Apartments for sale in El Hrairia

El Hrairia is not a town of apartment blocks. For a long time, people here bought a house or a plot, and the apartment only existed as a floor sold separately. Over the past fifteen years or so, small developers have put up buildings of three to five storeys along the main roads of Ezzahrouni and in the El Akba housing estates, and the apartment for sale has become a real way in for a first purchase in Tunis.

On Houni, listings come from private owners reselling, from owners selling a floor of their house, and from a few local agencies or developers. You deal directly with the advertiser. Supply is limited depending on the week; the page of apartments for sale in Tunis governorate helps place the delegation's prices against the rest of the capital.

Two products: the developer's block and the house floor

Apartments in small blocks are found mainly in Ezzahrouni and El Akba Supérieur. They are S+2 and S+3 flats (two or three bedrooms plus a living room) of 80 to 110 m², in many cases with no lift above the third level, with one or two shops on the ground floor. Their advantage: a co-ownership title that is easier to obtain, and therefore a bank loan that is easier to get.

On finishes, the gaps from one building to the next are wide. Some developers hand over fitted kitchens, aluminium joinery and decent tiling; others sell a flat still to be finished, where the buyer will need to budget several thousand dinars of work. A visit to the site, or to a flat already lived in within the same building, often tells you more than the photos in the listing.

The house floor is the delegation's speciality. An owner has built a first then a second level, and sells one of them with its own access. The price is often lower and the floor area more generous, but the legal file needs more attention, because until the building is split into separate lots, the buyer holds only an undivided share of the title.

Prices and buyer profile

An apartment for sale in El Hrairia remains one of the cheapest in Tunis governorate. An S+2 in good condition often sells for between 150,000 and 230,000 DT, a recent S+3 can go higher, and an older floor without an individual title comes in noticeably lower. These are cautious orders of magnitude, which each listing and each visit will correct.

Buyers are mostly young local households who want to stay near their parents, civil servants and employees looking for a first home on a mortgage, and emigrants preparing a base for the summer and for retirement. Investors also find a decent rental yield here, as demand for rentals is constant in western Tunis. To gauge the rent a property can bring in, see the homes to rent in El Hrairia.

Checks specific to El Hrairia

First point, the title: ask whether there is an individual land title for the apartment, or only a parent title in the name of the builder or the family. In the second case, have a notary or a lawyer set up the subdivision procedure before you pay, and be wary of sales by simple private contract.

Second point, the permit: part of the housing in western Tunis was built without a full permit for the upper floors. An unauthorised floor can be sold, but it cannot be financed and causes problems when it comes to reselling. Third point, the common areas: staircase, roof terrace, water tank and meters must be clearly allocated, especially for a house floor.

Finally, visit in the evening: street noise, parking and lighting vary a great deal from one sector to another. If a ground floor with a courtyard appeals to you more, compare with the houses for sale in El Hrairia.