With the rejuvenation of the housing stock and increasingly smaller families, in the space of ten years, city residents have an increasing tendency to opt for reduced housing, but are less likely to consider becoming owners. Presented this Tuesday in Rabat by the High Commission for Planning (HCP), the detailed results of the general population and housing census for the year 2024 (RGPH) show that urban households have fewer rooms.
Thus, the proportion of those occupying homes with 1 to 2 rooms increased from 35.7% in 2014 to 43.5% in 2024. As for that of households occupying homes with at least 3 rooms, it fell by 64.3% to 56.5% over the same period. In urban centers, households housed in homes with at least 3 rooms are higher in the regions of Drâa-Tafilalet (64.7%), Guelmim-Oued Noun (63.2%) and Casablanca-Settat (59.3%);
In the rest of the ranking, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (59%) is followed by Marrakech-Safi (58.5%), Tangier-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma (48.3%) and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab ( 36.9%).
Home ownership stagnates, slums down slightly
Made public by the High Commissioner for Planning, Chakib Benmoussa, during a press conference, the detailed figures for RGPH 2024 also underline a “stagnation of urban households that own their homes”. Over the last ten years, the structure of home occupancy status in cities has not seen any significant change. In figures, it went from 61.9% (2014) to 61.5% (2024). The status of tenant increased from 27.3% to 28%. The share of households housed free of charge (7.1% to 7.5%) and those in company housing (1.7% to 1.5%) have also not seen any major change.
By region, it is particularly Casablanca-Settat (65.1%), Oriental (64.9%), Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (63.9%) and Marrakech-Safi (63.1%) which represent the largest share of urban households that own their homes. This drops significantly in Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab (30.2%) and Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra (43.9%).
In terms of housing quality in cities, figures show an overall decline from 5.2% to 3.3% in slums. In rural areas, the proportion of local type housing not intended for residential use fell from 2.4% to 1.7% over the same period. Denoting a change in uses, the share of rural adobe or solid housing has decreased significantly from 64.1% in 2014 to 53.3% in 2024.
However, the most urbanized regions are those which continue to have the highest number of housing units in slums in 2024: Casablanca-Settat (7.6%), Fès-Meknes (2.9%), Rabat-Salé -Kénitra (2.7%), Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra (2.5%) and Marrakech-Safi (2.2%).
Less popular, villas are giving way to newer apartments
By type of housing occupied in the cities, the overall figures show that households still favor modern Moroccan houses, the share of which increased from 65% in 2014 to 65.4% in 2024. However, families have increasingly more tendency to move towards apartments, the proportion of which increased from 17.5% to 24.4% over the same period. Already poorly represented (4.5%), villas now only constitute 2.7% of main housing. The share of traditional houses experienced the same trend, falling from 5.5% to 2.6%.
In addition to this “clear transition” towards modern structures, the RGPH 2024 indicates that there are slightly fewer families occupying old homes. This trend towards a rejuvenation of the housing stock indicates that until this year, 22% of households live in a home less than 10 years old (23.8% in urban areas and 18.3% in rural areas) compared to 20.1 % in 2014.
But this momentum is slowed by an evolution, over the same period, in the share of housing for 10 to 49 year olds, which went from 59.6% to 64.7%. However, the share of homes over 50 years old fell from 20.3% to 13.3% (2014 – 2024). Their use remains more frequent in the regions of Marrakech-Safi (20.9%), Béni Mellal-Khénifra (16.1%), Casablanca-Settat (16.2%) and Fès-Meknes (15.3%).
In his opening speech, Chakib Benmoussa also recalled that the legal population of Morocco as of September 1, 2024 had amounted to “36.8 million inhabitants, with an average annual growth rate of 0.85% between 2014 and 2024. In this sense, he highlighted the continued progress of urbanization, which is now at 62.8%, compared to 51.4% in 1994.
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