Property investment in Morocco: realistic yields, costs and risks (2026)

I get the same question every week, in three languages: what does Morocco yield? Most of what you read online answers it with a single number, usually a flattering one, and no mention of who pays the registration tax or what a riad in the medina costs you when it stands empty for four months. This guide is my honest answer. It uses official figures where they exist, says so where they do not, and ends with a worked example you can copy into your own spreadsheet.

I am not a tax advisor and this is not legal advice. It is what I tell clients before the first viewing.

The short version

• A fairly bought apartment in Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier or Agadir produces a gross rental yield of roughly 5 to 8 percent. The national average published by Global Property Guide for the first quarter of 2026 was 7.31 percent. Short-let apartments in prime Marrakech can do more; Knight Frank quotes 7 to 10 percent gross for the best locations.
• Net of everything (purchase costs amortised, management, empty months, Moroccan income tax) a realistic figure for a long let is 3.5 to 5.5 percent. If someone promises you 12 percent net, ask which costs they left out.
• Prices nationally were almost flat in 2025 (+0.6 percent according to Bank Al-Maghrib’s index) and transactions rose 3.1 percent. Prime Marrakech is the exception: Knight Frank reports 10 to 15 percent growth over two years in the best districts. Morocco is a yield market first and a capital-growth market second.
• Buying costs, all in, run to 7 to 10 percent of the price. Selling costs you 20 percent of the gain, with a floor of 3 percent of the price. Both numbers are law, not opinion.

What the official numbers say

Morocco publishes more data than most people assume. Three sources matter:

Bank Al-Maghrib and the land registry (IPAI). Their quarterly index is the only official price series. Full year 2025: prices +0.6 percent, transactions +3.1 percent. Second quarter 2026: prices +0.7 percent year on year, residential +1.0 percent, transactions +6.3 percent. By city in that quarter, Tangier led on price (+2.3 percent over the quarter), Marrakech led on volume (sales +18.3 percent), Casablanca was steady (+0.5 percent). Note that the index is published as percentages only; there is no official “average price per square metre” for the country.

Office des Changes (foreign investment). Total foreign direct investment into Morocco reached 56 billion dirhams in 2025, up from 43.8 billion the year before. Real estate took roughly 9 billion dirhams of that in each of the last two years. Foreign money is a steady presence, not a bubble.

Knight Frank, May 2026. Prime Marrakech at €5,500 to €7,000 per square metre, about 6 percent growth forecast for 2026, short-let gross yields of 7 to 10 percent. That is the top of the market; it is not what a two-bedroom in Agadir does.

What is not official: the nationality split of foreign buyers. The figure you will see quoted, that French buyers make up half of foreign demand, comes from portal statistics. It is probably directionally right and I would not put it in a business plan.

Gross yield is not the number that matters

Gross yield is rent divided by price. It is the number agents quote because it is the biggest one available. Three things sit between it and the cash that reaches your account.

1. Purchase costs

For a resale apartment under registered title, the buyer pays:

Item	Rate	Basis
Registration duty (droits d’enregistrement)	4%	Code général des impôts, art. 133
Land registry (conservation foncière)	1.5% + 100 DH	ANCFCC tariff, decree 2-16-375
Notary	about 1%, plus 20% VAT on the fee	market practice; the fee grid is still a draft decree
Agency, where one is involved	2.5 to 3%	custom, not law

So 7 to 8 percent without an agency, 9 to 10 percent with one. Since 1 July 2026 there is a further 2 percent duty on any part of the price above 300,000 dirhams that is not paid by traceable means (bank transfer, crossed cheque, electronic payment). If you are ever asked to bring part of the price in cash, that is now expensive as well as unwise. Bare land carries 5 percent registration duty instead of 4.

2. Running costs and empty months

• Taxe de services communaux: 10.5 percent of the assessed rental value in urban areas, every year, no exemption for new builds. Expect a few hundred euros a year on a typical apartment.
• Taxe d’habitation: on the assessed rental value, with a five-year exemption for new builds used as a main residence. For a rented investment property it is small but not zero.
• Syndic (building charges): 1,000 to 3,000 dirhams a month in a managed residence with pool and security. This is the line people forget.
• Management: 8 to 15 percent of rent for long lets, 20 to 30 percent for short lets with cleaning and check-in.
• Vacancy: one month a year on a long let is a fair planning assumption. On short lets in Marrakech or Agadir, assume 55 to 65 percent occupancy, not the 85 percent in the brochure.

3. Moroccan income tax on rent

Rental income is taxed in Morocco regardless of where you live. The rules from the 2025 official tax guide:

• A 40 percent flat allowance is deducted from gross rent, then the remainder goes through the progressive scale: 0 percent up to 40,000 dirhams, then 10, 20, 30, 34 and 37 percent in steps up to 180,000 dirhams.
• If your tenant is a company, it withholds 10 or 15 percent at source and you offset it in your return.
• There is an optional 20 percent final rate; the official guide limits it to rents that are subject to withholding. Several blogs present it as available to every non-resident. Ask your tax advisor which applies to you before you count on it.
• Annual declaration before 1 March.

A long let of a single apartment usually lands in the 0 to 10 percent brackets after the allowance. Short lets with a professional operator are a different conversation and may need an operating licence (law 80-14), with fines for running without one.

Worked example: a two-bedroom in Tangier

Numbers rounded, in euros, for a resale apartment bought in 2026 and let long-term. Change the inputs; keep the structure.

	Amount
Purchase price	150,000
Purchase costs (8%)	12,000
Total invested	162,000
Monthly rent	900
Gross rent, 12 months	10,800
Vacancy, 1 month	−900
Management, 10%	−990
Syndic and municipal taxes	−1,500
Maintenance reserve	−600
Net operating income	6,810
Moroccan income tax (after 40% allowance, mostly 0 to 10% bracket)	about −250
Cash yield on total invested	about 4.0%

Gross yield on price: 7.2 percent. Net cash yield on everything you actually paid: about 4 percent. That is the honest number, and it is still better than most European cities deliver today. Add 1 to 3 percent a year of price growth and the total return is respectable. Do not add more than that in your base case.

When you sell

Capital gains are taxed in Morocco at 20 percent of the net gain, with a minimum of 3 percent of the sale price even if you made no gain at all (CGI art. 73 and 144). Purchase costs and documented renovation are deductible from the gain. The main-residence exemption after five years of occupation is written for people who actually live there; a holiday home does not obviously qualify, and I would not plan around it. Small disposals totalling under 140,000 dirhams in a year are exempt.

Your home country will usually also look at the gain. The treaties with Germany (1972), France (1970), Switzerland (1993), Austria (2006), Belgium (2006) and the Netherlands (1977) all put the primary taxing right on property income and gains in Morocco, where the property sits. How your home country then relieves the double taxation, by credit or by exemption, depends on the treaty and on your situation. That question is worth one hour of a tax advisor’s time before you buy, not after.

Getting the money out again

This is where Moroccan investment differs from Spain or Portugal, and where most mistakes are made. The dirham is not freely convertible. Under the Office des Changes rules (Instruction générale des opérations de change, art. 155 and 161), you can repatriate rent and sale proceeds only if the purchase was financed in foreign currency through a Moroccan bank. In practice:

1. Open a convertible dirham account with a Moroccan bank before you pay anything.
2. Transfer the full price from abroad into that account and pay the seller from it.
3. Keep the bank’s proof of the foreign-currency inflow, the deeds, and your tax receipts. The bank will ask for all of them when you want to transfer rent or sale proceeds out.

Pay in cash, pay from a dirham account you funded locally, or let a relative pay for you, and you may own the apartment but not the right to take the money home. A dirham mortgage from a Moroccan bank can cover at most 70 percent of the price for non-residents; the rest must come from abroad.

Where I would and would not invest

Would. Casablanca for long lets to professionals (deepest rental market, least seasonal). Tangier for a mix of yield and growth, driven by the port and the industrial zones. Marrakech for short lets in the right districts, if you accept management complexity. Agadir for the lowest entry prices and a resort market that is finally getting investment.

Would not. Agricultural land in anyone’s name but a Moroccan’s, under any scheme. A riad under moulkia (traditional deed) at any price. Off-plan from a developer who cannot show a building permit and a completion guarantee. Anything where part of the price is meant to be “arranged separately”.

What we do with this

Every property we present comes with its costs calculated the way they are above, not the way a brochure does it. If you tell us your budget and what you want the property to do for you, you get a shortlist with the net number next to each one. Then you decide.

Mariano Mikl
Moroccan Real Estate, October 2026