Land and farms for sale in El Omrane

Let us be clear from the start: El Omrane has no farms, and hardly any bare land left. The delegation, north-west of central Tunis, between Bab Saadoun, Le Bardo and Ras Tabia, has been built up for decades, street by street. The rare plots that turn up are gaps left empty between two houses, courtyards or gardens split off from a family property or, more often, old houses sold for their land, which the buyer plans to knock down and rebuild.

So there is very little online, sometimes nothing for weeks, and what there is comes from private sellers. On Houni you contact the seller directly. For a real choice of building plots you need to look wider: the land for sale in the Tunis governorate and, beyond it, the neighbouring governorates of Ariana, Manouba and Ben Arous, where the recent housing estates are.

Who buys land in El Omrane

Buyers are mainly families already living in the area who want to build next to their parents, and small developers or builders looking for a plot for a block of a few storeys. For the latter the sum is simple: the value of the land depends on how many flats can go up on it and on local rental demand, kept up by the Ras Tabia university halls and the nearby light metro.

A badly run-down house on a well-placed plot can therefore sell for the price of the land, or even less if demolition is costly. If you would rather renovate than rebuild, also see the houses for sale in El Omrane, where older properties needing work are listed.

What you are allowed to build

In a dense urban area, there is little doubt about what the land can be used for, but building rules change from one street to the next. The City of Tunis urban development plan sets the maximum height, the number of levels, the setbacks and how much of the plot can be built on. Before making any offer, ask the local municipal office for a planning certificate or planning information on the exact plot: that is what tells you whether your block of flats is realistic or whether you will have to settle for a two-storey house.

Think too about the practical side of a building site in a tight neighbourhood: getting lorries and the concrete mixer down a narrow street, party walls to protect, neighbours to warn. A corner plot or one on a wider street is worth more, because it makes the work easier and gives a better frontage.

Title, utilities and demolition

Ideally the land should have a registered title, in the name of the seller or sellers, with no mortgage recorded at the land registry. Here, many plots are held jointly by heirs, which means everyone must agree before the deed. Check the real boundaries of the plot on site with a surveyor: walls built over the years do not always follow the plan.

El Omrane's advantage is that the utilities are already there: water, electricity and mains drainage already serve the streets, which spares you the long connection process of land on the outskirts. Still, have SONEDE and STEG confirm the connection terms. If there is a building on the land, add demolition, removal of rubble and the matching permit to the budget, before you even get to the foundations.