Morocco’s real estate market began to recover in the second quarter of 2026 after a sharp slowdown at the start of the year. Transactions rose 11% between April and June compared with the first quarter, and the real estate asset price index gained 0.7%, according to Bank Al-Maghrib and the National Land Registry Agency (ANCFCC). However, the rebound looks more like a partial catch-up than a lasting recovery, with wide gaps between cities and types of property.
The recovery follows a steep drop in the first quarter of 2026, when transactions fell 38.4% for residential property, about 46% for land and 40.2% for commercial and professional property. Against that backdrop, the second-quarter rise looks more like a partial recovery of earlier losses than the start of a full upward cycle.
The price index is calculated jointly by Bank Al-Maghrib and the ANCFCC using the repeat-sales method, which only counts properties sold at least twice during the period studied. This approach limits distortions caused by differences between properties.
Prices and sales move at different speeds
The return of buyers has started to push prices up. In the second quarter, residential prices rose 1% compared with the previous quarter, land prices 0.6% and professional property prices 0.4%.
Transactions recovered unevenly. Land sales jumped 21.8% over the quarter and professional property sales 23.5%, while residential sales rose only 6.3%. Yet residential property recorded the strongest price increase, a sign that this segment remains highly sensitive to changes in demand.
Within professional property, offices stood out, with prices up 5.3% and transactions up 20.5% over the quarter. Sales of commercial premises rose 24.3%, while their prices remained stable.
Compared with the second quarter of 2025, the overall price index was up 0.7%, with residential prices up 1%, land 0.3% and professional property 0.6%. Total transactions rose 6.3% year on year: 3.9% for residential, 4.1% for land and 31.9% for professional property.
Apartments lead, houses and villas lag
The breakdown of residential property confirms this trend. Apartment prices rose 1% over the quarter, compared with 0.3% for houses and 3.3% for villas.
The annual picture is more mixed. Apartment prices rose 1.1% year on year, while prices for houses and villas fell 0.7% and 0.3% respectively. Apartment sales rose 4.6% over the year, while sales of houses fell 5.6% and villas 7.1%. Apartments, which best match the budgets of most households, are clearly driving the market.
“The recovery is still a catch-up”
Mohamed Bensedik, a financial markets analyst specializing in real estate asset management, said the second-quarter figures show liquidity gradually returning to the market after a sharp contraction. “But the recovery is still in a catch-up phase, and it cannot be separated from the level of supply available in each local market,” he told Hespress.
He added that the rise in prices alongside the recovery in sales, especially in housing, shows that part of the demand is returning to areas where housing stock is not expanding at the same pace. This makes prices more responsive to any further increase in demand.
A market of many local markets
The geographic map of the market shows how deep these differences are. Over the quarter, prices rose 2.3% in Tangier, 1.9% in Rabat, 1.7% in Fez and 0.7% in Kenitra, compared with 0.5% in both Casablanca and Marrakech. Prices fell 0.9% in Meknes and Oujda.
The gaps in transactions were even larger. Sales jumped 61.2% in Rabat over the quarter, compared with 18.3% in Marrakech, 11.5% in Tangier and 4.4% in Casablanca.
These figures show that Morocco’s property market is made up of local markets driven by different factors: the appeal of specific neighborhoods, the availability of land for development, infrastructure and proximity to economic activity. In Casablanca and Rabat, pressure remains strong in highly sought-after areas such as Casablanca Finance City and Hay Riad in the capital. Meanwhile, areas around Casablanca, such as Dar Bouazza, Bouskoura and Zenata, benefit as part of the demand moves toward new projects and expanding urban zones.
Financing: a key factor
Household financing capacity remains a key factor for the market’s direction. Total loans to households reached 403.4 billion dirhams at the end of July, up 3.3% year on year, while housing loans grew 2.6%. Participatory (Islamic) financing for housing reached 32.1 billion dirhams, up 17.1% over the year, providing an additional channel to turn latent demand into actual purchases.
This puts the market in a delicate balance. Better financing and the gradual return of buyer confidence can support sales, but they may also increase pressure on prices if supply does not respond quickly enough. This risk is highest in areas where demand is concentrated on apartments and homes that match households’ purchasing power.
“Daam Sakane” widens the buyer base
Demand has received an additional boost from the “Daam Sakane” direct housing aid program, which has become one of the main drivers of the affordable and middle-market housing segment. The program, running from 2024 to 2028, provides direct aid of 100,000 dirhams for the purchase of a home priced at up to 300,000 dirhams, and 70,000 dirhams for homes priced between 300,000 and 700,000 dirhams.
By May 7, the program had 101,521 beneficiaries out of about 193,000 eligible applicants. The total passed 105,000 beneficiaries in early June.
The profile of beneficiaries shows how widely the program has extended demand. The middle class accounts for 60% of beneficiaries, women for 47%, young people under 40 for 52% and Moroccans living abroad for 24%.
The program’s impact goes beyond reducing the direct cost of buying a home. It also steers buyers and developers toward properties that fit within its price caps. This creates more opportunities for small and medium-sized projects in cities and towns where property prices are still below those of the major hubs, spreading demand and investment across a wider part of the country.
The question now is whether supply can keep pace with this new demand without creating additional pressure on prices.
