Michael Sands

Hi catara, If you're planning a trip to Tangier the best way is to take the hydrofoil from Tarifa as it's a much more pleasant experience than the busy Algeciras (but a little more expensive about 50 - 70 euros depending on time of year). You arrive in the ferry port in Tangier and it's here that some people form a negative opinion of Morocco as you'll often be greeted by all kinds of hustlers and guides, although it's much better now than it used to be. The best thing to do is avoid eye contact and calmly and firmly say "No Thank you" - they're not very persistent and will usually respect you. If you like you can take a Grand Taxi (one of the mustard coloured Mercedes) and this shouldn't cost more than 50 Dirhams to go anywhere in town - always agree before getting in as a usual response is "Pay what you like" and this inevitably results in an argument at the other end! Things to see I like to take a taxi or train to Asilah for lunch - this small fishing village has lots of character and you can ease yourself into Morocco enjoying a lunch by the ramparts. The scenery on the way out is a bit like the South of France (less development) and you can see why the area is now so popular for residential tourism. If you take the longer route via Cap Spartel you can see the point where the Atlantic and the Med meet as the powerful currents push together, also on this route is the Grottes de Hercules - the caves where Hercules is reputed to have lived and where there is an opening to the sea which bears an uncanny resemblance to the shape of Africa. In Tangier itself: The Medina and Souks - Travel up the hill from the port and you'll find yourself in the souk area. There are the Gran and Petit Souks. The main square features the art deco Cinema Rif - now fully restored. If you want a tour look for one of the official guides - Ali who is usually in the Metropole Cafe is excellent. Perhaps on of the most interesting things is to just walk the streets of Tangier - this way you find lots of interesting places and will undoubtedly end up chatting to the locals. Tangier was controlled by the League of Nations up until independence and as you walk around the town you can see how the InterWar Powers placed their mark on the city. The wide French boulevards in their sector; the Italian church in their sector and there's even a slice of England in the St Andrews Church. If you'd like anymore info (hotels, restaurants etc...) just let me know. Hope you enjoy the trip!

Dear catara, It's definitely worth taking time out from a holiday on the Costa del Sol to explore Tanger. Although in half a day you wouldn't have much time to see much real estate - and be warned the crossings in August are extremely busy with Moroccans returning from France and Spain for the summer. I'd avoid August if at all possible. You would have a chance to see the change happening in the city and the gentrification of the older areas. It definitely has the feel of a city on the move and in ten years or so it will look very different.

Ali, I quite agree, Tangier is a great place to invest, but if you want to have great beach holidays as well then Saidia is the best option.

Hi there Big Log, I've seen this video before and it does remind me of the problems that they've had with unlicensed building in Spain. But one advantage of buying a new build in an Moroccan Plan Azur is that this is very unlikely to happen. I'm not here to "ramp up" Saidia - some people will always think it's brilliant and some will think it's madness. That's the way of the world. All I'd say to people is to go there have a look and then decide with the facts in front of them. It's not for you and I respect that - others may well love it and have a fantastic time there plus make some money on their property as well. I'm not a blind optimist or a doomsayer - people are intelligent enough to make up their own minds.

Hi there Big Log, I'm new to this forum so I don't know about your previous posts but there seems to be a fair amount of personality clashes and rudeness towards some posters. I don't want to get involved in that and I want to use this space as it was intended - for debate. I note your point about construction quality, and yes the early FADESA units are poor. But I think the qualities are no different from any other emerging market indeed better than I have seen in Dubai and Egypt - and each construction in Morocco does come with a 10 year build guarantee - the only issue is that no one has ever tried to enforce this yet! It seems that Saidia has a polarising effect on people, for and against it. I guess this is because the scale of the project and the fact that it's in a new area means some people simply don't see the point. The main trouble is that there is now so much conflicting (and incorrect) information coming out about the resort I can understand people being cautious. For instance, your wife's friend says Saidia is a piece of crap, Far enough he's entitled to his view and no resort will ever appeal to everyone from Moroccans to a Moromons and everyone in between. But I must correct a couple of inaccuracies in what he's said - the golf courses are built and will be ready and the clubhouses and other facilities are being done now. The Marina is the centrepiece and I agree that now it doesn't look great - but this is because it will need to be full of boats before it takes on any character. Then the place will be buzzing with people and activity and then it will be what we expect.

******************** Michael You've painted a very rosy picture of progress in Saidia, and I for one (along with many others) wish this was the case, However one cannot ignore the very real concerns many current buyers have such as promised completion dates (which have come and gone without so much as a very sorry Sir) and the very real concerns on build quality. you mentioned that you are out there on a weekly basis due to your vested interest, are you really confident that the Marina, Shopping Mall and AP's along with the Barcelo and Iberostar Hotels will be in full operation by June? the reason I ask this is because current photos from various sites do not give me the confidence the is the case ( yours included). Barcelosaidia.com is still not confirming any future booking dates in Saidia, not sure what site your looking at? Adoha have been just as lax in updating their worried clients as the new Customer Service Dept. is non existent, you would have thought they'd be shouting from the roof tops of how well the build is going and promoting the Resort to UK buyers in a much better light. A reply to worried clients emails would be a good start! I'd like to share your optimism and hope I'm proved wrong, but I don't think the site will be operational properly until next summer. Mozo Mozo, I think that you make some very good points. The issue of completion dates has been handled badly and Oasis and TASA in particular have been put back many times. It seems there is a bit of a split on this between people who are happy to wait and those who want to occupy - much of it goes to personal preferences and we would always advise which projects are beg¡hind and those that will complete on time. Yes many of the photos you see are now easily 6 months old - the last few times I've been there it's been overcast and/or raining so we haven't updated. But I take your point and will make sure we upload some more recent pictures to the site. As far as I'm aware the King is scheduled to come and open the resort in June and I think that they'll have to work hard to achieve this date but I've seen many times in Morocco how they can "throw men at a project" and get things done. I totally agree with your last point. Both FADESA and Adohha have been awful about telling people what is going on. Some of this is due to institutional failures and some due to the mode of thinking that says "If we don't tell anyone what we're doing then we can't be proved wrong". It's depressing but you have to remember that we're not working in a sophisticated capitalist economy here and "Business" is still conducted in haphazard fashion. In terms of promoting the resort it seems that Adohha will be no better than FADESA. I think a good DVD made at the start would have sold this resort around the world, as it's only when people see Saidia that they see the potential. We will be working with some of the other developers to get something produced.

I understand the comments above - there's no denying that Saidia has had problems with the collapse of FADESA. However since September/October last year the lead developer has been Adohha. Initially there didn't seem to be much change but this was due to them carrying out a study of exactly where the resort was now and designing a plan to take things forward and get everything back on schedule. This has been done and on a recent visit the additional number of workers on site was noticeable. The resort is still on schedule to open in June 2009 and the hotels (Barcelo and Iberostar) are taking bookings for rooms from this date. Overall Saidia is a massive undertaking, but building a resort for 30,000 people from scratch in Morocco was never going to be a problem free operation. The good thing is the close personal interest taken in the project by the King and the realisation by the Moroccans that it simply has to succeed. Recently new investments and tie ups have been announced by Radisson, Golden Tulip and the David Lloyd Tennis Resort. These companies could have chosen anywhere in the world but after research by professional consultants they've chosen the potential of Saidia - a ringing endorsement for the resort. In case you hadn't guessed - yes I am an agent - and we've just launched the Blue Pearl Golf Resort in Saidia. (186 frontline golf apartments, fully furnished with 8% rental guarantee. www.bluepearlgolf.com The first new development to launch in Saidia for about a year. For our company this is an enormous step and effectively puts all our eggs in a "Saidia" basket - yet despite the market I still firmly believe that Saidia will be a tremendous success. We've dealt in property all over Morocco for the last few years and have been visiting Saidia weekly for over 3 years and I would still recommend it as the best place to invest in Morocco. There may be some further small delays but at least now they've put in competent people to run it and they have a very clear idea of what they what to achieve - and how to do it. Keep an eye on Saidia this year and you'll be pleasantly surprised. It was never a place to "flip" but those who decide to complete and continue their ownership for six plus years will make a return that will prove the doomsayers wrong.

I started this thread as I was curious to see the reaction from Forum users with regard to Morocco. But as usual a couple of users have quickly degenerated into insults and "Who's right". Oh well I suppose that's the problem with forums and anonymous users. I'm not a ramper making exorbitant claims about Morocco - just trying to ignite a reasoned debate. But as I mentioned originally I work for a company selling Morocco and, whilst there's undeniably been a reduction in sales in the last few months, inquiries are still strong, especially from certain non-UK groups. I get the impression that the media in the UK is so relentlessly downbeat that it's really killing confidence there. Our French clients seem unconcerned by the "downturn" and as they buy mostly for pleasure these sales have continued. As a company we've always focused on people who actually like the country (and we only sell Morocco) rather than offering unrealistic hype to people looking to flip and so I think that we'll continue to trade successfully. One thing I have noticed is that we've had quite a few inquiries from large funds and investors looking to start projects in the last few months and they have all conducted considerable amounts of research before getting to this stage - so they have confidence in Morocco. The biggest change I've seen is a collapse in interest in Marrakech - the word seems to have gone out that it's overpriced (true in some areas) so people looking for capital growth from off-plan properties aren't investing there. It was interesting to see the debate about the tunnel - I've always used mentions of the tunnel to give a Bullsh*tometer for agents as it's usually the worst ones who mention it and use it in their sales material. I would only ever mention it in passing, personally I can't see it being built in my lifetime due to the cost and technical issues - plus I'm not sure the political will is there from France and Spain. I don't share the "end of the world is nigh" mentality of some others - business goes on - there are still areas and countries that are ripe for development and I would put Morocco in that group. Indeed as things get tight Morocco will be ideally placed as an exotic yet close destination that offer something different from luxury spa hotels to kite surfing.

I'm an agent selling exclusively in Morocco and I can see that there now even better reasons to invest in Morocco due to it's economic isolation and predicted growth. I'd be curious to know if that opinion is held by many others on this forum?