And the Boom Goes On

But not in the usual places. This article (in French) at the LeMonde.fr newspaper website describes new real estate projects going up in Morocco.


[Thanks to morocco-property.com for the image.]

Yes, it seems that since 9/11 the petrodollars are not as welcome as they used to be in the Western world, so the Arab Emirates, Kowait, Bahrein, and Qatar have turned their attention elsewhere.

Morocco is expecting some $3 billion dollars worth of investments in 2007 alone, two-thirds of which come from the European Union, mainly France and Spain. The Moroccan Economic and General Affairs Ministry expects the Arab nations to equal Europe by 2008.

There will be Tinja, a whole village of 2,500 luxury homes, a sports club, hotels, stores, worth about $billion. They will rehabilitate a well-known site in Rabat for $12 billion over seven years, and carry on three other tourism projects around Marrakech.

Then Dubai will develop similar projects between Rabat and Sale, as well as one in the port of Tangiers.

Near Tangiers it's the Qataris who will build a competitive luxury project 1.5 miles along the Atlantic. There will be a golf course, a equitation center, a conference center, and a casbah (Moroccan marketplace).

Gee, we could have used some of that money in Los Angeles to repair the potholes.