your own notary. Do not use the seller’s or the developer’s by default.

4. The purchase, step by step

1. Define what the property is for. Own use, long let, short let, or land bank. The answer changes the city, the district, the title you accept and the tax you pay.
2. Open a convertible dirham account with a Moroccan bank. Do this before you pay a reservation fee. Section 8 explains why.
3. Shortlist and visit. Ask for the title number and a recent certificat de propriété before any viewing.
4. Reservation. For new builds the law caps the deposit at 5 percent and limits the reservation contract to six months. For resale, keep any deposit small, pay it to the notary’s account, and get the terms in writing.
5. Due diligence. Certificat de propriété, building permit, occupancy permit, syndic accounts, tax clearance of the seller, and for new builds the completion guarantee.
6. Preliminary contract (compromis), at the notary, with the price, the payment schedule and the conditions.
7. Final deed. Funds arrive at the notary from your convertible account, the deed is signed, taxes are paid, keys are handed over.
8. Registration. The notary files with the land registry. For a sale of a registered property ANCFCC’s own service leaflet shows a turnaround of a few days; the title in your name follows.

A resale purchase typically takes one to three months from agreed price to registered title. Off-plan follows the construction schedule.

5. Buying off-plan: what the law gives you

Off-plan sales (vente en l’état futur d’achèvement, VEFA) are governed by law 44-00 as amended by law 107-12 in 2016. The protections are real but only if the contracts are in the legal form. The key points:

• Reservation contract. Void if signed before the building permit exists. Maximum six months, not renewable. You may withdraw within one month and must be refunded within seven days. The deposit, at most 5 percent, goes into a dedicated bank account.
• Preliminary contract. Only after the building permit. Must be an authentic act (notary or adoul) or a deed by an admitted lawyer; must state the title number, the permit number and date, the area, the price per square metre, the delivery deadline and the guarantee. Plans and specifications must be deposited with the notary.
• Payment caps (article 618-6): 5 percent at reservation, 5 percent at the preliminary contract (10 if there was no reservation), 10 percent at the start of works, 60 percent in three phases (foundations, structure, finishing with the occupancy permit), and 20 percent at the final deed and handover. A developer asking for 30 percent at signature is outside the law.
• Guarantee (article 618-9): after the preliminary contract the developer must give you either a completion guarantee or a refund guarantee for the instalments paid. No guarantee, no payment.
• Penalties (article 618-12): late delivery, or a late-paying buyer, costs 1 percent per month, capped at 10 percent a year, after formal notice.

We check the permit and the guarantee with the notary before you see an off-plan unit. If a developer sells against private receipts, we do not present them.

6. Every tax and fee on the way in

For a resale apartment under registered title, bought in 2026:

Item	Rate	Legal basis
Registration duty, built residential or commercial property	4% of the price	CGI art. 133-I-F
Registration duty, first sale of social housing (50 to 80 m², ≤ 250,000 DH)	3%	CGI art. 133
Registration duty, bare land	5%	CGI art. 133-I-G
Additional duty on the part of the price above 300,000 DH not paid by traceable means, deeds from 1 July 2026	+2%	CGI art. 133-III, Finance Law 2026
Land registry fee	1.5% + 100 DH, minimum 500 DH	ANCFCC tariff, decree 2-16-375
Registry fee for a mortgage	0.5% to 1.5% depending on the bracket, + 100 DH	same decree
Notary	about 1% + 20% VAT	practice; VAT rate raised to 20% by the 2023 Finance Law
Agency commission, where applicable	2.5 to 3%	custom, no legal scale

Plan on 7 to 8 percent without an agency and 9 to 10 percent with one. I have seen guides that quote “1 percent plus 150 dirhams” for the registry or “10 percent VAT” on notary fees; both are out of date.

There is no separate stamp duty on the deed that I could find in the official texts. If you are charged one, ask for the article.

7. Taxes while you own, and when you sell

From the Ministry of Finance’s 2025 tax guide and the Code général des impôts:

Taxe d’habitation. Based on an assessed rental value, with a 75 percent allowance for a main residence and a five-year exemption for new buildings used as a main residence. Progressive: 0 percent up to 5,000 dirhams of rental value, then 10, 20 and 30 percent.

Taxe de services communaux. 10.5 percent of the rental value in urban areas (6.5 percent in peripheral zones). No new-build exemption. Since July 2025 both taxes are collected by the tax administration rather than the treasury; the rates did not change.

Rental income. Taxed in Morocco wherever you live. A 40 percent flat allowance, then the progressive income-tax scale (0 percent up to 40,000 dirhams, rising to 37 percent above 180,000). Corporate tenants withhold 10 or 15 percent at source. There is an optional 20 percent final rate; the official guide ties it to rents subject to withholding, so check whether you qualify. Declaration before 1 March each year.

Capital gains on sale. 20 percent of the net gain, with a minimum of 3 percent of the sale price even without a gain (CGI art. 73 and 144). Main residence occupied for at least five years: exempt, except that the 3 percent minimum still applies to the part of the price above 4 million dirhams. Disposals totalling under 140,000 dirhams in a year: exempt. The holding period was cut from six years to five in 2023; older guides still say six.

Double taxation. Morocco has treaties with Germany (in force 1974), France (1970 treaty, 1989 rider), the Netherlands (1987), Switzerland (1995), Austria (2006) and Belgium (2009), among others. They assign the primary right to tax property income and gains to Morocco. How your home country relieves the double taxation is a question for your advisor there.

8. Getting money in and out

The dirham is not freely convertible, so the Office des Changes’ rules (Instruction générale des opérations de change, 2024 edition) govern whether you can ever take your money home.

• Article 155. Buying property counts as a foreign investment. If it is financed in foreign currency, it benefits from the convertibility regime: free transfer of rental income and of sale proceeds.
• Article 157. Moroccan banks may open foreign-currency and convertible-dirham accounts for non-resident foreigners. Open one first; pay everything through it.
• Article 161. To transfer rent abroad, your bank needs the certificat de propriété, a lease with certain date, and proof that last year’s taxes are paid. To transfer sale proceeds, it needs proof of the original foreign-currency financing, both deeds, and proof that the taxes on the sale were paid.
• Articles 183 to 186. A dirham mortgage for a non-resident may cover at most 70 percent of the price; the rest must come from abroad. On resale the bank can transfer out your original foreign contribution, the principal you repaid from abroad, and the gain.

Pay in cash, pay from local dirhams, or let someone pay on your behalf, and you lose convertibility for that part of the price. There is no “declare it within six months and fix it later” rule in the text I read; the blogs that mention one are not citing the instruction.

9. Residency

Property does not give you a residence permit; it only supports the application. Under law 02-03, you may stay up to 90 days on a valid passport. Beyond that you need a carte d’immatriculation (residence card), applied for at the DGSN foreigners’ office where you live, valid for one to ten years and renewable. The usual file: passport with entry stamp, proof of address (your deed will do), proof of means, a medical certificate, a criminal-record extract and photographs. Lists vary by prefecture; ask locally.

10. Paperwork from home: apostille or legalisation

Morocco joined the Apostille Convention in 2016, so a power of attorney notarised in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands or Switzerland needs only an apostille. Germany objected to Morocco’s accession and has not withdrawn the objection, so a German notarial document still needs consular legalisation for Morocco. Budget two to four extra weeks if you intend to sign by proxy from Germany, or simply fly in for the deed.

The ten mistakes that cost real money

1. Buying under moulkia because it was cheaper. It was cheaper because it is not registered.
2. Paying part of the price “separately”. Since July 2026 it costs an extra 2 percent, it inflates your later capital gain, and it is tax evasion for the seller, who may be a very good friend of yours until the audit.
3. Paying from the wrong account. Dirhams you did not bring in through a Moroccan bank cannot leave again.
4. Off-plan without a permit, a guarantee or a notarised preliminary contract. The contract may be void and you have nothing.
5. Using the developer’s notary without asking who they act for.
6. Agricultural land in a nominee’s name. The state can and does take it back.
7. Short-letting a riad without the tourist operating licence (law 80-14). Fines run to hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
8. Forgetting the syndic charges in a managed residence when calculating yield. See my guide on investment returns.
9. Assuming the five-year main-residence exemption covers a holiday home. It is written for people who live there.
10. Signing a German power of attorney with only an apostille. It will be refused.

What we do with this

We are not lawyers and we do not pretend to be. We are a European team that has been through this process with our own money and now runs it for clients: shortlist against your brief, documents before viewings, our notary and tax contacts in your name, and a hand on the file until the title is registered and the money can move. If you tell us what you are looking for, that is where we start.

Mariano Mikl
Moroccan Real Estate, October 2026