Why Buy A House in Fez?

First of all, why buy a house in Fez? The Fez medina is the best-preserved medieval medina in the world, yet its architectural heritage is in serious danger.

Many of the people living in the 8,000 traditional houses don't have the means to restore or maintain them. Our hope is that, at least in the case of the more important houses, Moroccans and foreigners with the means to restore these houses correctly would do so, either to live in them, or as a holiday home or investment property.

About sixty houses have been restored in the past six years, half by foreigners and half by Moroccans. This is a much healthier situation than in some other Moroccan cities, where foreigners have done most of the restoration. Gentrification of the medina is not at all the goal, but rather a healthy socio-economic mix as
there was in Fez in the past. It used to be that there were middle-class, working-class, poor, and rich people all living together in the medina, but in the past forty years the wealthier people of Fez have moved to the Ville Nouvelle or to Casablanca and Rabat.
 If only those with some political and financial influence restored two to five percent of the traditional houses in the medina, it would make a huge difference and would contribute to the overall preservation of the medina.

Another reason to buy a house in Fez is because it's one of the few cities in the world where it's possible to own a magnificent traditional house for the price of a modest car. Traditional courtyard houses start at around $12,000, and most cost between $18,000 and $30,000. A riad, a house with a garden and fruit trees in the centre, costs between $50,000 and $150,000. In this price range you can also buy a very grand "dar", virtually a small palace, but without a garden. Generally a house without a garden is a better value, since riads are rare and highly sought-after.

Fez is also one of the few places in the Islamic world where foreigners can live comfortably and safely in the old quarter of the city. I've lived in the medina for over seven years, and it has been a wonderful experience. At no point have I felt threatened, and find the people here friendly and hospitable, even at times when there have been good reasons for hostility against foreigners. Moroccans are gifted with the ability to distinguish between the individual and his or her government's acts or policies.
Is a house in Fez a good investment? I think it is, but I would say that you should buy and restore a house primarily as a labour of love, with the expectation that you will at least not lose money if you need to sell it. Official estimates claim that the value of prices in the Fez medina are going up 15% per year, but in some cases it's been much more. I'm aware of three houses that were bought and sold in recent years: one was bought for $9,000 and sold for $20,000, one for $10,000 and sold for $30,000, and one for $40,000 and sold for $280,000.

It's good to note here that there's a local market and an international market. The key is to buy well in the local market from someone who intends to sell their house to a Moroccan for a "normal" price, and not from someone who understands that uninformed foreigners might pay significantly more.

It's also prudent to buy at the low end of the market, since there's far less risk. If you're investing around $20,000, it is easy to find a Moroccan or foreigner who would be able to buy your house
if you needed to sell. If you buy a house for $100,000 and wanted to resell it, there are far fewer potential buyers, which could mean waiting a while to sell your house.

If you are bringing foreign currency into Morocco to buy a house, it is possible for you to export the original funds plus any increase in value upon reselling the house, but it is critical that you bring the funds into the country legally through a convertible bank account and fill out the appropriate documents.

If you are buying a house to make a business, you should visit the Regional Centre for Investment, where you can get excellent advice about how to set up a business in Fez.

How can you find a house to buy? I would strongly advise going with an agent, called a "simsaar", and ideally with one who is recommended.  A good agent knows which houses have clear ownership and will be relatively easy to buy.
 Because many simsaars don't speak English or French, you may want to hire someone to help translate.  Be very careful in choosing someone to help you, since choosing the wrong "helper" can result in your paying a much higher price.

A simsaar will charge 2.5% if you buy, and some ask for 20 dirhams per house you see as an advance/tip.  Because a simsaar can go months without a sale, I would advise giving an advance of about 50 dirhams per half day that will be subtracted from the 2.5% commission if you find a house to buy; this will help keep the agent patient with those of us who need days or weeks of looking before making a decision.  It's also a good idea to ask people you meet if they know of houses for sale, since some people sell their house via word of mouth and not through a simsaar to avoid the commission. .

When you go with a simsaar, it's a good idea to keep detailed notes along the way, since things get very confusing after you've seen ten houses. I prefer to know something about a house before I see it, and ask the price beforehand. Beware of people who insist that you have to see a house before you hear the price. You should also make it very clear to the simsaar what your price range is and what kind of house you're looking for.
If the simsaar seems to be showing you houses quite different from what you said you're looking for, best to look for another simsaar.
If your limit is $30,000, it's a good idea to tell the simsaar you want to see houses between $15,000 and $25,000 and see what he comes up with.

If he knows you'll pay $30,000, you may not see a wonderful house that's $24,000. Or else you might see that house but with an inflated price. If you are told the "real" price in the beginning, you should be aware that prices with houses are not like prices in a carpet shop; the owners may be willing to accept less, but not much less.

I've bought four houses, and in only one case would they accept less than the asking price, and then only 10% less. And in four cases I know of the owners accepted to sell for one price, and then they changed their mind and wanted more! There was a lovely little house I had decided to buy, for which they were asking $18,000 and accepted to sell for $16,000, which was my limit. Then they decided they wanted $17,000, so I looked around and found a better house for $16,000, and five years later their house is still on the market!!

In determining which kind of house to look for and purchase, there are several matters to consider: location, age, size, architectural value, condition, view from the terrace, riad versus dar, clear "title" and ownership, and the cost of purchase and restoration.

Concerning location, one of the first questions to ask is how close to parking you want to be. If it's very close to parking, a house will be much more expensive, newer, and usually less interesting architecturally.
Many people have the idea that it's necessary to be very close to parking, but the better values and more interesting houses and neighbourhoods are a five or ten-minute walk into the medina.
   

It is important, however, to make sure the area feels safe in the evening. I make a point of asking as many people as possible about the neighbourhood and street in question, and go there several times at night to see how it feels. It's important to ask people who live in the medina, since Ville Nouvellians tend to think that any place other than Batha is dangerous.

In terms of age, you need to decide whether you want an older house, generally 17th to 19th century, or a "neo-traditional" house from the early 20th century. Older houses are more interesting, but generally need more restoration and are deeper in the medina. Note too that the age of a medina house is often hard to determine. There is often a date on the plaster above one of the main salon doors, but this is the date in the Islamic calendar of when that plaster was completed and generally has nothing to do with when the house was built. It's also normal for doors, beams, carved plaster, and zellij to be replaced every one to two hundred years, which means that a seven-hundred-year-old house sometimes looks like it's 19th century

The size of the house really depends on your needs and taste. If you plan to make a maison d'hotes or a guesthouse, you probably need at least four large salons. If you want it just for yourself, smaller may be better. These days’ small houses are still very good value, but larger houses that are "maison-d'hotes-able" tend to be very expensive, since the owners are hoping for a rich foreign investor.

And of course the restoration of a smaller house will be easier and less expensive. Also consider a "massreiyya", which was originally the guesthouse attached to a larger house. These are often perfect for a couple or small family and cost between $10,000 and $25,000. But make sure the front door and terrace are not shared, since negotiating with neighbours over common space is no fun. It's also quite normal for parts of one house to be built on top of another, but it's better to know that before you buy!
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In the case of my own property, Dar Bennis, the neighbours' entrance goes under the bathroom of my house. And with my new house the neighbours' main salon is above part of my house, and my upstairs salon is above theirs. This was something that I did not realise until after I had bought it. The reason for this strange situation is that originally several houses belonged to one family, but were later sold separately.

The artistic and architectural value of a house is a strange factor because there is often no connection between the price and artistic or architectural interest of the house. Generally price is based on size and location, which sometimes means you can get an amazing small or medium-sized house for a very modest price. To get a sense of the range of architectural merit, you need to spend some time and train your eye, since in the beginning all handmade zellij and carved plaster looks wonderful, but there are vast differences in quality.

With zellij look for very small joins between the pieces, and in general smaller pieces are better. If some of the colour is worn off the zellij, this is a sign of its age, and is a good thing. With painted wood, look for subtle carving instead of painting on flat surfaces, and for original painting rather than recent modern colours. With carved plaster, look for small, intricate work, and faded natural colours instead of modern pastels. Carefully examine doors and windows to determine their age and the quality of the work. If you find windows or balconies with masharabia, or wooden screens made of pegs turned on a lathe, this is a sign of an older house and is rare and desirable.

In terms of condition, you want to make sure there are no major structural problems, and ideally you want a house where not too much has been modernized, since it's expensive to replace the "improvements" with traditional zellij, plaster, and cedar. And when someone has spent a fortune to cover the walls with shiny new bathroom tile, you end up paying more.
"Benign neglect" is the thing to hope for. Look carefully at the ceilings to see how much rotten wood there is, since cedar is very expensive. Some cracks in the walls are normal, but note that horizontal cracks are more serious. Also look for water and moisture damage in the walls. This is sometimes difficult to stop, especially if it's coming from a neighbouring house. It's very common for wood and carved plaster to have layers of new paint that will need to be removed, but this is expensive and time-consuming, so try to find a house with as little modern paint as possible.

Let the agent know that you want a house with zellij "beldi" (traditional handmade mosaic) and not zellij "romi". Many houses have dark and dirty corrugated plastic covering the skylight, which makes them look much darker than they will be once this is removed. Don't eliminate a gloomy house unless you're convinced the problem can't be fixed. You need to train your eye to spot a house that's ugly now but has "inner beauty" that needs to be uncovered. At least that's the way to get a bargain. Once you find a house you're seriously considering, it's a very good idea to have an architect or structural engineer familiar with medina houses take a careful look.

Ideally try to find a house with a wonderful view from the terrace, but note at the same time that this is a bit rare. In a riad there is often no view because they are usually built on one level to allow more sun to enter the courtyard. If you can't have an amazing view of the mountains, at least try for a pleasant medina view, since this greatly affects resale value and generally makes a house easier to sell. There's a beautiful house that's been on the market for years, largely because the terrace feels like a prison yard with high walls and no view at all.

I've mentioned before that a "dar" without a garden is a better value than a riad, but if you're set on a garden with fruit trees, you can have one as long as you can afford it. It's also possible with a dar to make a roof garden and put plants and trees in containers in the courtyard. One downside to a riad is that they usually have lots of mosquitoes. I like to visit riads, but have no desire to live in one!! But this is very much a matter of taste.

Title and Deeds - Houses in Fez, at least in the medina, don't generally have a title per se, but rather a scroll written by an "adoul", an official scribe, documenting the ownership, sometimes going back several hundred years. There have been cases of falsification, so it's very important to be dealing with a reputable and knowledgeable agent. If possible, it's better to buy from one or two owners, and the longer they've owned the house, the better. It's very common for there to be a number of owners who have inherited a house, but this means everyone needs to be in agreement regarding selling and the price. My first house had sixteen owners, which resulted in a long and difficult process, but it also meant that it was very cheap because most people didn't want to deal with the ordeal.

It is possible to get an official title by paying 1% after buying a house, and some people do this via a "notaire" during the buying process. The advantage of this is that banks are willing to give a loan if the title process has been begun and paid for. It's likely too that a house with a title will bring a higher price in the future.

The Cost of Restoration - This can be difficult to determine exactly, but the rule of thumb is that it will be between 50% to 100% of the purchase price. It all depends on how much wood needs to be replaced, whether or not the plumbing and electric needs to be redone, how fancy you want your kitchen and bathrooms to be, how many times you need to redo things twice (or thrice!!), and the quality of new zellij and carved plaster you want.

My approach has been to buy a house I can live in as is and then restore in gradually as I have the funds, but you may want to restore the house before moving in. If you have a very limited budget, I suggest getting a house that needs a lot of work, but is inexpensive, and then restore it gradually. If you have more money to spend, I would try to get a place that's in better condition, since serious restoration is expensive, time-consuming, and stressful. I would also try to find a place where the artistic aspects of the house, such as zellij, carved plaster, and wood, are more or less there and in good shape, since these things are very expensive to redo, and it's virtually impossible to find someone to do them as well as the original.

It is important for you to prioritise these various considerations and know what factors are most important to you. Every house will have problems or shortcomings, and you need to figure out where you're willing to compromise and where not. It's also good to be flexible and open-minded. I know people who've started out thinking they want a riad on the edge of the medina, and end up very happy with a large dar in the heart of the medina for a quarter the price.

Additional Expenses - What expenses are there apart from the purchase price? If you buy through an agent, or simsaar, you pay the agent 2.5% and approximately another 4.5% to the adoul/scribe for taxes to register the house. It's best to budget about 7% in total. If you want to begin the process of getting a title, this is an additional 1% and you need to see a "notaire". If you buy through a notaire, you don't need to pay the adoul but will still have taxes.  Here's a very helpful article about financial aspects of buying a house in Morocco.

The Buying Process - After you've agreed on a price, you need to give a deposit or "arbon", and agree on how much time the owners need to find another place and move. Two to three months is normal, but sometimes one month is possible. It is also possible to actually close the deal and buy the house at this point, paying 20-30% at first and the balance when the house is empty and you get the key.

The advantage here is that if you only give a deposit, the owners can still sell to someone else who offers more and return your deposit. If you buy the house now and pay the balance and taxes later, there is an extra fee/tax that you have to pay. Your simsaar or adoul can tell you exactly how much this will be. You can avoid paying this penalty by paying the taxes within 30 days, even if you haven't yet paid the balance to the owners.  I would strongly advise you to pay the balance only when the house is empty and you've inspected it. This may be a problem because people often need your money to pay for their new house, and the owner of the new house doesn't want them to move in until they've paid. The legal problem, however, is that if you pay them and then they decide not to move for some reason, it will take you five years to get them out, rent or no rent. This happened to a Moroccan friend of mine who bought a house, and he warned me to learn from his foolish kindness.

Finally, you should expect that things often don't go as planned, and so you need to be patient, keep a sense of humour, and persevere. Sometimes it's painfully difficult to buy a house; sometimes people find and buy a house in a day! Note too that it's shamefully common for people to agree to sell a house for a price, and then decide that they want a higher price. For me, with the first four houses I wanted, things just didn't work out, but then when I gave up, a wonderful house appeared.

The Source: http://www.escapeartist.com/OREQ14/Morocco1.html