MRE Buying Property in Morocco: The Guide for Moroccans Living Abroad

Foreign buyers face one real restriction in Morocco: land classified as agricultural, which a foreign individual or a foreign-owned company cannot hold without first going through a reclassification process. As a Moroccan national, that restriction was never written with you in mind, since it targets foreign buyers specifically, not Moroccan citizens who happen to live outside the country. Anywhere else, in a city, a coastal town or a new-build development, your nationality was never the question.

That doesn't mean the purchase looks after itself. A title still needs checking, a notary still needs to run the file, and a bad deal is exactly as available to an MRE buyer as to anyone else. What it means is that the parts of this article that matter to you are the ones below, not a search for a permission slip that doesn't exist.

Morocco's foreign exchange authority, the Office des Changes, lets MRE open two kinds of account specifically built for money that lives partly abroad: a compte en devises, held in the currency you send it in, or a compte en dirhams convertibles, where incoming transfers convert to dirhams automatically. To open either, you present a bank with a document proving you live or are established abroad, which the bank keeps on file, as set out on the Office des Changes' own page for MRE account opening. As of 2026, a compte en devises can send money back out of Morocco freely, in any form, and a compte en dirhams convertibles lets you convert the balance into foreign banknotes or traveller's cheques with no ceiling on the amount.

Which one you pick shapes what happens later. Fund the purchase through either account, in your own name, and you are building exactly the record a Moroccan bank will want to see before it lets a future sale's proceeds leave the country. Route the money through a relative's account or hand over cash, and you are outside both regimes, regardless of your passport.

MRE do not have to fund a purchase entirely from savings abroad. Moroccan banks can extend a dirham-denominated credit to buy or build a residence in Morocco, but the Office des Changes sets the terms tightly: you must bring in a minimum foreign-currency contribution of 30% of the price yourself, which caps the bank's credit at 70% of the purchase or construction cost, under Article 793 of the Office des Changes rules for MRE property credit. The same article requires you to declare that you don't already own another residence in Morocco, and requires the bank to hold a first-rank mortgage on the property, or a guarantee from a foreign bank, matching the amount lent.

Repayment has its own rule too: instalments, interest and bank commissions all have to be settled through a sale of foreign currency or a debit from a convertible dirham account, not from dirhams you already hold in Morocco for other reasons. Ask your bank to walk through this before you agree a completion date, since a credit application that stalls after you've paid a deposit is one of the more avoidable ways an MRE purchase gets delayed.

Morocco's real estate profit tax normally exempts the gain on a sale only if the property was your main residence for at least five years. For MRE, the Direction Générale des Impôts extends what counts as occupying that home: a dwelling that an MRE keeps as their residence in Morocco is treated as their habitation principale for as long as it isn't rented out or used for business, even while occupied rent-free by a spouse, parents or children, under the DGI's 2026 tax guide for Moroccans living abroad. A resident owner who leaves a property empty or lends it out the same way could struggle to show it as their main home. An MRE living in Lyon or Montreal, with parents living rent-free in the flat back in Morocco, does not automatically lose that status the way the wording might suggest.

This sits alongside, not instead of, the five-year rule and the tax threshold on larger sales already covered here. Keep the property out of any lease or business use if you want to preserve this treatment, and get a Moroccan accountant to confirm your specific case before you assume the exemption applies.

None of the above changes what a notary needs to check before completion. Confirm whether the property sits on a title registered at the land registry or on an older melkia deed resting on possession rather than a central register, since the difference decides how exposed you are if a dispute ever surfaces. Use a lawyer who works for you specifically, not one who is also acting for the seller or a family member on the other side of the deal, particularly where the property is coming from an inheritance or a family sale.

A Moroccan national identity card that expired while you were abroad is one of the most common last-minute hold-ups at the notary's office, since renewing one from a consulate takes longer than most people expect. Check its validity months before a planned signing trip, not the week you land.

If you cannot travel for completion at all, someone can sign the deed in your place under a power of attorney, the same route a foreign buyer would use, and it works exactly the same way for an MRE. Limit what the document authorises, and confirm with the notary in writing which form of it they will accept before you sign anything in your country of residence.