Ahh, Morocco. The warm, traditional, and colourful country famous for its food, souks and culture. A very popular destination for those looking for a complete change in the way of life, as well as those wanting to experience a completely different culture or simply have a change of scenery.

Maggie and Steve Bell first visited Morocco for their honeymoon many years ago and had always wanted to move there when the opportunity arose. So, with two grown up children doing well for themselves, Maggie and Steve decided the time had come to make a serious decision about it.

“We had always talked about moving to Morocco and after the kids grew up we thought ‘why not?’ so we set about looking in to finding a property,” begins Steve. “So we set about looking for properties. We knew a couple of areas which we loved so that was our first port of call really. We contacted some of the local agents and arranged some viewing trips. We combined this with our yearly trip to Morocco so it worked out really well; we just went for an extra week than usual so that we could see as many properties as possible.”

Maggie continue: “As we were both nearing retirement, we didn’t really think about a time scale. We were in a really good position whereby if we needed to, we could have moved to Morocco that month. We did have a house to sell in the UK, but were lucky financially which meant that we could afford to buy the Moroccan property without having to worry about selling our UK home first. I know that if we did have to sell first then we would have planned the timing carefully, and most probably we would have put our UK house on the market before we even considered looking at property in Morocco. It’s very important to adapt your move to your situation.”

The Bells already had a pretty good idea of where they would and wouldn’t like to live in Morocco so they didn’t have to do too much research. If however, you are moving to a country that you have only visited a few times, then it is of vital importance that you do thorough research and cover all the aspects of an area. Things such as where the nearest hospital and doctor’s surgery are can easily be forgotten in the excitement. Think about how far away you are from amenities, and whether your children will be at a good school etc.