Moroccan Lawmaker Exposes Widespread Under-the-Table Payments in Social Housing Market

Under-the-table payments in social housing in Morocco are causing controversy. In a written question addressed to the Minister of Territorial Planning, Urbanism, Housing and City Policy, Fatima Zahra Mansouri, deputy Loubna Sghiri stated that several people in Casablanca, as in other cities of the kingdom, were surprised, during their search to buy social housing apartments priced at 250,000 dirhams, to find developers offering apartments at prices ranging from 310,000 to 350,000 dirhams on the pretext that these apartments are well equipped. According to her, it is unacceptable to force the citizens concerned to pay under-the-table payments, when the license obtained by the developer concerns a social housing project whose price is set at 250,000 dirhams.

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Another fact denounced by the elected official: several developers refuse, according to her, that citizens resort to the bank to buy apartments through loans, for obscure reasons. If this is the case, they demand that future buyers pay 80% of the apartment price in cash. Thus, the developer can add 60,000 dirhams and more to the price of the apartment, to sell it at 310,000 dirhams, which practically represents the value of the subsidy that the State grants to each citizen who buys an economic housing apartment, denounces the deputy, specifying moreover that several developers have forced people to pay 20,000 or 30,000 dirhams in addition to the price of the apartment set at 250,000 dirhams.

After painting a gloomy picture of the situation, Loubna Sghiri asks Fatima Zahra Mansouri to put an end to the corruption lobbies that deprive the State of its resources by frauding on the licenses, avoiding paying taxes through under-the-table payments and defrauding citizens by diverting the financial subsidies intended for them to encourage them to buy housing.

As of May 23, 2024, 11,749 people have already been able to benefit from direct housing assistance, out of a total of 73,711 applications filed. Many Moroccans residing abroad (MREs) have applied for this assistance. With a rate of 35.9%, the Fès-Meknès region is in the lead, followed by the Casablanca-Settat region (34.54%), then the Oriental region (6.5%) and finally the Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma region (about 4%). The assistance granted varies according to the price of the housing and the household’s income. It thus allows the beneficiaries to finance part of the acquisition. For 57% of the accepted applications, the price of the housing is between 300,000 and 700,000 dirhams.