I was kind of curious to know what it is happening there as there has been a lot of talk on this forum.

On other forum I have found the following comments:

1)" Saidia is in a complete mess as I had suspected......areas that are supposedly finished look very scruffy.
the golf course looks pretty naff.........
it shows how crammed together the properties are and how near the road, how small the gardens etc........
I wonder who is going to be responsible for all the 'waste land' which lies in scruffy pockets here and there...............
When I was there I saw the mains drains etc full of plastic bottles and builders rubble and it just seems to be a sign of how little care has been taken over this development.
It is quite depressing how little has changed in the last year, apart from throwing up yet more apartments to rake in the money........."

2) "There has been and may still be, a lengthy strike at the Fadesa site with hardly any work taking place for months. There has been a lot of anxiety over the financial situation of the company,who are not yet completely out of the woods, and if it were not for this site then clients would have been completely in the dark as neither Fadesa. Addoha nor in particular the Moroccan press publish anything unless it is giving them a pat on the back....."

3) "There are serious issues with regard to the specs in RT1(Magnum). The kitchen is identical to the one used in the APs- porous worktop and all. Apparently Fadesa even rated the kitchens available in Mobilia as too expensive! And this is meant to be their showpiece development with the highest specification. And then the base of all my internal walls was damp / mouldy. So bad that the plaster will need to be hacked out. The spiral staircase was so rusty as to be beyond repair. And the tiling on the solarium was simply atrocious. "

How can things be so bad at a "flagship resort"??? Are the Moroccans commiting financial suicide? Do they allow all the Plan Azure to go down the toilet?

Don't prod the speculators they get upset

I know where you have taken the quotes and you will also have read more positive views that portray events in a better light. (Though one poster clearly has vested interests and his views have to be taken with a pinch of salt.)

It was good to see the pictures that another poster had taken, but you need to remember:
- This is a building, not a completed resort. As such it is going to look untidy.
- Pictures referred to were taken on an overcast windy day. It’s amazing the difference some sunshine can make.
- Building is only advanced / complete for some developments within section 1 of Saidia (the western most part.) This will be the blandest section as properties are generally Andalucian in style and for permanent dwellings rather than tourist rentals. Build is of a higher density in section 1 and facilities will be better in the touristic developments within Saidia (generally in sections 2 & 3 towards the East.) So no surprise that developments nearing completion feel relatively crammed (was obvious would be the case from the plans that purchasers will have seen when buying off-plan.)

I’m not trying to paper over issues that have come to light in recent weeks. Many issues need resolved and those that have invested in Saidia will closely follow the progress that the Master Developers make.

Hi Soup,

the comments I posted are from people who visited the site and who had properties on the site and were unhappy about the site.

I accidentally arrived on the Totally property forum and I was quite surprised to see those comments. My initial reservation towards Saidia was only due to the high prices, I expected Fadesa et al. to do serious work and hand out some good constructions...

Catara, I don't for a minute think your carefully selected comments are simply curious.
Equally, Soup, as an exposed investor, doesn't want to be too critical of events at Saidia.
I have been surprised at the lack of typical HPCers (who are always on the look out for anything negative on housing) contributing to the Saidia threads.

I am very glad that I did not invest in Saidia (although I did invest elsewhere instead and wish I hadn't bothered). My reasons to pull out of Saidia were to do with the lack of bank guarantees and concerns about whether a secondary market would develop in which to sell my property at a reasonable price.

I did not see the credit crunch coming, the delays being so severe, the difficulties with Fadesa etc but what has surprised me most is the speed at which normal/amateur investors appear to have ditched overseas property investment as a pastime and can barely be bothered to argue about it any more on forums.

This will change in time but for now the name of the game for investors is to hope that their developers can stay in business and that a secondary market then develops for their properties. It was always a risky investment at Saidia but right now (if the prices are still where they were 2 years ago) I think the risks far outweigh the rewards.

Well, if you go to that forum, you will see that the negative comments come from people who visited Saidia this month or last month.

The positive answers come from agents...

Believe me or not, I would like to have a holiday somewhere in Morocoo after things are built. It cannot be worse than many junky places in Spain...

About amateurs abandoning the forums, maybe Dogbox had 10 nicknames and used them to hype Saidia. I wonder what else is he hyping now, rice prices?

Catara. They are indeed quotes from people that have invested, but in my opinion they are the most negative posts from people that have invested there. (No harm in that, your quotes do show the problems being encountered at the moment.)

You mentioned prices being high from Day 1. That’s fair enough in that from a construction cost perspective there is quite a mark up for the developers*. Where those that have invested feel they have got value for money is in the breadth and quality of facilities that should be available.

*A positive from this is that it increases likelihood of Saidia being completed. (If margins were low then project could very easily become uneconomical for developers with rising cost of borrowing etc.)

What is the current prediction for the timeframe of the resort's full opening?

Catara, not so long ago 2010 was being banted about on the forums, but we both know that's not likely.

Thanks Soup.

I shall become curious again about Saidia in 2010. Hopefully there will be some good news by then.

What did these investors expect to see? The hanging gardens of Babylon perhaps?

Herds of Wilderbeests sweeping across majestic plains.....

It is really amazing to see that the interest in Morocco "investments" has gone from all around hype to total indifference...
There are only 15 months since many were raging about Morocco being the next best thing et al.

Well, I guess I am young enough to never have lived through property bubbles. Next time I shall be prepared.