Apartments for sale in El Kabaria

Buying a flat in El Kabaria usually means buying a floor. Developers have built little in this district in the south of Tunis, and most of the flats on sale are storeys of family houses: a first floor sold by a brother moving away, an S+2 built over a shop unit, a flat in a small three- or four-storey block put up by a private owner. The entry price is among the lowest in the governorate, which draws first-time buyers and families already renting in the area.

Listings online are rare, and most come straight from the owners. The page sometimes stays empty for a few weeks. To compare with El Ouardia, Sidi Hassine or the other delegations, all the apartments for sale in Tunis governorate are gathered on a single page.

What you find, sector by sector

Ibn Sina 1 and Ibn Sina 2 have the most sought-after floors: newer buildings, better laid-out streets, places to park. A first-floor S+2 or S+3 with its own entrance sells for more there than elsewhere in the delegation, but stays far from prices in the northern districts of Tunis.

In the heart of El Kabaria, in El Kabaria 4 and Cite Ennour, floor areas are smaller and prices lower. You find S+1 and S+2 flats in houses packed tightly together, often with no lift or parking, but surrounded by shops. For a first purchase or a modest buy-to-let, these sectors still give a decent yield, because rental demand there never lets up.

Prices are hard to sum up in one figure, as they depend so much on the floor, the finish and the legal position. Bear in mind that a floor with a clear title, its own entrance and separate meters is worth noticeably more than an identical storey without proper papers, and the gap can justify waiting a few months. Listings from private sellers usually give the floor area, the storey and the number of rooms; do not hesitate to ask on the first call whether the property is sold vacant or with a tenant in place.

The real issue: the title deed

A floor of a house raises a legal question the buyer has to ask from the start. Is the house registered with a land title? If so, has the floor been divided off into co-ownership, with its own title or an identified share? In many working-class districts of south Tunis, the house is still in the father's name or held jointly by heirs, and the floor is sold on a simple private deed. That is possible, but the bank will not lend, and reselling will be harder.

So ask for the land title or the deed of ownership, the building permit covering the floor being sold, and check that every heir signs. A visit to a notary or a lawyer before paying a deposit is money well spent. The price of a floor without a clear title should, in any case, reflect that risk.

Shared living and the state of the building

Buying a floor means sharing a house. You need to know who owns the roof terrace, who pays for waterproofing, how the meters are split and whether the ground-floor owner can still build upwards. Put these points in writing in the deed of sale. During the viewing, look for cracks in the load-bearing walls, common in houses built in stages, and at the condition of the shared staircase.

Sellers open up to negotiation more easily out of season, between autumn and spring, than in summer when Tunisians living abroad come home and push demand up. If you are after a whole house, the page of houses for sale in El Kabaria lists complete properties, and the one for all property for sale in El Kabaria brings the two categories together.