Property for sale in Matmata

Matmata is one of the best-known names in southern Tunisia, and yet its housing market is tiny. The village sits high in the Matmata hills, about forty kilometres south-west of Gabes, in a landscape of arid hills where for centuries the inhabitants dug their homes into the ground. These troglodyte dwellings, arranged around a circular open-air courtyard, made the place famous, all the way to the cinema.

Property for sale in Matmata therefore comes down to a handful of listings, published mostly by village families or their descendants settled in Gabes, Tunis or abroad. On Houni, you contact them directly. Supply is limited and irregular: for a wider search, browse all the property for sale in Gabes governorate, where Gabes city, Mareth and El Hamma hold most of the market.

Old Matmata, New Matmata

One clarification is needed. After the floods of the late 1960s, a large part of the population was rehoused down on the plain, in New Matmata, which is now a separate delegation, more populated and better equipped. This page covers the delegation of Matmata, meaning the historic village in the hills and its surroundings.

Those looking for an ordinary home, a modern house with shops and schools nearby, will often look towards New Matmata or Gabes. Those searching in Matmata itself usually have a family link to the village, a tourism project or a wish for a truly unusual place.

What comes up for sale

Three kinds of property appear. The house built above ground, in stone or breeze block, single-storey, with a courtyard and sometimes a room added over the years: it is the usual home of families who stayed in the village, and the one that interests a civil servant or teacher posted here. The older family dar, with its vaulted rooms and storerooms, often held in joint ownership between heirs. And the troglodyte house, dug around its central pit, some of which have been turned into a museum, a restaurant or guest accommodation.

For a search limited to detached houses and restoration projects, the page of houses for sale in Matmata targets these properties more precisely.

Living in Matmata

Life is quiet, set by passing tourism, busy during the day in high season and sparser the rest of the year. Services are those of a village: school, clinic, a few shops. For the hospital, government offices and big shopping trips, you go down to Gabes. The climate is dry, hot in summer, cool and sometimes cold on winter nights; the dug-out houses keep a steady temperature, which explains how they were designed.

Prices bear no comparison with those on the coast, but resale is narrow. A home in Matmata is bought to live in, to keep the family house or for a specific project, rarely as an investment. Factor in distances too: without a car, the village depends on louages (shared taxis) and transport to Gabes, which weighs on daily life for a family with children at secondary school.

Checks specific to the south

Land is the first issue. In parts of southern Tunisia, land long fell under a collective regime or family ownership that was never divided, and many properties have no individual land title. Ask for the title if there is one, otherwise the deed of acquisition and the documents proving ownership, and check that all the heirs agree. Check access to drinking water and electricity, often incomplete for isolated old houses. For a troglodyte house, have the stability of the walls and the drainage of rainwater examined, because storms, rare but violent, remain the main threat. Finally, have the deed drawn up by a notary or a lawyer in Gabes.