Morocco Unveils New Real Estate Pricing Framework to Combat Property Fraud

The long-awaited new Common Reference Framework for Real Estate Prices has finally been launched. Omar Faraj, Director General of Taxes (DGI), and Karim Tajmouati, Director General of the National Agency for Land Conservation, Mapping and Cadastre (ANCFCC), signed the Partnership Agreement implementing the provisions announced at the National Tax Conference held last May. This was under the chairmanship of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Mohamed Benchaâboun.

This new Reference Framework is being implemented from the beginning of July 2019 (with a two-month delay on the initial schedule), on the scale of Casablanca, Nouaceur and Médiouna (segmented into 349 defined or linear zones). Its generalization to all the cities of the Kingdom is planned for 2020.

This Reference Framework renders obsolete the price base used by the DGI, which dates from 2015 and has not been updated since, and that of the Land Registry, which has never been made public. Its references differ from those practiced by the DGI, with the differences in assessment suffered by professionals in the sector, as well as buyers, between these two administrations.

Among the innovations introduced by the new Common Price Reference Framework are the digitization of the database and its free public access. It should also be noted that this reform introduced puts an end to the land mafia practiced, most often, in the sector.