Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia: what is available to a foreign buyer

Three North African markets within short flights of both Europe and the Gulf, and three quite different propositions.

Egypt

• Citizenship by investment exists, based on a deposit with the central bank, a property purchase above a threshold, an investment in a company, or a non-refundable contribution. It is one of the few such programmes outside the Caribbean and it is state-run.
• Residence is also granted on property purchase at lower levels, for terms scaling with the amount.
• Property: foreigners may own with limits on the number of units and on land area, with restrictions in certain areas including parts of Sinai.
• What to weigh: currency history is the dominant risk — the pound has devalued repeatedly and sharply, and a property bought in local currency terms behaves very differently in dollars. New administrative capital and coastal developments are the focus of the marketing.

Morocco

• Property: foreigners may own freely except agricultural land, and the market in Marrakech, Casablanca and the coast is established with genuine local demand behind it.
• Residence: a residence card obtainable on evidenced means, employment or business, renewed and leading to longer-term cards.
• Tax: residents are taxed on worldwide income, with a specific reduction for foreign pensions remitted to Morocco — the provision that attracts European retirees.
• Citizenship is possible after long residence and is granted sparingly.

Tunisia

• Property: foreign purchase requires governor's authorisation outside designated tourist zones, which adds time and uncertainty to a transaction.
• Residence on employment, business or means, renewed periodically.
• What to weigh: the smallest and thinnest of the three markets, with currency restrictions that complicate repatriating proceeds — a point that decides the exit before it decides anything else.

The shared question

In all three, the money question is not the purchase but the exit: currency controls, convertibility and the practicalities of moving sale proceeds out. Establish that before establishing anything else, because a good return in local currency that cannot leave the country is not a return.