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Discrimination against foreigners in Morocco?
a
3 December 2007 20:19
It is hard work having to explain every sentence mad cow disease starts like that. On the other hand the accumulations of Beta Amyloid and plaques formation in the brain have serious affect on understanding simple things such as six out of one and half a dozen of the other.
Moroccan currency is not transferable legally and it’s worthless out side the country. You want to go there buy cheap property or a business, have cheap labourer, nice weather, nice fresh fruit and veg, nice women then take your money out of the country isn’t that a bit selfish? They don’t need people like that if you rather live a broad why don’t you do that and go on holiday elsewhere? Why people don’t go there and stay for a month try the life there before buying and committing themselves then start criticising the system.

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Wear Adidas and remain at home
s
3 December 2007 21:59
i think the strong smell from the adidas s rubber makes some people not just thick but the center of the joke and very dizzy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
if a person bought a retirment house in morocco to spend his twilight years in it with his wife , and his lifetime partner died and he just want to sell and return to his country and pay for a home care , he can t do that ? what sort of logique is that ??
of course the person who sells and return to his country he makes this decision because of some personal cirumstance , the bank in morocco need to provide the service of converting his money like all the banks around the world , this is why there is something caled : bureau de change in all countries , no one carries his country currency and goes with it abroad perplexeevilwinking smiley

some people they just have no idea about the tourist industry ,the investment , they rather live their little world dispising everyone , bitter and twisted and talking non sense 24 hrs
i don t smell just adidas blas blas blas but i smell a burned beard too , grinning smileyeviland the local moroccan vicar giving a friday service lolllllllllll(tm)
a
4 December 2007 00:17
That person once they have residency they will be treated better than Moroccans I have Money in Morocco for my retirement I can move it around by using internet banking my Bank is Wafa bank their charger are a bit high especially now that banks sell and buy currency as they please.

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Adidas early retirement plan
l
4 December 2007 09:55
Well, for one thing Morocco would Be in dire straits indeed were the MRE to stop investing their money there - AND - the tourists were to stop going. To deny this is to walk around with blinkers on. All the blinkers will achieve is tunnel vision. So you think that if a Europeen woman buys a property in Morocco jointly with her Moroccan husband, in the event of his death she should stay there alone (??) We are talking about FAMILY people here. From what I have seen over there, property certainly is NOT cheap. Not everyone is looking for nice women (in fact the ''nice'' women do seem to be well occupied with the Moroccan men!) The weather is nice - I grant you that. Fresh fruit and veg? Is anyone really gonna want to move to Morocco just for that? I agree - people SHOULD go and try life over there first before they commit to buying - but for those in 'mixed' marriages, well that's a bit different as it is usually the Moroccan national of the two who wants to keep a 'foothold' in their country (understandably) My point is that 'foreign' buyers should be forewarned about the regulations by the notaires.
c
4 December 2007 10:12
Lurcher21, the moroccan governement has taken steps to ensure fluidity of capitals in and out of the country, the problem is the administration doesn't communicate properly with investors, they're buried under tons of bureaucracy. It's only after you've transfered your money that you find out about the various conditions under which you can get your money out if needed.

Another problem is the lack of coherence, one administration can tell you one thing and the other the opposite. You need to hire pricy fiduciaries right from the outset and not everyone can afford to pay those kind of fees.
Right now, it looks like a honey trap, the moroccan administration needs to clean up its act in regards to outside investments (foreign or MREs), otherwise the current rush will fade away quickly.
l
4 December 2007 14:30
Quote
adds
That person once they have residency they will be treated better than Moroccans I have Money in Morocco for my retirement I can move it around by using internet banking my Bank is Wafa bank their charger are a bit high especially now that banks sell and buy currency as they please.

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Adidas early retirement plan

So are you saying that you can transfer funds overseas from your Wafabank account in Morocco ?? By Internet ?? That IS a revelation as I cannot even transfer funds overseas from my UK bank account over the Internet!
a
4 December 2007 16:55
if you are in UK and near London go behind the Moroccan consulate there is Bank sha3bi just ask how can you move your money between your accounts you will be advise how to do it. Hint, How do you think people how weel and dealin Morocco pay for there goods overseas and on e-bay. I am talking here on legitimate ways. also check with BMCE or Wafa tijari inetrnational.

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Albasse Adidas m3a rassik
s
4 December 2007 18:15
lurcher , halifax has a very good transfer service , very secure and efficient , it is a 24 hours service , 7 days a week , sometimes i transfer money to wafabank at night on saturday evening just by a phone call , if you are in england just go to any halifax branch and ask them to give you the info very simple and great , and the transit time is only 3 days , the fee is cheap too: £ 17 ,50
it s called a phone account
l
5 December 2007 09:13
Quote
stardevil
lurcher , halifax has a very good transfer service , very secure and efficient , it is a 24 hours service , 7 days a week , sometimes i transfer money to wafabank at night on saturday evening just by a phone call , if you are in england just go to any halifax branch and ask them to give you the info very simple and great , and the transit time is only 3 days , the fee is cheap too: £ 17 ,50
it s called a phone account

Yes, it is very easy to transfer funds TO your Moroccan account (from any bank) It's the other way around that's impossible! We opened an account with Banque Populaire at the Moroccan embassy, about 25 years ago or more. We had a bank giro paying in book to pay money into the account (at any Post Office) as we lived nowhere near London, and the fee was only about 75 pence!
s
5 December 2007 13:26
from morocco to england , you better use: BMCE, BANQUE MAROCAINE DES COMMERCES EXTERIEURS , i think they have a branch somewhere in london , check their web site , a lot of people use them to transfer money from morocco to europe , for exemple people with children studying abroad , rich moroccan with houses in europe, businesmen ....etc , i am sure they have some sort of easy service there Clap
l
5 December 2007 14:43
Quote
stardevil
from morocco to england , you better use: BMCE, BANQUE MAROCAINE DES COMMERCES EXTERIEURS , i think they have a branch somewhere in london , check their web site , a lot of people use them to transfer money from morocco to europe , for exemple people with children studying abroad , rich moroccan with houses in europe, businesmen ....etc , i am sure they have some sort of easy service there Clap

Thanks we will look into this.
z
18 May 2014 12:56
et me tell you about my experience with my house in Asilah, 40K south of Tangier. I thought I was well equiped to buy property here. I'd been in the Peace Corps in Morocco thirty years ago. I speak the Moroccan dialect somewhat fluently and had returned to study classical Arabic in Fes.

I bought a house near the ocean in the working class neighborhood of Lala Rahama with a view of the ocean. The building code limits houses in my neighborhood to two stories with a room on the roof. Since the mini-revolution in Morocco in 2011-2012, no building codes are being enforced. Three years ago people started building with no permits, no engineering plans, and no qualified masons. One house, three meters wide, is four stories high. The man around the corner, who claims to run a "youth hostel" and trolls for young tourists at the train station, is adding a fifth story to his house. Problem? The house is built on an eighty centimeter foundation, adequate for only a one story house. His house is the talk of the local professional masons. When it will fall? Where it will fall? And how many tourists will it kill when it goes?

My house is in a row of houses with another row at the rear. My house joins the house at the rear with a common patio wall. The neighbors in the back started building, cracked walls in my house, looming over my patio and roof terrace. They haven't raised their patio wall. I have no privacy inside my house. Moroccans are not the quietest people, like Italy times ten. Moroccans' usual supper time can be 10-12 o'clock at night, so you hear the metal mortar and pestle from the kitchen, banging away at mid-night. Okay, if you hear it through a few brick walls, but coming directly over the patio wall from their kitchen to my bedroom window makes it a large problem. Add screaming babies and adults who normally speak at a bellow...

I called the town engineers. They came to look over the situation. "Yes," they said," those sons of sin, everything they've done is illegal. In the past, we would have come and knocked down any illegal additions. Now, what would we do if some one pours gasoline over his head and sets himself on fire? We would have a problem, like in Tunisia." In other words, the government is afraid of revolution.

The engineers said I could build my patio wall. That will cost 1000 euros. I'm a retired public school teacher, living on teachers' retirement.

I went on to the mqadam (official in charge of our neighborhood). He got me an appointment with the caid (official equal to the pasha). The caid found it amusing to be speaking with a nisrania (christian woman) who spoke some Arabic. His first question? Why didn't I buy a house in the old medina with the rest of the christians? I assured him I wasn't as wealthy as the nisara in the old medina. He turned to the mqadam, asking him if the neighbors needed the extra space. Yes, said the mqadam, because they only owned the second story of the house. The caid shrugged.

As I write this I hear the hammers of masons working on a three story hotel being constructed, 30 meters from the ocean that will block more than half of my ocean view. Under Moroccan law, 50 meters is the legal distance from the ocean. Additionally, the hotel is going on land that has been declared unsafe for construction because it is sandy fill. How does this happen? Mone and We've been to the same string of officials that I saw about my house problem. Only shoulder shrugs.

Okay, move out of Asilah? Who owns land directly below a rural house I considered buying? The same man who is building the hotel in front of my Lala Rahama house.

Your investment is not protected in Morocco. I see no change in enforcement in the future. speaking with abna (professional masons), they say the situation is worse with large developments...pay off, connections, influence, and well placed money
P
5 July 2014 09:17
I have been recently thinking about buying a small holiday home in Morocco so that my family can go there over the summer holidays. But having read the above I don't think that will be a good idea as I have limited funds and investing in a house in a country where there is so much uncertainty, the legal system has no real clout and it's about who you know, not what you know would be a huge risk. I might consider the south of Spain, as this is in the EU and if i do want to visit Morocco then can easily do so by ferry into Tagier.
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