Fez - the next Marrakech?

The British Telegraph newspaper is suggesting that Fez is the place to buy - they may have a point, but as anyone who has been through the process will tell you - it can be hard work. Here is an edited version to the Telegraph story

With new low-cost airline access - including a three-hour flight from Luton with Ryanair - and surging interest in Morocco's historic cities, Fez holds great appeal to foreign property buyers in search of the next Marrakech.

While wealthy Moroccans regard the old town as the ghetto and prefer to live in Fez's French-built new quarter, overseas investors are eyeing up the palaces, dars (houses set around courtyards) and riads (houses with gardens) in the Fes-El-Bali medina, the world's largest car-free urban zone. Among its back streets are about 3,000 houses in a ruined state. Those for sale cost from £20,000 - a fifth of the price of comparable properties in Marrakech.

"It's hard to find beautiful houses with original features and a lot of people are put off by stories of the endless paperwork and having to track down all the owners before you can buy," says Louis McIntosh, a former DJ from Norwich who recently moved to Fez and bought a six-storey house with octagonal ceilings in the medina for £24,000.

With the help of the English-speaking agency Fez Properties he spent three months tracing the empty building's owners - a family with nine members spread from Portugal to Malaga and Casablanca. "Searches can take up to a year as some people feel a strong emotional attachment to these houses and don't want to sell, even though they don't live there," reports Louis, 52.

"My buying process was straight-forward. The difficulties came with the renovation as 12 weeks into the project, when the house was only half finished, the architect told me I'd used up my budget. I ended up spending £37,000 on the work, but it was worth it. I'd like to release some equity on it, as prices have gone up, and do it again with another house." Figures on price rises are not available as the market is in its earliest stages, but Louis cites a friend whose £17,500 dar has doubled in price in 12 months before he has even started renovation work.

There is no market yet for buying converted houses, says Adil Ait Hamd from Fez Medina Consulting (www.insidefezmedina.com), who help people to buy, restore and manage properties in the medina. However, derelict properties in areas of the medina such as Bab Boujloud or Ain Azleten are sought after, mainly by British buyers wanting to convert them into guest houses.

"Prices in those areas have risen a lot recently, especially for houses within a five to 10-minute walk of a car park," says Adil. "But buyers need to be prepared for the fact that everything is different here. Very few estate agents speak English and 99 per cent of the properties in the medina do not have modern title deeds. They have a traditional, handwritten document proving ownership called R'sem." Buyers should find a reputable local lawyer to witness the transaction, ensuring that the paperwork shows all current owners of the property have given consent to the sale and explaining all taxes and fees, which total about 7 per cent of the purchase price.

"Once you have bought a property and you want to start restoring it, you face other difficulties," Adil adds. "What do I do first? Where do I go? How much should I pay? How do I manage the project?" If all that sounds daunting but you are still drawn to this captivating city whose low-lying, sand-coloured buildings fade into the arid hills that surround it, then buying a new-build property could be the solution. While there is a spate of construction in the new town, including the huge Oued Fes development that covers a 6·5 square mile site, only three tourist developments near the old town have been granted planning permission.

Fez's profit-making potential, over time, looks promising, but its instant allure is certain. "There's something about the city that hooks you," says Louis. "The phrase they use in Arabic translates as 'the call of Fez'."

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news