New window into Morocco?s emerging property market launches

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. The French are overwhelmingly the largest group of foreign buyers, investing in nearly ten times as many properties in Morocco as the Brits or Americans. (ends) Notes for editors  Properazzi (http://www.properazzi.com) is a property search engine for all of Europe and North Africa, with over 2.2 million property listings in 45 European countries and four North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt).  Properazzi allows users consumers to search for properties to buy and rent free of charge in nearly all European languages and currencies.