Affordable Housing Scandal in Essaouira Leaves Moroccan Buyers Empty-Handed

"I paid one hundred thousand dirhams to the company since 2017 to benefit from an apartment in the Nessma project for affordable housing. After almost three years, I have not yet signed a contract or received my apartment. Worse, the said apartment was allocated to another beneficiary in 2009," said a victim to the newspaper Libération. This is not an isolated victim. Other citizens have also paid advances to the company for a real estate product already allocated to other beneficiaries.

Faced with this situation, the Association of Affordable Housing for Civil Servants in Essaouira has filed a civil party complaint. Since February 2020, a complaint has been filed against the company in charge of the project and its commercial manager. The latter was arrested a few days ago.

But the situation has not really evolved since then. The association demands the immediate delivery of the apartments to the beneficiaries. Among them, people who have been deceased for several years.

The Nessma project for affordable housing was supposed to allow low-income civil servants to acquire a social housing product not exceeding 140,000 DH. But its poor management has complicated the acquisition of an apartment for many citizens.