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07-01-2010, 20:03

Citaat door kingmaroc:
Morocco's efforts to create affordable housing could receive a much-needed shot in the arm by way of the 2010 Finance Bill, which appears set to include a re-launch plan for the troubled sector.

The plan would aim to resurrect construction of affordable homes, which ground to a halt in 2008 when the Moroccan government revoked tax breaks for private developers. That change embittered the developers and caused the construction of affordable housing units to plunge from 129,000 in 2008 to only 35,000 in 2009.

"I've been waiting for years for house prices to come down and for the state to step in and restore order," said Abdelhaq Ezzine, a Casablanca carpenter. "Measures to benefit ordinary Moroccans are really overdue."

Without the new measure, which is still being debated in Parliament, many Moroccan lawmakers believe no affordable housing will be built this year. In the hopes of avoiding another crippling showdown, the re-launch plan would offer incentives to developers.

Under the bill being discussed, developers would be granted exemptions from income and corporate taxes, as well as breaks on registration fees. They would also receive vouchers for relief from the special tax on cement. However, they would still have to pay the value-added tax on other construction materials.

"The advantages given [to developers] will allow a return of investment to the construction industry, with all that it entails in terms of opening up new construction sites, job creation and sales of building materials," the chairman of the National Federation of Housing Developers, Youssef Ben Mansour, said in a press statement on December 21st.

The plan would cap the price of affordable housing at 290,000 dirhams for the next 10 years. State grants would be provided to eligible buyers to make the houses more accessible to low-income Moroccans.

Economist Anas El Maâtaoui told Magharebia that the plan would raise the maximum cost of affordable housing by 45%, but added that the increase was justified.

"The 200,000-dirham benchmark dates from 1995, and over these 15 years, the prices of land and materials have seen increases of between 50 and 100%," he said.


Other analysts cautioned that the state would have to keep an eye on the programme to ensure that only needy people benefitted.

Against the backdrop of such concerns, the plan would create strict measures to prevent real estate speculators from profiting. First, a unit purchased under the plan would have to be the buyer's main residence, not a second home.

In addition, the contract would have to be drafted by a notary acting as an intermediary between the buyer and seller.

"If the buyer decides to sell [the property] at some point in the next four years, he will have to repay the 40,000 dirhams he received from the state," a local notary told Magharebia
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/01/05/feature-01
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