Hiring a construction company in Morocco when you live abroad

By Yassine AT-TARASSI, architect · Updated on 27/10/2026 · Reference texts (3)

For an owner who lives in Europe, the Gulf or North America, choosing the company that will build the house is the decision that carries the most risk: you will not be there every day, and the company will. This guide gives a method you can apply remotely: what to send the companies, what to check about them, how to compare their offers, what to write in the contract and how to pay without getting ahead of the site.

The remote owner's problem

On a Moroccan site, most disputes start with a sentence like "I'll build your house for so much per square metre". A price per m² with no quantities cannot be compared, checked or enforced. When you live abroad, you also cannot see what is poured, laid or forgotten. The method below replaces trust with documents: a common tender file, written checks before payments, and a contract that says what happens when something goes wrong.

1. Send everyone the same tender file

Ask for prices on the same tender file (dossier de consultation) prepared by the architect and the engineering consultancy (BET): construction drawings, reinforced-concrete drawings, specification of works and bill of quantities. Each company only fills in unit prices. A serious quote then reads like a technical document: one line per item with unit, quantity, unit price and amount, grouped by package, then a summary excluding VAT, VAT and including VAT. See our example of a Moroccan house quote.

2. Check the company without meeting it

On CITURBAREA, owners and companies do not exchange phone numbers or e-mail addresses: requests, offers and messages go through the platform, and you can see the company's legal identity (name, trade register, ICE) before committing.

3. Contractor or tâcheron: the remote-owner view

A tâcheron (labour-only builder) who prices only labour cannot be compared with a general contractor who supplies everything. In the CITURBAREA estimator, for a two-storey 150 m² house in Kénitra, mid-range finish:

The gap is about 29 %, but it is not a net saving: with a tâcheron, someone has to buy the materials, check deliveries and coordinate the trades every week. From abroad that someone is rarely you. A common middle path is a general contractor for the structural work and separate trades for the finishes, all supervised by the architect.

4. Compare three offers like an auditor

1. Same quantities. If a company changes the quantities, it is pricing another project.
2. Everything excluding VAT, then apply VAT yourself.
3. Package by package, then line by line: foundations, frame, masonry, waterproofing, electrics, plumbing…
4. Look for the missing package. A much cheaper offer often omits waterproofing, external drainage or low-voltage systems, or reduces quantities.
5. Flag outlier unit prices compared with the estimator reference or the average of the offers, and ask for a written explanation.

Your architect analyses the offers and writes up the differences: that is part of the tender assignment (see architect fees and assignments).

5. What the contract must say

• Price: lump sum, or schedule of prices applied to quantities actually built.
• Time limits, start date and late-completion penalties.
• Compliance with the permit drawings and the BET's reinforced-concrete drawings, with a check before each pour.
• Payment schedule linked to stages checked in writing (table below).
• Retention (retenue de garantie) until final acceptance. Its rate is agreed in the contract. As a reference only, the general administrative conditions for public works contracts (CCAG-T, decree 2-14-394, art. 64) withhold one tenth of each instalment, capped at 7 % of the contract amount, and pay the withheld amount back to the contractor at final acceptance; this text governs public contracts and applies to a private contract only if the contract expressly refers to it.
• Extras: any additional work through a written, priced amendment before it is done.
• Handover: written record, snag list, deadline for fixing them.
• Ten-year liability for the soundness of the building (article 769 of the Code of Obligations and Contracts; text not reviewed in our regulatory reference file: check the version in force before relying on it).

Working with the company from another time zone

Agree in the contract on how the company reports to you: a weekly photo report, the name of the site manager who answers, and a written channel for questions and decisions. On CITURBAREA, these exchanges go through the platform messaging and video calls, so every decision is dated and kept in the project space; no phone numbers or e-mails are exchanged. Decisions taken orally on site, without a written trace, are the ones that turn into disputes over extras.

6. Pay what has been checked, not what has been promised

For scale, the structural work represents about 53 % of the works in the estimator and the finishing packages most of the rest. On CITURBAREA, payments are tracked on the platform: progress claims and invoices are approved by the client before payment.

Warning signs

• A single price per m² with no quantities.
• A large advance requested before any work, or cash payments without receipts.
• No concrete class, foundation type or slab thickness on the quote.
• Missing packages: waterproofing, external drainage, low-voltage systems, false ceilings.
• An offer far below the others with no written explanation.
• No ICE, no verifiable address, refusal of a written contract.
• "We'll add a floor, nobody will notice": an unauthorised change exposes you to the penalties described in planning violations.

7. Supervision after signing

Supervision by the architect (visits, reports, approval of progress claims, handover) protects your budget and quality. With the site management and coordination assignment (OPC), the architect also plans the works, coordinates the companies and checks each progress claim before payment; you remain the project owner, you sign the contracts and approve each claim. The architecture firm Arc Bati Architecture (Kénitra), presented on CITURBAREA, provides this with regular reports, including remotely. See also the steps to build from abroad, the role of the engineering consultancy and construction cost per m².

Frequently asked questions