Can I buy a riad on melkia?

Yes. Most traditional riads in the Marrakech medina have always been held under melkia — the customary title system that predates the modern cadastre. Foreign buyers routinely purchase melkia properties; the process is different from buying a titled property, but it's well-established.

In 2026 Moroccan practice, a notaire handling a melkia sale for a foreign buyer will typically route the transaction through an immatriculation procedure. This starts with a réquisition filing with the ANCFCC, which effectively converts the melkia into a titled property during the sale process itself. The buyer signs the compromis de vente, the réquisition gets filed, due diligence completes, and the acte de vente is signed against a property that is in the process of becoming titled.

The cost implications are real. Total notaire and administrative fees for a melkia property routed through réquisition typically run 10% to 15% of the sale price, compared to 5.5% to 6.5% for an already-titled property. The timeline from compromis to acte is longer — often four to six months instead of two to three. And the risk of unresolved claims (an heir who surfaces, a boundary dispute with a neighbour) is higher than with a property that already has a clean cadastre entry.

This is what a good notaire is for. They perform the title search, publish the réquisition, wait out the objection period, and bring the transaction to closing only once the title chain is clean. Cutting corners on the notaire — using an unfamiliar practitioner, or worse, closing without one through a samsar arrangement — is how melkia purchases go wrong.