Land and farms for sale in Sfax Ville

The jnen is the Sfax landscape: an orchard of olive and almond trees enclosed by a wall, with a well, a small house and a gate onto the road. For a century, the city grew by swallowing its jnens one by one, and the Sfax Ville delegation, which is its heart, keeps only shreds of them on the edges, towards Merkez El Pacha, Merkez Kaddour and Ain Cheikh Rouhou. Land for sale in Sfax within this delegation is therefore a rare property, and its price per m² is one of the highest in the governorate.

This page shows the listings of land and plots for sale within the Sfax Ville perimeter: building plots in established districts, jnen plots on the urban fringe, and a few corner plots left by demolitions in the centre. They are published by private sellers and agencies, and the reader contacts the advertiser directly. For the larger and cheaper land of Sakiet Ezzit, Sfax Sud or Thyna, all the land and farms for sale in the Sfax governorate fit on one page.

Three kinds of land in the delegation

The building plot in an established district first: a parcel of 150 to 400 m² in Bassatine, Sidi Abbes, Cité Mohamed Ali or on the first kilometres of the roads to Tunis, Gremda and Gabès, with the road, water, electricity and sewerage in place. It generally comes from a family division or the demolition of an old house, and it goes fast, often between neighbours before it is even published.

The jnen plot next, on the fringe, from 1,000 to 5,000 m² and sometimes more, with its olive trees, its well and its wall. It is the property Sfaxians look for to build a family house with a garden, and developers for a small apartment block when the zoning allows. Finally the corner plots and gap sites of the centre, around Bab Bhar and the avenues, intended for apartment buildings, which trade at prices unrelated to the rest and mainly attract developers.

Land zoning, the first question

In Sfax Ville, the price of a plot depends first on what the urban development plan allows on it: detached housing, apartment housing up to a given number of storeys, green zone or protected agricultural zone. A jnen classed as agricultural sells at the price of the olive tree, the same jnen reclassified as housing sells at the price of the buildable m², and the difference is a factor of five or ten. Ask the seller for the zoning certificate or the planning information note, and go and check it at the municipality before talking price.

Check the plot ratio and the permitted height at the same time: a buyer planning to build a ground floor plus two storeys to house his children needs to know whether the plan allows it, and a developer will only pay top price for apartment zoning. Within the medina perimeter and on its edges, the rules are stricter still.

Water, title, neighbours

The well of the Sfax jnens is a selling point, but the water is often brackish and the level is falling; find out about connection to the SONEDE water network and about sewerage, still absent in some fringe sectors where houses run on a septic tank. On the paperwork side, insist on a land title, and be wary of land sold on a simple private deed or in joint ownership between heirs: in Sfax families, a jnen easily belongs to a dozen people, and subdividing it requires everyone's agreement and an approved plan.

Have the plot surveyed by a licensed surveyor before signing. Jnen walls have sometimes shifted over the decades, and the neighbour may have an opinion on the boundary. Those who would rather buy something built than build will look at the houses for sale in Sfax Ville, where heirs' houses to demolish are another way of acquiring land in the centre.

Prices and calendar

A serviced plot in an established district of Sfax Ville often exceeds 1,000 DT (Tunisian dinars) per m², far more on the main roads and in the centre where apartment buildings are permitted; a jnen plot in an agricultural zone, on the other hand, costs a fraction of that price. These figures vary greatly from one street to the next and are no substitute for comparing three listings. Sales are concluded in summer, when the co-owners from the diaspora are there to sign; a buyer targeting an heirs' plot is well advised to arrange financing before July. Land zoned for business, warehouses and workshops, is better sought among the shops and offices for sale in Sfax Ville, where owners also publish land already built on.