Morocco's housing aid leaves 109,000 eligible buyers waiting as slum backlog persists
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More than 109,000 applicants who qualified for Morocco's direct housing assistance have not yet been paid, Housing Minister Samir Belfkih told Parliament, as the country's housing deficit is put at about 300,000 units.
More than 109,000 applicants who met the eligibility requirements of Morocco's direct housing assistance programme have yet to receive any financial support, according to figures presented by Housing Minister Samir Belfkih to Parliament during the debate on his department's draft 2027 budget.
The government had received 263,840 applications as of November 4, of which 237,456 met the eligibility criteria. Only 127,707 applicants had been paid, Belfkih said, meaning beneficiaries account for 53.8 per cent of eligible applications and leaving more than 109,000 qualified applicants still waiting.
The scheme assisted 33,649 people in 2024, 48,671 in 2025 and 45,387 so far in 2026. The state has allocated MAD 10.5 billion to the programme, which has helped finance property purchases worth a combined MAD 52.5 billion. The subsidy covers an average of 20 per cent of the purchase price, leaving buyers to finance the remaining 80 per cent excluding additional costs, the ministry said.
Belfkih said the programme had coincided with increased construction activity and housing finance, but he acknowledged that access to homeownership is only part of the problem. About 300,000 units are estimated to be needed to close the national housing deficit, and thousands of households still live in informal settlements or in buildings at risk of collapse.
A total of 121,940 households were still living in slums in 2026, according to the ministry. Of these, 8,921 were covered by completed housing units, 69,080 were linked to projects under construction and 39,785 to projects still under study, while 4,151 households had yet to be included in a planned intervention.
Since its launch in 2004, the Cities Without Slums programme has improved housing conditions for 392,284 households out of an initial target of 514,224, or 76 per cent of the total, at a cost of MAD 76 billion, including MAD 16.98 billion contributed by the housing ministry. Authorities have declared 63 of the 85 cities covered by the programme free of slums, leaving informal settlements in 22 cities.