Moroccan Renters Face 100% Commission Shock: Calls for Urgent Real Estate Reform

"The person looking for rental housing is faced with high commissions, reaching 100% of the initial rental amount in cities like Rabat," denounces Ahmed Bayoud, founding president of the association "With Consumers" to Hespress. According to him, the lack of a clear legal framework governing this profession opens the door to disorder in prices and manipulation in commissions, which leads to a significant imbalance between supply and demand, and places the consumer in a permanent position of weakness. He insists on "the need to stipulate maximum commission percentages in the expected text, flexible and adaptable according to the specificities of the cities and the variation in rental prices".

For Bayoud, regulating this sector more strictly does not mean fighting the mediation profession itself, as it is essential; on the contrary, it aims to encourage fair and transparent competition, and to limit forms of collusion and secret coordination. He suggests drawing inspiration from "the French experience", which, according to him, is exemplary and can serve as a reference to regulate the market and strengthen the trust of citizens. "The responsibility for consumer protection should not be limited to consumer goods issues only, but should include everything that affects the daily life of citizens, starting with housing," he hammered.

And to estimate: "Specialized associations can exert pressure through press releases and coordination with partisan, political and institutional actors in order to further promote this cause and plead for an urgent solution". "Morocco is progressing in all areas, and it is necessary to develop a different official vision to organize certain forms of mediation in Morocco, as they are in a state of disorder," said Boujemâa Mouji, vice-president of Uniconso. For him, "the State is now called upon, more than ever, to intervene urgently in order to clearly organize this profession, in order to guarantee respect for the principle of free competition and to prevent monopoly or tacit agreements".

Otherwise, "the absence of this legal framework directly harms the rights of consumers and places them in the face of practices that often lack transparency and integrity," added Mouji. He will continue: "What is being asked for today is to allow the citizen to pay in return for a service with which he is satisfied, and not to force him to pay a disproportionate commission in relation to the real value of the service, in a situation that gives him the impression of having been defrauded," in a country that is striving to entrench transparency and justice in the market.