Morocco Buying Costs and Property Taxes: A Foreign Buyer's Guide (2026)
Cheap entry, a 7.31% gross yield and the lowest bubble score Glopra measures — yet Moroccan prices have gone nowhere in ten years. What buying really costs.
A Moroccan apartment costs less per square metre than anything else in Glopra's comparison group, and it carries the least speculative froth of any market there. Those two facts arrive together, and they arrive with a third one buyers tend to skip past. Glopra's 2026-07-23 snapshot, built on methodology v3, puts the city average at 1,351 USD per square metre and scores bubble risk at 16 — low, and the lowest figure in the whole group, with data confidence rated high. The third fact is that the price of that apartment has not moved. Read honestly, Morocco is a yield market, not a growth market.
Ten years of flat prices
Measured in dollars, Moroccan housing is down 4.6% over five years and down 4.2% over the last twelve months. Stretch the window to ten years and the total gain is 2.4% — a decade of standing still. There is no repricing story here of the kind Lisbon or Warsaw delivered, and pretending otherwise sets up a disappointed seller five years from now.
Part of the explanation sits in the price-to-income ratio of 14.15. Against Moroccan salaries, housing is already expensive. Domestic buyers cannot push prices much higher, and the foreign buyer base is far too thin to do the job alone.
The rent has to carry the purchase
Glopra's gross rental yield for Morocco is 7.31%. That is the whole investment case, and it is not a weak one — few Mediterranean markets pay that, and none at this entry price. It does change what a sensible plan looks like. You are underwriting a cash flow over years, and every dirham spent at purchase has to be earned back out of rent rather than out of a resale premium.
Where the 10.3% goes
Total transaction cost lands at 10.3% of the purchase price in Glopra's figures. Registration duty to the state is the largest single item, followed by the land-conservation and inscription fee paid to ANCFCC — the payment that actually puts your name on the title — then the notary's fee with VAT on top, and an agency commission where an agent was involved.
On a 90 m² flat at the average price, that is roughly 12,500 USD gone before the keys change hands, or about a year and a half of gross rent at 7.31%. Certified translations and legal due diligence sit outside the 10.3%, and they cost noticeably more when the property is unregistered melkia land rather than a titled parcel.
A 40% allowance, then the barème
Residential rent gets a 40% abattement, so only six dirhams in ten reach the tax computation at all. What remains enters the LF 2025 barème, which starts at 0% up to 40,000 MAD of taxable income and steps up to a top rate of 37%. Non-residents use the same barème as residents, with no surcharge for foreign ownership — the 2025 guide published on mre.gov.ma is explicit on that point.
Because the allowance and the zero band both bite hardest at modest rents, the effective burden swings widely. Glopra models it at 11.3%, inside a range running from 3.12% to 14.09%. One small apartment tends to sit near the floor; several units push you toward the ceiling. Anyone quoting a single headline rate for Morocco is quoting a number that fits almost nobody.
The simple option is the expensive one
There is also a 20% libératoire — a final withholding on gross rent, no allowance, no annual reconciliation. It gets presented as the default often enough that owners assume it is compulsory. At both rent levels Glopra models, it produces a larger bill than the barème, and that overpayment repeats every year you hold the property.
The 10% and 15% retenue à la source causes a separate confusion. It bites only where the tenant is a legal person or keeps formal books — a company housing staff, say — and the amount withheld is credited against your final liability instead of added to it. Rent to an individual and nothing is withheld at all; you declare and pay yourself.
Tax rules change and this is general information rather than tax advice — confirm your own position with a Moroccan notary or tax adviser before you commit.
Sources
Glopra
Loi de Finances 2025