Buying Your Property with Bosworth Property Marrakech

Purchasing property in Morocco is thankfully a very straightforward process. The property that will
interest a first time investor will have a freehold title deed (Titre Foncier) and provides undisputed
and eternal ownership. The title deed is registered with the Land Registry and will have your name
on it. There are no limits on foreigners buying residential or commercial property and you don’t have
to be a resident.

Other forms of ownership are possible – notably Melkia – and further information is available in our
Free Guide to Investing in Marrakech available at the following URL:
https://bosworthpropertymarrakech.com/freeguide

The purchasing process

Once your offer is accepted you, the purchaser, choose your notary in Marrakech. The notary will do
diligence on the paperwork and ensure that everything is in good legal order. The seller will provide
the notary with all relevant documents – Title Deed, plans of any renovation that has been carried
out, Habitation Permit (Permis d’Habiter). The notary will then ask you to deposit funds in escrow –
either the full price plus fees and taxes if you wish to complete immediately, or a deposit of 10% if a
Promise of Sale will be established before completion.

Contracts are then signed before the notary. Upon final signature you get the keys to the property
and full use thereof. The Land Registry will then establish a new Title Deed in your name (this takes
about 3 weeks).

Contracts are established in Moroccan dirhams for all property transactions. If the price agreed is in
foreign currency (Euros, Dollars, Sterling) the exchange rate is fixed by the Central Foreign Exchange
Office in Rabat at the moment of reception here in Morocco.

Costs

Please note that the following Taxes and Fees are applicable when you buy property in Morocco. The
amounts are calculated according to the contractual price of the property you are buying, ie the price
you are paying.
Stamp Duty – property tax – 1.5%
Land Registry Fee –4%
Notary fee, including VAT –1.5%
Bosworth Property Marrakech fee, including VAT -3%
The total of fixed taxes and fees is therefore approximately 10% of the price of the property you
are purchasing.
There is an administration cost of approximately 2000 dirhams per contract.
Other fees may apply depending on circumstances, notably if you are purchasing a Guesthouse and
its commercial goodwill. In this case there will be two contracts –one for the house and one for the
goodwill. In this case please budget another 1%.
If you are not fluent in French, a translator will be appointed by the notary. The usual cost is about
3000 dirhams per contract.
If you wish the notary to register your foreign investment (see below), which is highly recommended,
you will pay between 2'000 and 5'000 dirhams depending on the amount of currency imported.
Your notary may provide other services for which you will have to pay, notably the establishment of a
Power of Attorney (POA) for signatures in your absence. Please ask your notary for the cost of these
services before agreeing to them.

Declaring your foreign investment

It is important that your investment is registered with the central Foreign Exchange Office in Rabat.
This will enable you to export the entirety of your funds, including profit after tax, if and when you
decide to sell your property in the future.

The easiest way to do this is to transfer the price and the associated costs directly to your notary’s
escrow account and to ask the notary to register your investment. A document called Formula 2 will
then be added to your file for future reference.

Alternatively, you can open a local bank account in convertible dirhams, transfer your foreign
currency to this account and require your bank to establish the Formula 2 for you.

Without a valid Formula 2, the export of the proceeds of your future sale will still be possible yet will
be more complicated.

If you have any questions concerning the technical aspects of buying your property here in
Marrakech, please feel free to call us on +212 6 5802 5028 or mail
colin@bosworthpropertymarrakech.com

Marrakech

May 2020