Morocco Cracks Down on Building Permit Fraud as Housing Aid Scheme Exploited

Despite the reforms implemented to limit fraud in building permits, the phenomenon persists in Morocco. Developers and individuals continue to circumvent urban planning rules to access the public subsidies granted under the direct housing assistance program launched in January 2023. The program allows first-time buyers to benefit from a grant of up to 100,000 dirhams. The frequent frauds concern the ex post regularization of construction without a permit, the false demolition followed by reconstruction, the presentation of an existing construction as a vacant lot to obtain a new building permit and an occupancy permit issued in 2025, an essential condition to benefit from the aid.

Several cases of fraud have been identified in the province of Sidi Kacem. An application for the regularization of a house built before March 2017 was filed in July 2025, i.e. two months after the deadline set by law on May 11, 2025. It was validated by the vice-president of the municipal council in charge of urban planning, without any field check or verification. In another subdivision, a house built in January 2005 was regularized in 2025, with a gap of barely two weeks between the building permit and the occupancy permit, a technically impossible deadline to complete a two-story construction.

The situation is more critical in Casablanca-Settat, where several one-stop shops have issued permits for buildings constructed after 2023, in order to allow their owners to benefit from the housing aid. According to an internal investigation conducted in June 2025 by the National Brigade of the Judicial Police (BNPJ), several municipal officials in Rabat would be involved in the irregular issuance of permits. These agents would have validated files without field control, in violation of the texts in force. Reports published in 2024 indicate persistent collusion between municipal agents, local elected officials and developers to commit fraud, without fear of sanctions.