Housing: Conditions for direct assistance clarified
The presentation of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s budget to the Interior Committee was an opportunity to unveil further aspects of direct assistance for access to housing. As Minister Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was absent, it was the Secretary General of her department, accompanied by the Minister for Relations with Parliament, who took charge of this mission.
In addition to the two amounts of housing assistance (100,000 Dirhams – USD 10,000 – and 70,000 Dirhams – USD 7,000), Youssef Hassani listed the conditions for granting this support. Applicants must not be the owners of a property reserved for housing. They must not have benefited from any aid or advantage granted by the Government in the field of housing. The property in question must be transferred for the first time and the building permit must have been issued on or after January 1st, 2023. Similarly, a buyer must commit to making the property his or her principal residence for 5 years. The terms and conditions for granting assistance are specified as follows. Once the application has been submitted to the digital platform, an applicant is granted initial approval. This is followed by the conclusion of a sales agreement and the filing of a copy in the platform. This is followed by the transfer of the grant to a notary and the conclusion of a final deed of sale.
These procedures are carried out via the digital platform dedicated to this operation. This platform will be set up in partnership with the Caisse de dépôt et de gestion (CDG) (Government’s) financial institution. The aim is to ensure the transparency of this aid operation, on a first-come, first-served basis, which presupposes the signing of partnership agreements with the relevant stakeholders, in particular the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, and the Land Registry Agency. The Al Omrane real estate group, the government’s operator specialized in the housing and development sector, is responsible for carrying out pilot projects.
On a social level, the goals of real estate development are to strengthen the purchasing power of families to own housing in rural and urban areas. The aim is also to cover housing needs and consolidate integration into projects. On the economic front, the idea is to preserve the real estate sector’s place in the national economy, improve the annual employment opportunities created, and boost private sector participation, particularly by SMEs, not to mention the organization and control of the real estate market.
Mohamed CHAOUI
