Expert casts doubt on Moroccan plan
There is no guarantee that measures introduced by the Moroccan government to curb the growth of property prices will work, a local market expert has said.
The government decided to act because of concerns that locals can no longer afford to buy homes in many cities following a prolonged period of price rises, reports Magharebia.
Among the steps taken are imposing new taxes on vacant properties and unused land suitable for building.
However, the National Federation of Property Developers' vice-chairman Youssef Benmansour insisted it would be difficult for the government to control the property market.
"These are goodwill measures but we don't know how the state intends to apply them, because the law of the market is often pigheaded," he said.
The tax changes come after figures published by Morocco's housing ministry showed that the price of residential property in Marrakech rose by 92% between 2003 and 2007.
Morocco's finance minister Salaheddine Mezouar recently predicted that the country's gross domestic product would grow by 6.2 per cent this year, compared to 2.2% during 2007.
< Back to latest news