Casablanca Region to Tighten Building Permit Requirements

Real estate developers and real estate agencies are in the sights of Mohamed Mhidia, wali of the Casablanca-Settat region, and the Regional Investment Center of this same region. They will implement a set of measures that will be included in the building permit application procedures. One of these measures is the presentation of documents attesting to the company’s updated financial situation, particularly with regard to its indebtedness to banks, as well as the precautionary and enforcement seizures recorded in its commercial registers. The real estate company applying for a building permit must declare its legal status and provide a tax clearance certificate (Tax clearance). Another measure: models of previously completed real estate projects will have to be submitted.

The officials of the Casablanca-Settat region intend to integrate the new measures into the digital permit issuance process via the "Rokhas" platform, in order to control the access of non-professionals to the real estate sector, as the latter do not have sufficient expertise, reports Hespress. The objective pursued by the officials is the fight against the proliferation of cases of fraud in real estate projects, which have multiplied before the courts, causing considerable material and moral losses for housing applicants. These measures also aim to limit the entry of speculators into the field of real estate development, given the delays in the preparation and adoption of a law regulating the profession of real estate developer.

The idea of implementing new measures comes after the weakness of project management and the rise in construction material costs have recently led to the suspension of a large number of construction sites, as well as non-compliance by "novice developers" with their contractual commitments to customers.