This article analyses transformations in urban planning policies in the Rabat neighbourhood of Elsania Al–Gharbia through a critical political economy perspective. It relies on field data gathered from interviews, observation, and content analysis. The article tracks indicators of a shift in urban planning policies from approaches aimed at accommodating newcomers and restructuring informal neighbourhoods while preserving residents – stability within the same area, toward a top–down planning model based on the reappropriation of urban land, and the demolition of numerous residential buildings, including recently constructed ones. Drawing on the concepts of accumulation by dispossession and rent gap theory, the article finds that the planning model adopted in Rabat produces social and spatial exclusion, affecting even residents with formally titled homeowners.