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Agadir – Nearly 1.8 million people in Morocco’s rural areas have benefited from simplified procedures for obtaining building permits, Minister of National Territorial Planning, Urban Planning, Housing, and Urban Policy Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri said on Monday.
Speaking during a House of Representatives’ session, El Mansouri said the number of beneficiaries rose significantly following the implementation of a circular to streamline building permit procedures in rural communities.
According to the minister, the number of people eligible to obtain building permits without being subject to minimum land area requirements increased from 550,000 before the circular’s publication to 1.8 million.
“Previously, we were talking about a population of around 550,000 people. Today, that number has reached 1,008,000 people who are entitled to obtain permits without difficulty,” El Mansouri stated.
El Mansouri noted that the number of officially delimited douars, or rural villages, expanded from 975 to 4,698, while the total area covered increased from 15,000 hectares to 130,000 hectares.
“We issued a circular that enabled us to define and designate dependent rural centers. Thanks to this measure, the number of recognized villages increased from 975 before the circular to 4,698. The area concerned expanded from 15,000 hectares to 130,000 hectares, which is a substantial figure,” she maintained.
The minister also pointed to a sharp rise in permit applications and approvals. The number of processed files climbed from 52,855 before the reform to 193,423, representing an increase of more than tripled. Meanwhile, projects receiving favorable opinions grew from 28,103 to more than 111,000.
Housing projects also recorded notable growth, increasing from 22,844 to 62,200. El Mansouri said that 68% of these projects concern plots measuring less than 1,000 square meters.
She added that investment volumes linked to these projects surged from MAD 10 billion ($1 billion) to MAD 110 billion ($11 billion), describing the increase as evidence of the reform’s positive impact on rural populations.
Beyond permit reforms, El Mansouri said Morocco has continued to expand urban planning coverage in rural areas. The coverage rate of rural municipalities by urban planning documents has now reached 84%, alongside the approval of 145 development plans for rural agglomerations.
