MRE Mortgages: Financing a Moroccan Home From France, Belgium or Canada

Morocco's Office des Changes sets out two separate ways to finance a home purchase for anyone who does not live in Morocco, Moroccans and foreign nationals alike, under its page on credits for the purchase or construction of property. The first is a dirham-denominated mortgage from a Moroccan bank, capped at a share of the price and tied to a foreign-currency contribution. The second is a loan from a bank in the country where you actually live, with a Moroccan bank issuing a guarantee against the property instead of lending the money itself. As of 2026, both routes sit under the same instruction, and nothing in it treats a Moroccan national living abroad differently from a foreign buyer with no Moroccan ties at all.

If a Moroccan bank lends you the money directly, Article 793 of that instruction caps what it can cover: you have to contribute a minimum of 30% of the property's price yourself, in foreign currency, before the bank's 70% dirham credit applies on top. That 30% has to arrive either as a sale of foreign currency or a debit from a compte en dirhams convertibles, the same convertible account structure that should hold your money before you transfer anything toward the purchase. A transfer that arrives as ordinary dirhams, or cash with no paper trail behind it, does not count.

Repayment follows the same logic for the life of the loan. Principal, interest and the bank's own commissions all have to be settled through a further sale of foreign currency or a debit from that convertible account, not from dirham income you might already hold in Morocco for another reason. The bank also has to secure the loan with a first-rank mortgage on the property itself, or with a guarantee from a foreign bank covering the amount it has lent.

The second route flips who actually lends the money. Article 796 of the same instruction lets a Moroccan bank issue a guarantee, a caution, to a bank abroad that is lending you the money to buy the property, and that guarantee can cover up to 100% of the property's value rather than the 70% ceiling that applies to a dirham mortgage. In practice, this is the route that suits someone who already has a mortgage relationship, a salary on file and a credit history with a bank in France, Belgium or Canada, and would rather borrow against that relationship than start a new one from outside the country.

The guarantee comes with its own conditions. The Moroccan bank issuing it still has to take a first-rank mortgage covering at least the guaranteed amount, and it has to arrange for the full purchase price to be repatriated into Morocco through the banking system. Any commission the Moroccan bank charges for the guarantee has to be sent back to Morocco within 30 days of falling due. If the loan is ever called in because repayments stop, the Moroccan bank can transfer the unpaid amount abroad to the foreign lender, or realise the mortgage and send the net proceeds to whoever is actually owed the money, after settling anything due in Morocco first.

Whichever route you use, you have to sign a sworn declaration, before the credit or the guarantee is granted, stating that you do not already own another residence in Morocco. Both Article 793 and Article 796 carry the same wording, and a Moroccan bank will not process either kind of financing without it on file. If you already own a home in Morocco and want to finance a second one, raise that with a banker early, since these two specific credit routes are written for buying or building a residence you do not yet have, not for adding to a portfolio.

If you are earlier in the process and still working out the ownership, account and tax basics that apply to any MRE purchase, start with our wider guide to buying as an MRE before you narrow down a financing route.

None of this happens quietly on the bank's side. Article 794 requires the lending bank to report the credit to the Office des Changes as soon as it is granted, attaching the loan contract itself and proof of the foreign-currency contribution you made. That filing is not paperwork for its own sake. It is what later lets a bank prove, years down the line, exactly how the purchase was funded, which is the same question any Moroccan bank will ask before letting you transfer proceeds out of the country if you eventually sell. Keep your own copy of everything the bank files, not just the loan contract, because reconstructing it from memory when you are trying to close a sale is far harder than keeping the folder now.

The financing structure you choose now decides what you can take out of Morocco later. Article 795 sets out exactly what a bank can transfer abroad once you sell a property bought this way: your original foreign-currency contribution, whatever principal you repaid in foreign currency or from the convertible account, and any capital gain on top, once you produce the notarial deed and proof the relevant taxes were paid. None of that depends on how large the sale is. It depends on being able to show, on paper, that the money behind the purchase came from abroad in the first place.

This is why the two routes are not simply a question of which bank is more convenient today. A dirham mortgage leaves a paper trail inside Morocco from day one. A guarantee against a foreign loan leaves that trail with the bank abroad, and relies on the Moroccan bank's own guarantee file to connect the two. Either works, but only if the bank holding the file is still around, or can produce the record, when you eventually sell.