Morocco has started the new year by launching one of the most eagerly awaited initiatives in Alawi society. Since 2 January, potential beneficiaries - both inside and outside Morocco - have been able to apply for the direct housing support programme promoted by the Ministry of National Territorial Planning, Urbanism, Housing and Cities Policy.

1. How to apply for housing support
2. A project with a lot of room for development

How to apply for housing support

In order to be one of the beneficiaries of this project, the Ministry has launched a platform where applications can be submitted. In this way, all applications will be submitted digitally. Once they have been formulated, the authorities will verify that they meet the necessary conditions to be eligible for aid, such as, for example, not owning residential property, or not benefiting from any aid or housing privileges provided by the state, among others.

In addition, all those who wish to take part in the project must commit to allocate the purchased property as their main residence for a minimum period of five years. Once all these conditions have been confirmed, the application should be approved within seven days from the date of submission.

With the application reviewed and validated, the aid will be sent within the next 15 days, either by bank cheque or transfer. After payment, the beneficiary has up to one month to finalise the property purchase agreement. In this way, the Ministry is seeking an agile process that will allow access to as many people as possible in a relatively short period of time.

A project with a lot of room for development

The idea is to distribute between 70,000 and 100,000 homes during the first year. Although new property developers are expected to join the project as the application platform becomes established and the volume of registered applications begins to be known. Many of these developers are waiting for more data so that they can identify property categories that match the demand and their projects.

More than 9.5 billion dirhams - just over 875 million euros - has been allocated to this initiative, and the price per home should be around 300,000 dirhams - 27,000 euros. In addition, some existing social housing will also be available at a lower price. But most of them are located in suburban areas with lower demand, which is one of the problems the project has to face.

There is a very high demand in the more central areas that probably cannot be fully satisfied. This is one of the reasons why some potential new developers are waiting for opportunities to develop new projects that are in high demand. Youssef Benmansour, former president of the National Federation of Real Estate Developers, has already stated that housing availability is expected to be limited in large cities compared to smaller ones.