The marketing of the first apartments of the Les Faubourgs d'Anfa project by Bouygues Immobilier Maroc kicks off next Friday. Éric Mazoyer, Deputy CEO of Bouygues Immobilier and CEO of Bouygues Immobilier Maroc, will in fact travel to Morocco on 21 and 22 May for the official launch of the operation. "If we sell half of the housing planned in this operation by September 2014 and 70% by the end of the year, that will be good," says Éric Mazoyer, during a meeting on 14 May with the Moroccan press at the Bouygues Immobilier offices in Paris. The French real estate giant has indeed recently established itself in Morocco, with the creation of a local subsidiary: Bouygues Immobilier Maroc. On 22 April 2014, the subsidiary's management held a first press briefing in Casablanca to present its project located in the Casa Anfa urban project. Les Faubourgs d'Anfa will house 435 housing units as well as shops on the ground floor of buildings and 14,000 m² of offices for an investment of 750 million DH. The first phase, the marketing of which therefore starts on 23 May, has 114 apartments (from 1 to 4 bedrooms). The price per square metre will be around 24,000 DH. "Which is a little less than the competition," maintains the CEO of Bouygues Immobilier Maroc. To sell its project, the group has chosen the VEFA formula (sale in the future state of completion), considered "safer for the buyer". "If we reach our objectives in terms of marketing rate, we will quickly launch the second phase," underlines Éric Mazoyer. The start of the construction site is planned for the 1st quarter of 2015 and the delivery of the first housing units for the end of 2016. The leading real estate developer in France, Bouygues Immobilier is counting on the launch effect to succeed in the marketing of its project. Its powerful marketing and communication structures, long tested in Europe, constitute a major asset for the Moroccan subsidiary, which has positioned itself on the "upper middle" and "high-end" segments. "I would like to emphasise that our strategy is not to make as much money as possible on this operation. Our current objective is to understand the market well," says the group's Deputy CEO. An "industrial vision" During the press trip reserved for Moroccan journalists on 14 and 15 May, Bouygues Immobilier organised site and field visits of its main real estate achievements in Paris. This is notably the case for the construction project of the D2 Tower in the La Défense district (54,000 m²). It is one of the 3 new towers of the La Défense Renewal Plan. Delivery is scheduled for September 2014. The programme also included a visit to the Home Paris 13e district (housing operation) and Green Office in Meudon. The latter is the first large-scale building in France to be "positive energy", according to the Bouygues team. In France, the group develops medium-sized housing projects, i.e. operations of 50 to 80 units. "We also have operations of 2,500 or 15,000 housing units, like at Fort d'Issy. Roughly speaking, we have 4 to 5 large operations, but for the rest, we are on 32 locations in the country, with medium-sized projects," explains Éric Mazoyer. In Morocco, the real estate developer's project revolves around 450 housing units. "It is therefore an operation of very great importance," underlines the top management, who insisted, throughout their intervention, on the "industrial character" of the family group that is Bouygues. "We indeed have a very industrial vision of the company. The foundation of our activity is that if I know how to serve my client, I will be well paid," develops the CEO of Bouygues Immobilier Maroc. According to him, "one-shot" deals and speculation have no place within the company. The Bouygues group is, let us remember, present in 3 sectors of activity: construction (Bouygues Construction, Bouygues Immobilier and Colas), Media (TF1) and telecoms (Bouygues Telecom). It posted a turnover of 33.3 billion euros in 2013. Real estate represents 10% of this, with the same proportion achieved internationally. Interview with Éric Mazoyer, CEO of Bouygues Immobilier Maroc "We are going to focus on Casablanca for the next 5 to 6 years" Le Matin: Apart from Casablanca, what are the other cities you are targeting? Éric Mazoyer: To answer your question, I will give you an example: in Poland, we started our activity 12 to 13 years ago. And it is only this year that we decided on our first location in the Polish region. Why? Because after a dozen years, we have become the fourth real estate operator in Poland and Bouygues Immobilier Polska has become a brand very well known for its reliability, even in the region. So, I think that for the next 5 to 6 years, at least, we are going to focus only on Casablanca. That said, we do not exclude going to Rabat, because there is this particularity in Morocco, which we do not have in France, of having a double centre of power: the political one in Rabat and the economic one in Casablanca. In addition, the two cities are close. Is the Bouygues group interested in social housing in Morocco where the needs are enormous? We realised after field visits that social housing, as practised in Morocco, did not meet our approach segmentation. Perhaps in ten years. It seems to me that local operators are very good at this and we do not intend to compete with them in this market. Overall, what is your perception of the Moroccan real estate market? There is a fairly strong evolution of the middle class in Morocco, particularly in Casablanca. At the level of this metropolis in any case, the feeling I have is that there is a rising middle class, which aspires to have a real estate product that is a little more contemporary, modern and international. And this product does not resemble at all the social housing product, which is a very standardised product, with very precise specifications. I also think that it is a market that is not yet very mature. Operators have launched important projects, certainly, but there is this new generation of 25-40 year olds, many of whom went to do their higher studies abroad and who wish to find perhaps the standards they have known elsewhere. There are therefore expectations from a segment of the Moroccan clientele that aspires to see operators that are a little more reassuring, with more services and a more transparent and simpler customer relationship.