Khadija dreams of owning her apartment. She has found a “social” apartment that she wants to buy but her savings cannot cover the cost. Khadija has been working as a cook for a family from the upper middle class for almost two years. With her steady income, she knows she could afford a housing loan but she also knows how difficult it can be for salaried workers of the informal sector like herself to convince banks to grant them such a loan. With no salary slip2, two banks have already refused her a mortgage loan. She is now awaiting the response of a third bank. In the quasi absence of social safety nets, especially for those who work in the informal sector, home ownership means more than housing. It means the possibility of having revenue from sub-letting the housing unit, even if unemployed. This makes home ownership, and not just housing, a primary goal for a large number of Moroccans.

Khadija lives and works in Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city and the heart of its economy. This North African country of 33 million inhabitants has no major natural resources. Like many other African countries, Morocco is faced with a shortage of decent affordable housing, particularly in its largest cities. With a growing urban population and a shrinking household size, the shortage of housing reached 1 240 000 units at the end of 20033. That same year the Ministry of Housing launched the National Urban Strategy. In order to support the production of affordable housing, the Government of Morocco established several programs including “social housing” programs with tax exemptions, public-private partnerships, changes in zoning and urban planning and a special solidarity fund4 that subsidizes urban upgrading and the production of housing for slum dwellers.