The historic area has long been the city’s most exclusive residential enclave, offering a choice of French colonial homes, traditional Moroccan villas or new builds with plenty of land
5 min
Offering a beguiling blend of rich history and cutting-edge modernity, the seaside neighbourhood of Anfa is where Casablanca’s most exclusive and luxurious residences are located.
The historic Moroccan neighbourhood still bears the original name of the port city, which was called Anfa from the time it was founded around the 10th century B.C., up until the 15th century, when its name changed to Casablanca.
“In the 7th century, Anfa was home to a fishing port. It then lost its influence until the period of the French Protectorate,” said Marc Leon, CEO of Christie’s Real Estate Morocco. The French ruled over Morocco from 1912 to 1956, after which Anfa “became one of the most emblematic districts of Casablanca due to its rich and fascinating history, its colonial and Art Deco architecture, its green spaces and the presence of the Royal Golf Anfa Mohammedia, as well as the royal residence,” he said.
The largest city in Morocco, Casablanca is the country’s economic and business capital, but the peaceful residential streets of Anfa offer respite from the hustle and bustle of big city life. The neighbourhood is set between the beachfront and the modern city centre and is known for its historic sites, its hundred-year-old racetrack and its nine-hole golf course. Together with the neighbourhoods of Racine and Gauthier, Anfa forms part of Casablanca’s “Golden Triangle,” offering a mixture of historic and modern homes, primarily villas set amid lush, spacious gardens.
Boundaries
The Anfa neighbourhood runs from the ocean to a small inland hill. It is bounded to the north by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east it extends as far as the city’s railway line and Avenue 2 Mars. To the south, it is bounded by Boulevard Al Qods, and to the west it encompasses the newly developed Casablanca Finance City, extending along the coastline as far as Madame Choual beach.
Price Range
Luxury properties in Anfa range in price from 17,000 Moroccan dirhams (US$1,705) per square meter to 35,000 dirhams per square meter, said Vanessa Bouskila, sales manager at Kensington Luxury Properties Casablanca. The larger the property, the lower the price per square meter, she added. Prices are primarily determined by the property’s location and its views, she said, with seafront properties commanding a premium.
“The most expensive villa currently on the market is listed at US$80 million,” she said, adding that the trophy properties in the neighbourhood were built by famous architects, such as the private Anfa villa designed by French icon Jean Nouvel or the circular Villa Camembert, which was designed in 1962 by German architect Wolfgang Ewerth. Properties with a famous former inhabitant are also in high demand, she said, citing Villa Bolloré, formerly owned by French industrialist Vincent Bolloré.
Housing Stock
Anfa offers a diverse selection of luxury residences, “a combination of old French colonial buildings, traditional Moroccan villas and new modern constructions on large plots of land, most of which have swimming pools,” Leon said. The neighbourhood is also famous for its experimental Art Deco and modernist villas, designed by prominent Moroccan and international architects.
Anfa is divided into four sections, according to Leon. The most exclusive and sought-after residential district is Anfa Supérieur.
“Located on a hill near the golf course, the royal residence and the homes of Moroccan notables, it is the most popular area and properties for resale are very rare and therefore very expensive,” he said. The district offers very high levels of privacy and security, he added. “There are no nearby commercial amenities. The area is only residential and isolated from the city. You will not find a single traffic light there.”
Another popular residential area is Anfa Inférieur, “a privileged district at the foot of the hill, delimited by Boulevard André Masset and Boulevard Kennedy,” he said. The neighbourhood also encompasses Anfa Raha, an extension of Anfa which was integrated around 15 years ago and offers properties with particularly large areas of land, starting at 2,000 square meters.
Residents who prefer a more modern milieu are most likely to be drawn to the former site of the city’s old airport, which has been reimagined as a business district called Casablanca Finance City, offering high-end contemporary apartments.
What Makes It Unique
With its easy access to both the seafront and the city centre, Anfa is ideally placed.
“The sea and the corniche with its attractions are a few hundred meters away on foot,” Bouskila said.
Alongside its uniquely leafy and calm residential streets—where residents can often be seen out for a jog—the neighbourhood offers plenty of green space, including the more than 100-acre Anfa Park, located in Casablanca Finance City, and the centrally located Arab League Park, with its stately row of fountains. The historic Hippodrome Casablanca Anfa was built in 1912, and horses still race along its sandy track.
Historic landmarks include El Hank Lighthouse, which offers spectacular views of the city and sea, Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest in Africa, with space to host over 100,000 worshippers, Mohammed V Square—affectionately known as Pigeon Square in honour of its abundance of the birds—and Casablanca Cathedral, which was built in 1930 and today serves as a cultural centre hosting art exhibitions and events.
Luxury Amenities
“Anfa borders the Atlantic Ocean and the numerous restaurants and private clubs of the Corniche,” Leon said. “On the city side, multiple ultra-modern private medical clinics have been established, which attract local and international patients.” The area also offers some of the city’s finest luxury shopping opportunities, with a wide range of upmarket international brands available in Morocco Mall and the Anfaplace Mall.
“The most popular sport is golf,” Bouskila said. Royal Golf Anfa Mohammedia is popular not only for its rolling greens but also for its restaurant and bar, where club members meet in the evenings, she added.
Who Lives There
With its opulent homes, a high level of security and an emphasis on privacy, Anfa is most popular with business people and politicians, Bouskila said. Over the years, it has served as a meeting point for influential decision makers.
“The neighbourhood’s history is marked by major international meetings, most notably in 1943 when Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle outlined the Allied strategy for the post-World War II era,” Leon said.
Notable Residents
Current notable residents include former Minister of Industry, Trade and New Technologies Moulay Hafid Elalamy and his family; President of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises Chakib Laalej; and Steve O’Hana, president of the Morocco-Israel business council, according to Bouskila.
Outlook
Anfa has long commanded high prices thanks to its exclusivity, but in recent years the cost of homes in the historic neighbourhood has soared.
“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, prices have increased—they have never been so high,” Bouskila said. Strong demand for the limited housing stock in Anfa ensures that prices remain elevated in comparison with other areas of the city.
“Luxury products behave the same way around the world,” she said. “Crisis does not impact the price of a Hermès bag or a Ferrari.”
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A five-bedroom Palo Alto home designed by Steven Ehrlich is listed for $44 million, making it the city’s most expensive listing. Built around a dramatic concrete spine, the home features four courtyards and a pool.
3 min
For years, tech entrepreneur Asher Waldfogel and his wife, Helyn MacLean, dreamed of building a modern house in Palo Alto, Calif.
The couple, however, worried about clashing with the Mediterranean-style architecture typically associated with their neighborhood of Old Palo Alto.
So they tapped architect Steven Ehrlich to create a design that paid homage to its surroundings with stucco, mahogany and titanium zinc cladding. They spent $20 million over several years building the house, completed in 2005.
Now looking to be closer to their adult daughter on the East Coast, they are putting the five-bedroom home on the market for $44 million—the most expensive listing in Palo Alto.
Waldfogel is an angel investor who co-founded Redback Networks, a telecommunications-equipment company. MacLean previously had a career in fundraising.
The couple purchased the roughly 0.4-acre site for $7.1 million in 2000 and demolished a circa-1930s Spanish Colonial home. The house they built pinwheels around a central staircase. It has 7,900 square feet of livable space, with four distinct courtyards and a pool.
A key feature of the home is a cast-in-place concrete wall, or spine, that is two stories high and about 80 feet long. “There’s a little bit of controlled chaos in what comes out of the form,” unlike a perfectly uniform surface, Waldfogel said. “If you want that, you do it in plastic.”
Waldfogel said he and his wife are thinking about the next phase of life now that their daughter is grown, although they have not decided where they will move. They also have a home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
“Right now we’re just trying to emotionally let go and decide what to do next,” he said.
Palo Alto, an epicenter of venture capital and tech startups in Silicon Valley, is home to some of the country’s biggest tech titans. Sales volume and prices are rising, with a median sale price of $3.5 million for the three months ending in August, up 5.8% year-over-year, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin.
Arthur Sharif of Sotheby’s International Realty—San Francisco Brokerage has the listing.
