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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, 07/12/2007 - Properazzi, the property search engine, is today announcing its expansion into North Africa, giving consumers access to properties in emerging North African markets, such as Morocco, at an unprecedented scale.
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Spain has long been a favourite destination for Europeans looking to buy property abroad, but rising prices are making Europeans, including Spaniards themselves, look further south towards the emerging Moroccan market, where luxury properties can be snapped up for a fraction of their cost in Western Europe.
Responding to the growing demand for access to Moroccan properties, Properazzi, the property search engine, is today announcing its expansion into North Africa. Consumers can now browse online thousands of sale and rental properties in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt – in addition to 2.2 million properties in 45 European countries – free of charge. The launch makes Properazzi the world’s largest window into the fast-growing Moroccan property market, with some 3,700 property listings throughout the country.
Properazzi CEO Yannick Laclau said: “There’s a great deal of advice available on the Internet about why Morocco’s such a hot prospect for buying abroad, but very few properties to actually see. It’s a bit hard to get started when you don’t even know what’s available. That’s something we want to change.”
According to research collected by Properazzi, property purchases by foreigners accounted for more than 15% of foreign investment in Morocco in 2006. The hub of this activity was Marrakech, where half of all property purchases are now made by foreigners. French are overwhelmingly the largest group of foreign buyers, investing in nearly ten times as many properties in Morocco as the Brits or Americans.
Reasons for Morocco’s popularity among property buyers include:
a) It’s affordable – The average cost per square metre for a property in Morocco (€750–€1,500) is roughly half of that for Spain (€2,000) or France (€2,400).
b) The tax conditions are favourable – There is no inheritance tax when a property is passed on to a family member, capital gains tax ranges from 0%–20%, and new properties are exempt from most property taxes in the first five years of ownership.
c) The rental market is strong – Peak-season rental occupancy can be as high as 85%, allowing mortgages to be covered for the whole year from just summer-time rental income.
d) It’s close to Europe – Morocco’s geographical proximity to Europe and good travel connections make it an easy place to visit. Both easyJet and Ryanair have launched low-cost routes to Morocco.
e) Quality of life can be good – Morocco has a relatively low cost of living, a pleasant climate and beautiful natural environment, and expatriates can often manage with English, French or Spanish.
Properazzi CEO Yannick Laclau said: “Morocco’s growing success as a property investment and second-home destination isn’t surprising. Not only is it just around the corner from Europe, but you can have a good life there, and properties can be picked up for a lot less than what you’d pay in Spain or Southern France these days. With a bit more stability, Morocco might well become the ‘next Spain’ for property buyers.”
Notes for editors
• Properazzi (properazzi.com) is Europe’s largest property portal, with over 2.2 million property listings in 45 European countries and four North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt)
• Properazzi is now also Morocco’s biggest property portal, with 3,700 property listings for the country
• Properazzi allows users consumers to search for properties to buy and rent free of charge in nearly all European languages and currencies
• Properazzi uses proprietary search engine technology to crawl and extract property listings from thousands of real estate agency websites across Europe and North Africa. In June 2007, Properazzi was named as Europe’s third most innovative online technology start-up (startup2.eu)
• Properazzi was launched in March 2007 and is backed by venture capital firm Mangrove Capital Partners (mangrove-vc.com). Properazzi is based in Barcelona, Spain.
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tom.dibaja[.]properazzi.com 
