Are Moroccans abroad buying more property back home?

Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Morocco

Are Moroccans abroad buying more property in Morocco now?

Yes, more Moroccans living abroad are buying homes in Morocco now, although the clearest increase is happening in affordable first-home purchases rather than across every corner of the property market.

The strongest evidence comes from Morocco’s direct housing-aid programme, Daam Sakane. By early 2025, around 35,000 households had benefited from the programme and roughly 26% were Moroccans residing abroad, which implies about 9,000 MRE beneficiaries. By mid-2026, the programme had passed 105,000 beneficiaries, with MRE still representing 24%. That puts the cumulative diaspora total above 25,000.

So we are looking at roughly 16,000 additional assisted MRE home purchases in little more than a year. These are completed or validated housing acquisitions, which makes this much stronger evidence than property enquiries or developer surveys.

The wider market is harder to measure because Morocco does not publish a national residential transaction series broken down by the buyer’s country of residence. We can prove that one important slice of MRE buying has grown very quickly. We cannot confidently apply the same growth rate to luxury apartments, second homes, resale property or buy-to-let investment.

Why can’t we simply count every property bought by Moroccans abroad?

Morocco still does not publish a clean national figure showing how many homes Moroccans abroad buy each year, which is why confident claims about the entire MRE property market deserve some caution.

Bank Al-Maghrib and the ANCFCC publish detailed property-price and transaction data. The Office des Changes measures transfers from Moroccans abroad. The Housing Ministry tracks MRE participation in Daam Sakane. Yet the national property series does not publicly separate a buyer living in Casablanca from a Moroccan buyer living in Paris, Brussels or Montreal.

That creates some obvious gaps. An MRE buying a MAD 2 million apartment in Rabat appears in the property transaction statistics but disappears as a diaspora buyer. Someone sending €30,000 to relatives appears in the remittance data even if none of that money reaches real estate.

We therefore need several datasets moving in the same direction before making a broader judgment. Right now, assisted MRE purchases are rising, remittances are accelerating again, Morocco’s overall residential transactions have returned to growth and banks continue to build products specifically for overseas Moroccans. The uncomfortable piece of evidence is the weak MRE buying season reported by property professionals in 2025, which comes later in the article.

Thinking of buying real estate in Morocco?

Acquiring property in a different country is a complex task. Don't fall into common traps – grab our guide and make better decisions.

Download Now

Are Moroccans abroad sending more money back to Morocco?

Yes, money sent home by Moroccans abroad is rising again quite quickly, giving diaspora households considerably more financial firepower connected to Morocco than they had a few years ago.

The latest Office des Changes figures put MRE transfers at MAD 74.79 billion during the first seven months of 2026, up 8.1% from MAD 69.17 billion over the same period a year earlier. The acceleration is noticeable because growth had been much slower over the previous two full years.

Annual transfers climbed from roughly MAD 93.7 billion in 2021 to more than MAD 122 billion in 2025. That is an increase of about MAD 28 billion, or roughly 30%, in four years.

The latest increase does not prove that Moroccans abroad are spending the extra money on apartments. It does tell us that weakening diaspora cash flows are currently a poor explanation for the property market. MRE households are sending record amounts into Morocco, and that pool is still growing.

Does record MRE remittance money mean a property-buying boom?

No. Record remittances from Moroccans abroad make more property purchases possible, but most of that money is still doing something other than buying real estate.

This distinction is easy to lose because the numbers are huge. More than MAD 122 billion came into Morocco through MRE transfers in 2025. Yet remittances finance family expenses, education, healthcare, savings and many other uses before we even get to property.

The HCP’s detailed migration research illustrates the difference well. In its national survey, direct investment represented only a small share of the everyday uses declared for remitted money. When the survey looked specifically at investments made by MRE, however, real estate dominated.

The survey is old enough that we should avoid treating its percentages as a description of current spending. What it gives us is the underlying structure: sending money to Morocco and investing in Moroccan property are related behaviours, but they are far from interchangeable.

The recent 8.1% increase in remittances becomes interesting because another dataset independently shows thousands more MRE completing subsidized home purchases.

Don't buy the wrong property, in the wrong area of Morocco

Buying real estate is a significant investment. Don't rely solely on your intuition. Gather the right information to make the best decision.

Get the data

Is Morocco’s Daam Sakane housing aid really creating more MRE homeowners?

Yes, Daam Sakane is currently the clearest reason we can say with confidence that more Moroccans abroad are becoming homeowners in Morocco.

Around the start of 2025, approximately 35,000 households had benefited from the programme and 26% were MRE. That works out to roughly 9,100 diaspora beneficiaries. By May 2026, 101,521 people had benefited and 24% were MRE, or around 24,400. A few weeks later, the programme passed 105,000 beneficiaries while the MRE share remained at 24%, pushing the diaspora total above 25,000.

The absolute increase is much more interesting than the percentage. MRE have consistently represented around one-quarter of beneficiaries, while the programme itself has grown dramatically.

As seen above, this suggests that Moroccans abroad are participating heavily in a broader home-buying expansion rather than suddenly crowding domestic buyers out of the programme.

The programme is also substantial financially. By May 2026, the homes purchased through Daam Sakane had a combined value above MAD 41 billion, while state assistance had reached almost MAD 8 billion.

What homes are Moroccans abroad actually buying with housing aid?

Moroccans abroad using Daam Sakane are mainly entering the lower and middle part of Morocco’s housing market, where homes cost no more than MAD 700,000.

The programme pays MAD 100,000 toward an eligible home costing up to MAD 300,000 and MAD 70,000 when the price is above MAD 300,000 and no more than MAD 700,000.

The latest government breakdown says 60% of all beneficiaries bought homes worth less than MAD 300,000. Earlier programme data also showed a heavy concentration in relatively compact homes, frequently around 60 to 100 square metres.

This tells us quite a lot about the current MRE growth story. The best-documented increase is happening among ordinary households buying primary or family homes. A diaspora investor purchasing a MAD 3 million apartment in Marrakech or a luxury unit in Casablanca would never appear in these numbers.

The rules reinforce that interpretation. Buyers must generally meet ownership conditions and keep the property within the programme’s principal-home framework for five years. An MRE can allow a spouse, parent or direct descendant to occupy it free of charge, which makes the programme workable for families whose everyday life remains abroad.

Get to know the market before buying a property in Morocco

Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.

Get the data

Did Moroccans abroad actually stop buying property in 2025?

For a while, yes. Conventional MRE property demand was unusually weak during the 2025 summer season, and that is the strongest evidence against the idea of a smooth, uninterrupted diaspora buying boom.

SNRT News interviewed developers and housing specialists after the traditional summer buying season disappointed badly. Adel Bouhaja from the national property developers’ federation said Moroccans abroad had been far less active than usual. Housing economist Driss El Fina estimated that transactions in the markets he was observing were down roughly 20% to 30%.

The timing matters because summer normally brings large numbers of MRE back to Morocco and often produces a noticeable jump in residential activity. In 2025, that seasonal boost largely failed to appear.

The same reporting contained an important exception: homes qualifying for direct housing aid were still seeing decent demand, particularly in smaller cities.

That split explains the apparently conflicting evidence. Subsidized MRE purchases kept accumulating while traditional diaspora buying in the broader market went through a bad patch.

Is the Moroccan property market stronger now than during that weak MRE summer?

Yes, Morocco’s property market looks healthier now, with residential transactions rising again while prices remain relatively restrained.

The latest Bank Al-Maghrib and ANCFCC figures show total second-hand property transactions up 11% from the previous quarter and 6.3% from a year earlier. Residential transactions rose 6.3% quarter on quarter and 3.9% year on year.

Apartments, which make up the most relevant category for most MRE buyers, recorded 4.6% more transactions than a year earlier. Residential prices rose only about 1% over the same period.

That is a useful combination. More homes are changing hands, but Morocco is currently nowhere near the kind of nationwide price spike that would make rising transaction volumes look like pure speculation.

We still cannot isolate how many of those additional buyers were living abroad. Combined with record remittance flows and more than 25,000 cumulative MRE beneficiaries of housing aid, however, the market backdrop is clearly more supportive than it was during the disappointing 2025 summer.

Buying real estate in Morocco can be risky

An increasing number of foreign investors are showing interest. However, 90% of them will make mistakes. Avoid the pitfalls with our comprehensive guide.

Download Now

Are Moroccans abroad buying homes to invest or to use themselves?

The strongest current evidence points toward family and personal home ownership, while pure MRE rental investment remains much harder to measure.

Daam Sakane alone has generated more than 25,000 cumulative MRE beneficiaries, and those purchases are built around owner-occupation or family use. That gives us a very different buyer from someone chasing Airbnb yield in Marrakech.

Historically, MRE property ownership has also served several purposes at the same time. A home can give parents somewhere to live, provide the family with a base during summer visits, become a retirement home later and still preserve wealth over decades.

Older HCP research fits that picture. Property was by far the largest investment category among Moroccans abroad who invested back home, especially among older and longer-established migrants.

So when we talk about growing MRE property purchases today, we should picture a large number of family buyers alongside investors. Current public data gives us much better visibility into the first group.

Is property still the main investment choice for Moroccans abroad?

Yes, real estate has historically been the dominant investment choice for Moroccans abroad, and nothing in the current market suggests that property has suddenly lost that role.

The most detailed national HCP migration survey found that 40.7% of MRE investments in Morocco went directly into real estate. Once construction and purchases of non-agricultural land were included, the broader property-related category reached 60.4%.

Agriculture represented 19%, while commerce, restaurants, cafés and other services were much smaller categories.

We should treat those exact percentages as historical rather than current because the underlying survey predates the latest housing boom, Daam Sakane and several years of record remittances.

The broader conclusion is still useful. Morocco is dealing with a diaspora that already had a strong habit of putting investment money into land and housing. Today’s subsidies, remote mortgages and developer roadshows are building on that behaviour rather than trying to invent it.

Don't lose money on your property in Morocco

100% of people who have lost money there have spent less than 1 hour researching the market. We have reviewed everything there is to know. Grab our guide now.

Download Now

Which Moroccans abroad are most likely to buy property back home?

Older Moroccans who have spent many years abroad have historically been the strongest property investors, which makes established diaspora communities much more important than raw migration numbers suggest.

The HCP found that 55.6% of investments made by MRE aged 60 or older went into real estate. Among people aged 30 to 39, that figure was 32.8%.

Investment rates also rose sharply with time spent abroad. Only around 1.5% to 1.6% of people who had lived overseas for less than ten years reported having invested in Morocco, compared with 6.4% among those who had been abroad for at least 25 years.

Country of residence mattered too. Among MRE living in the traditional European migration countries, property represented 52% of investments, above the 40.7% average across the full diaspora sample.

That helps explain why France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other mature Moroccan diaspora markets remain so heavily targeted by developers and banks. These communities contain large numbers of households that have had decades to accumulate savings and still have close family ties to Morocco.

Are Moroccan banks making it easier for MRE to buy property from abroad?

Yes, Moroccan banks have made property buying much easier for MRE by turning diaspora mortgages into standard products with remote applications, dedicated underwriting and high financing ratios.

Bank of Africa’s Salaf Dari can finance up to 85% of qualifying housing costs and allows applications to start online, in Morocco or through its overseas network. Its Damane Assakane structure can reach 100% financing in eligible cases.

BMCI also markets MRE housing finance that can reach 100% under certain conditions, with repayment periods extending to 25 years.

Crédit du Maroc went further during its MRE campaign by advertising a decision in principle within 48 hours for complete files, alongside payment deferrals and support for managing the transaction remotely.

Those products do not tell us how many mortgages are approved, so we should not turn marketing pages into transaction statistics. What they show quite clearly is that the friction of buying from abroad has fallen. An MRE no longer needs to treat a Moroccan mortgage as an unusual banking request.

Get the full checklist for your due diligence in Morocco

Don't repeat the same mistakes others have made before you. Make sure everything is in order before signing your sales contract.

Download Now

Why are Moroccan developers spending so much effort chasing MRE buyers?

Moroccan developers keep spending money to reach the diaspora because MRE remain an important and repeatable source of residential demand, even after the poor 2025 summer.

Al Omrane’s international activity gives us a useful example. Its outreach has included Brussels, Madrid, Amsterdam, Montreal and Turin, while the group has also maintained a permanent Paris presence focused on helping Moroccans abroad with property and investment projects.

Private developers follow the same logic. Chaabi Lil Iskane has taken Moroccan property roadshows to cities including New York, Boston and Montreal, often alongside Moroccan banks that can finance buyers on the spot or start the mortgage process.

Inside Morocco, the selling effort intensifies during the annual diaspora return season. Housing authorities, developers and financial institutions place staff and information services around airports, ports and other arrival points.

One roadshow would tell us very little. Repeated campaigns across Europe and North America, run by unrelated developers and banks over several years, show that the MRE buyer remains valuable enough to justify a dedicated sales infrastructure.

Is the Moroccan government deliberately trying to get more MRE to buy homes?

Yes, Morocco is actively trying to convert more diaspora wealth into home ownership, and Daam Sakane has given that policy a much more concrete form.

Allowing Moroccans abroad to receive the same direct housing aid as resident buyers was a significant change. The programme pays up to MAD 100,000 toward lower-priced homes and explicitly accommodates the reality that an MRE may continue living outside Morocco.

A beneficiary can make the home available free of charge to a spouse, parent or direct descendant while respecting the programme rules. That removes one of the obvious practical problems for a buyer who works in France or Belgium but wants to secure a family home in Morocco.

The government has also continued building MRE-specific reception and advisory services around the annual summer return period. Operation Marhaba currently uses a network of 26 reception spaces inside Morocco and in major European transit countries, while housing agencies run parallel information campaigns targeting the same population.

The measurable result is already visible: around one-quarter of Daam Sakane beneficiaries are Moroccans residing abroad.

Don't sign a document you don't understand in Morocco

Buying a property over there? We have reviewed all the documents you need to know. Stay out of trouble - grab our comprehensive guide.

Download Now

Where in Morocco is this new MRE buying most visible?

The best-documented increase in MRE home buying is likely to matter more in affordable cities and peripheral markets than in prime Casablanca, Rabat or Marrakech.

Daam Sakane immediately pushes demand in that direction because eligible homes cannot cost more than MAD 700,000. In central Casablanca or the most expensive parts of Marrakech, that ceiling excludes a large portion of normal apartment inventory.

Programme data have repeatedly put cities such as Fès, Berrechid, Meknès, Kénitra, El Jadida, Benslimane, Settat, Oujda and Berkane among important beneficiary markets, alongside Casablanca.

This also helps explain what happened in 2025. Property professionals could genuinely experience a weak MRE summer in high-priced conventional projects while subsidized purchases continued growing elsewhere.

For anyone trying to understand where diaspora demand is changing Morocco’s market fastest, smaller and more affordable cities deserve at least as much attention as the glamorous MRE destinations that dominate property advertising.

Do Moroccans abroad have enough money in Morocco to keep buying more property?

Yes, Moroccans abroad currently have a very large financial base inside Morocco, giving MRE property demand plenty of room to grow if households decide to deploy more of those savings.

Bank Al-Maghrib figures highlighted by the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad show that MRE deposits in Moroccan banks exceeded MAD 222 billion at the end of 2025.

Total deposits held by individuals were around MAD 947 billion, meaning Moroccans abroad accounted for close to one-quarter of that pool. Add annual remittances above MAD 122 billion and the size of the diaspora’s financial connection to Morocco becomes difficult to ignore.

Deposits obviously include retirement savings, emergency money and funds intended for family expenses, so we cannot treat MAD 222 billion as a property budget.

Still, the scale gives us useful context. The more than 25,000 MRE purchases recorded through Daam Sakane represent only a small fraction of the diaspora’s financial assets linked to Morocco. Financing capacity is unlikely to be the binding constraint for the market as a whole.

Get fresh and reliable information about the market in Morocco

Don't base significant investment decisions on outdated data. Get updated and accurate information.

Get the data

Are Moroccans abroad buying enough property to drive Morocco’s whole housing market?

No, MRE buyers are important to Morocco’s housing market, but the current recovery is much too broad to attribute to the diaspora alone.

The strongest MRE dataset gives us a little over 25,000 cumulative Daam Sakane beneficiaries. That is a meaningful amount of demand, especially in affordable local markets, yet Morocco’s residential system is vastly larger and includes resale apartments, self-built homes, villas, new developments, land and properties far above the subsidy ceiling.

The latest national transaction figures also show movement across several categories at once. Residential sales rose 3.9% year on year, while total property transactions increased 6.3%.

Domestic households therefore remain the core of the market. MRE add an important extra layer of demand and can have a much larger impact in individual projects, neighborhoods or cities where diaspora buyers are unusually concentrated.

The current evidence supports calling MRE a meaningful tailwind for Moroccan housing, rather than the engine pulling the entire market.

So are Moroccans abroad really buying more property back home?

Yes. Moroccans abroad are buying more homes in Morocco today, and the increase is now strong enough to show up in actual completed housing purchases rather than just remittance records, developer anecdotes or marketing campaigns.

The best evidence is Daam Sakane. Around the start of 2025, roughly 9,000 Moroccans abroad had benefited from the programme. By mid-2026, the cumulative figure was above 25,000. MRE still represent roughly one-quarter of beneficiaries, so the increase comes mainly from the rapid expansion of the programme itself.

Other current data point in the same direction. MRE transfers reached MAD 74.79 billion in the first seven months of 2026, 8.1% more than a year earlier. Deposits held by Moroccans abroad exceed MAD 222 billion. Residential property transactions are up 3.9% year on year, and apartment transactions are up 4.6%.

The 2025 slump keeps us from describing this as a continuous diaspora buying boom. Developers had a genuinely poor MRE summer, with some professionals estimating transaction declines of 20% to 30% in the markets they observed. The latest national numbers suggest that the backdrop has improved since then.

Our conclusion is firm but specific. More Moroccans abroad are becoming property owners back home, with the strongest documented growth concentrated in affordable and family-oriented housing. We still lack the national buyer-by-residency data needed to prove that MRE are rapidly increasing their share of every Moroccan residential transaction, particularly in luxury, second-home and investment property.

Get to know the market before buying a property in Morocco

Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.

Get the data

Buying real estate in Morocco can be risky

An increasing number of foreign investors are showing interest. However, 90% of them will make mistakes. Avoid the pitfalls with our comprehensive guide.

Download Now

Who is the author of this content?

SANDS OF WEALTH

A team specialized in real estate investing in MENA countries (Morocco, UAE, Oman, etc.)

We are a team of financial experts, legal professionals, developers, and local real estate specialists dedicated to helping people like you avoid mistakes when investing in real estate in a foreign place, particularly in Morocco. If you’d like to learn more about us, you can check our presentation page.