North Africa Construction: Morocco

The Moroccan construction industry is expected to grow between 2016 and 2020, driven mainly by investments in infrastructure, energy and new residential housing projects.

The total value of production is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.07% compared to 1.26% in 2011-2015.

Population growth (+4% per year) and the growing rate of urbanisation are pushing up demand for housing, in response to which the government is expanding its social housing projects. The lack of housing is a priority issue, and despite the large number of houses already built the number of units available remains relatively low compared to demand. According to the Minister for Urban Policy, the country had a housing shortage of 642,000 units in 2014. To maintain a balance between supply and demand, around 170,000 new dwellings will have to be built per year.

The Moroccan government has also launched the New Cities project with the aim of building 15 new cities by 2020, and through this programme will provide land at competitive prices and with substantial tax incentives. Morocco is also building “green” centres near large cities so as to create a diversified supply of houses while caring for the environment (one example is Bouskoura Green Golf City located 10 km from Casablanca).

To encourage the construction of private schools, the government has set up FOPEP (Fonds de Promotion de l’Enseignement Privé) to co-finance these initiatives.

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