Moroccan Property - latest information

One of the many properties on offer: this five bedroom guest house in the Fez Medina is for sale at 540,000 euros through Fez Real Estate. 

The Moroccan property market has been in the doldrums for the past few years, but according to The Sunday Times, buyers are set to return.

In an article published last weekend, writer Zoe Dare Hall points out that Morocco, along with Turkey, is an attractive alternative to Spain, Italy and France and has considerably lower prices.

Since King Mohammed VI opened the skies with a view to increasing tourism, the abundance of cheap flights to Morocco has made the country a haven for those looking for a beautiful and unusual home or retreat.

While property prices rocketed in 2006-7, especially in Marrakesh, the global financial crisis; public perception of the Arab Spring and the bombing in Marrakesh in April have combined to dampen recent investment. However, the bombing appears to be an isolated incident and Morocco has remained stable during the recent political upheavals. With the debt troubles in Greece likely to impact on the entire eurozone, Dare Hall suggests that now is a good time to invest in Morocco.

Renovated four-bedroom riads near Djemaa el Fna square start at £370,000 through Savills (020 7016 3740, savills.com), but less touristy cities like Fez, Essaouira, on the Atlantic coast, Tangier, on the Strait of Gibraltar, offer better opportunities. You can find old houses in Fez for as little as £20,000 through Fez Real Estate (00 212 535 637775, fez-realestate.com). They also list high-end properties, such as the guest house shown above.

If you want to let out your property, while Marrakesh remains the strongest market for short-term lets, it is worth considering Casablanca suggests Kate Stinchcombe-Gillies, head of marketing for Holidaylettings.co.uk. “Demand for lets there is phenomenal, but we have little inventory.”

You can find the full article on The Sunday Times website.

Mad about Fez?

Recently we have a ran an article on the property scene in Fez that looked at the issue of commissions and viewing fees. One company mentioned in the article was Madaboutfes

Mark Willenbrock runs Madaboutfes, and here he explains a little more about the way he does business.

MADABOUTFES

Madboutfes does indeed charge 10% commission. This includes rather more than just the agents fees.

We do NOT, ever, charge for viewing houses. If anybody has been asked for a fee by an associated simssar and I can confirm this, I will refund the fee. Simssars do sometimes ask for a modest fee for viewing; we pay them directly so the client doesn't have to.

We work closely with a very small group of traditional simssars. They charge, normally, 2.5% to both the purchaser and vendor of the property; 5% in total.

They often have great difficulty in extracting their fee from the vendor, in particular, so, in order to encourage them to work with us, we guarantee the simssar his fee. This amounts to 5%.

We charge 5% for our own services. This includes a years consultancy and support. This is not undertaken lightly; it's a potentially huge commitment.

Professionalism.

I should add that I am not, unlike most people involved in the property business in Fes, an amateur. I was trained as a Chartered Surveyor in the UK. My family business was investment property, and I have worked for a number of clients over the last twenty years, specialising in the acquisition of property for development and investment in the international market. I'm not cheap.

Madaboutfes has never advertised, and nor do we need to. The web site is very much a work in progress and does not yet fully explain our fee structure and services, but rest assured, it will.

I should also point out that following a misunderstanding regarding fees, we elected to voluntarily withdraw from a sale and charged no fee whatsoever. It's interesting to note that, without our influence, the price of this property then rose by a substantial amount!

You will find Madaboutfes here: http://www.madaboutfes.com/index.html


Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Fez Medina - the media buzz continues.

Buying property in the Fez Medina used to be a pretty relaxed affair. You wandered the streets, explored Fez, looked at dozens of houses, and had a chat to the few brave souls that had trodden the path before. You also read all the information on the web and arranged to meet David Amster for a detailed discussion. Having been in the Medina for years David was and is something of an inspiration to the first wave of house buyers and restorers.

Now things are changing. These days the typical house hunter is likely to have far less information in advance, arrive on a plane from Luton, spend four or five days and return to Britain owning a house or at least have set the wheels in motion. It all seems so easy. Of course reality will catch up with them as soon as the renovation process begins and they discover that opening up a small hotel is not as easy as they imagined.

As one riad owner observed recently, "This is the year everything changed." - and he is right. The next logical question is "What has changed."

One obvious answer is the media interest. At least two TV shows featuring houses in Fez, dozens of articles on the travel pages and more recently major newspapers, radio and TV, have looked at the property value side of the equation. In the last week alone The View from Fez has been contacted for comment by three newspapers from the US, UK and Australia and each time the focus was "property".

As is always the case, the TV and press will hunt out either the interesting or "beautiful" characters for their stories and in the case of Fez we had a quiet bet on who the "media darling of the Medina" would be - Yes, our mate Louis Mcintosh. (See story here)

Those who read our earlier article (yes, we thought he was a great story too) on Louis will know most of his background, but a recent article the Evening News also includes a video clip of his house, Dar Mernissi that is worth a look. Louis will feature again in a major British daily in the near future.

Here, is an excerpt:

“After three days looking at 50 houses I found myself the ideal one in the heart of the famous medina.”

The extensive property also has a 160 sq m roof terrace with views over the medina and hills beyond.”

Mr McIntosh plans to spend 50,000 euros renovating, sorting out plumbing, electrics and has been told once it is complete it could be worth 200,000 euros. He then plans to open it as a small guest house.

When he first took it over nobody had lived there for 10 years and the locals had taken to keeping sheep in it. Mr McIntosh is renting a place nearby while restoring the house to its former glory.

He said: “I must say it is nice to be mortgage free at last as millions in Britain struggle to pay bills, credit cards, mortgages and the evil council tax to keep their head above water. Here, the main large bill is electricity but to live daily is so cheap it is ridiculous.”

But, will the houses continue to be cheap, or is all this media attention driving prices up? The answer is that it is a contributing factor rather than a definite yes. Property experts expect the prices to continue to rise for four or five years and for a secondary market in renovated houses to emerge. There are signs that this secondary market is in its infancy, but one very tastefully renovated small dar has been on the markets for months and so far failed to sell. However this may be because of a range of factors - the price and the fact that it is a relatively modern house in a market where the greatest interest is in older style dars or riads.

May you live in interesting times - is said to be a Chinese curse. In Fez, it appears to be a blessing.

You will find the Evening News article and video pics on Louis here: Turning my back on England

Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Essential reading list for buying property in Morocco

The View from Fez gets so many emails about buying riads, dars or houses in Morocco that we have decided to collect our most useful posts in one easy to bookmark site. So we have launched Moroccan Property as a separate service We would also like to hear from you about your experiences good and bad of buying or renovating in the Fez Medina or anywhere in Morocco. We hope these pages help you in your search for the perfect home in Morocco.

Riad for rent

Tangier Property Market

Has Marrakech boom peaked?

Buying a house in Fez? - A warning

More villas and apartments for sale

Moroccan property boom - another view

Moroccan property boom - Irish style

British view of buying property in Morocco

Why restore a house in Fez?

Buying and restoring in Fez

Buying property or renovating in Fes

Buying a house in Morocco - Book review

Buying property in Morocco - the essential list of contacts

Luxury golfing community in Morocco

Foreigners buying up big in Morocco

Impact of mass tourism on Morocco

Renting a house in the Fes Medina

Riads to rent

If you are considering buying a riad or dar in the Fez Medina, you should do nothing until you read the very informative pages provided by David Amster on his superb House in Fez site.

House purchase may seem easy and inexpensive, but restoration, while rewarding, can be a difficult process. To avoid problems, make sure you have as much information as possible. The House in Fez pages are here: House in Fez.