Many Europeans choose to buy a holiday home in Morocco because it is such a beautiful country and has traditionally offered exceptional prices compared to mainland France for example. The French and British seem to be the largest groups of overseas property investors, although the current weakness in the pound is stifling demand from British buyers at the moment.

This is almost certainly going to have an effect on the value of property in Morocco, and the government has (unsuccessfully) been trying to curb the boom in house prices which is forcing the locals out of the market.

Those with cash to spend are in the best position to negotiate a bargain, because the UK base mortgage market has evaporated. Just a few years ago it was easy to arrange a mortgage on an overseas property in UK pounds, but the disastrous state of the British economy and poor financial health of the banking institutions means that is no longer an option.

This will, no doubt have an effect, and I suspect bargains will begin to surface in markets like Morocco well before they do in more established economies. The Moroccan government has no interest in artificially inflating price, nor does it have the wherewithal to do so, so prices are falling much faster in developing nations than they are in countries where the central bank is making an effort to keep prices high.

The low cost air flights to places like Agadir that helped to fuel the property boom in Morocco look to be in danger also. With no cheap air flight to that holiday home, it’s value is substantially reduced. The airlines are having a bad year, and I would expect this coming winter to have an even bigger effect than the summer did, with a strong possibility of flight routes being canceled or cut back.

What use a holiday home in Morocco if it takes two flights, a boat trip and a camel ride across the desert to get there? I am exaggerating – but you get the idea. Easy and cheap access was a good part of the reason to buy property in Morocco, and with these cheap flights to Morocco likely to disappear over the winter, this must have a negative impact.

Only time will tell just how much of an impact the economic crisis will have on investment property in Morocco, but I suspect the local population will be happy to see more affordable housing become available.