Souks you, Sir!

Marrakech, in Morocco, with its sun, spectacular scenery, excellent food and good value only a three-and-a-half-hours' flight from Stansted, has to be an excellent holiday-home destination. Choose a traditional riyad in the medina - colonnades, courtyards, marble floors - or buy a plot of land and build a villa among the palm trees.

You can savour the romance of living in a traditional walled city with souks and snake charmers; an exotic atmosphere that's long attracted artists. And these delights can be combined with the thoroughly modern pursuits of year-round golf and tennis or trekking in the nearby Atlas mountains.

If you are contemplating buying a property in Marrakech, you will need help from someone who knows the market. Planning laws are complex and knowing how to haggle is as vital for buying a home as it is for snapping up a bargain in the souks. "It's very difficult because there are no rules," says property finder Patrizia Banner, whose company, One Source, specialises in Marrakech.

"Even finding out where a property begins and ends is difficult. You have to get to know the property. It's very different from getting in a chartered surveyor."

And, as for negotiating Morocco's regulations on planning and home ownership, Banner likens the process to a domino effect. "If you take one square out, the whole thing collapses. You have to know who to speak to in the right offices."

Banner, an American who previously worked in real estate in California, has lived in Chelsea for the past 11 years and set up One Source to find London homes for clients, both English and foreign, adding Marrakech to her portfolio five years ago (she has also recently extended the business to Provence).

In Marrakech, Banner works with an experienced team that ranges from an architect to two crack bi-lingual conveyancing solicitors (business is done in French). She always meets her clients first. "It's essential. I find it very difficult otherwise. What I do is mirror your likes and dislikes," she says.

For a £1,000 retainer, Banner will draw up a short-list: four to five plots of land if you plan to build; or, if you have decided to look at riyads, which are harder to come by, she will show you three or four properties after she has previewed at least 10. She charges 1.5 per cent of the purchase price, or a negotiable price for a package that includes not only the services of an architect and solicitor, but building and removals.

A second home in Morocco does not necessarily come cheap. Land in La Palmeraie, the Beverly Hills of Marrakech, could cost you about £200,000 a hectare, and, even the least expensive plots range from £67,000 to £100,000 a hectare, with building costs from £333 to £466 a square metre, plus local taxes.

Two-bedroom riyads start at about £100,000, but they often require renovation. And, to ensure your home is safe while you are away, you will need permanent staff - for instance, a gardener who doubles as a security guard. But the rental returns are excellent - a riyad with a gardener and maid will command about £1,800 a week.