THE mid-afternoon call to prayer rings around Marrakesh. The ancient walls of the medina vibrate with pious, but pleasing, song. Soon the sun, which has warmed me all day, will start to go down. Should I ask Mohammed to get the hammam (Turkish bath) going? Or should I just buy my own place in Morocco?

“We started holidaying here ten years ago,” says Richard Bee, 38, TV producer and co-owner of Riad Tizwa, where I am staying. “Some friends bought a riad and my brother, Daniel, and I visited. We weren’t expecting a palace, but that was what they had. We couldn’t believe it.” Stricken with envy, Richard and Daniel started looking for their own riad in May 2005. “Some friends recommended a property-finder – a samsa,” says Richard. “In one weekend I was swung around 52 riads on the back of a scooter – it was terrifying, but eventually I found what I wanted.”

“Morocco is about to boom,” says Poonam Ball, director of Moroccan Properties. “Of the 163 units I sold last year, only two were to nonBrits. It’s like Spain ten years ago, only more culturally diverse.”

Ball started out buying and selling the sort of riad that the Bees brothers bought. “It was a nightmare,” she says. “Unless your property has a title, just about anyone can claim they own all or part of it. One sale took five years to clear. Cash does go under the table. Most formal estate agents only sell titled properties, and now I deal only in new-builds because they all come with titles.”

Riad Tizwa is in Dar el Bacha, one of the poshest parts of the Pink City. Silvio Berlusconi sometimes stays near by in a renovated super-riad. Tizwa is three storeys with five bedrooms around a central courtyard and fountain. Roses perfume the air. Moroccan aesthetics, Western plumbing: perfection.

The Bees remortgaged their London flats, raising £180,000 and paying cash. “You can get a local mortgage through BMCE or Crédit du Maroc,” says Ball. “But most Westerners buy outright. Prices are in dirhams or euros. Allow 5.5 per cent for commission, taxes and fees. There’s no tax on rental income for the first five years, no capital gains tax if the property is sold after ten years, and no inheritance tax. Both parties use the same notaire.”

“We bought our house in Essaouira for £40,000 cash,” says Rachel Krish, a marketing director based in Brighton. “You can’t buy a garage in Brighton for that.” Krish and her partner, Nicola Gobat, an art teacher, were priced out of Europe. “Morocco is only a three-hour flight, but it’s a world away and still affordable” If Marrakesh is London, Essaouira is Brighton. Small white and blue houses hug the Atlantic coast 2½ hours’ drive north. The tiny fishing town expects to expand when the airport improves in 2008. “We fell in love with it because we love the sea,” says Krish. “It’s smaller and calmer than Marrakesh. There’s a souk and our house is in the medina, but it’s more chilled and there are fewer Westerners.”

Their house once housed four families, but with the help of their project manager, Abdullah, is now being converted into three living spaces, each with its own kitchen, which will cost another £40,000. “Long-distance renovating is not for the fainthearted,” says Krish. “But we get e-mail updates with photos.”

www.riadtizwa.com www.darlazuli.co.uk www.moroccanpropertiesltd.com

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