Shared flats in Sfax

Sharing a flat in Sfax is first and foremost a student affair. The university and the private colleges draw thousands of young people every year from Gabes, Kairouan, Gafsa or abroad, and the rent on an S+2 weighs less when split between two or three. Young professionals, engineers in their first job or nurses on a posting, make the same calculation, with different expectations when it comes to quiet.

This page gathers listings for shared flats and free rooms in flatshares across the whole governorate, posted by private owners, current flatmates or landlords. The supply varies a great deal from week to week and almost everything happens in the city and along the first kilometres of the roads. To widen the search to rooms in family homes, the page for flatsharing in Sfax, all types of home casts a wider net.

Near the faculties or in the centre

Two areas concentrate demand. The first is the Soukra and airport roads, home to several faculties and engineering schools: people share S+2 and S+3 flats there in recent residences or on villa floors, a few minutes on foot or by bus from lectures. Rent there is a little higher than on the far outskirts, but you save on transport and time.

The second is the centre, in the delegation of Sfax Ville: older flats around Bab Bhar and the main avenue, close to the faculty of medicine, the hospitals, the station and the shared taxis. Medical students and young professionals are numerous there. Listings in this area are detailed on the page for shared flats in Sfax Ville.

Further out, Sakiet Ezzit and Sakiet Eddaier sometimes offer cheaper shared flats, but journeys get longer, and buses become scarce in the evening. Thyna and Sfax Sud mainly attract those with an internship or a job in the industrial zones to the south.

How much, and how to share

In an S+2 shared by two, each person often pays between 250 and 450 DT a month, bills excluded; in an S+3 shared by three, the share per person drops a little. Furnished flats cost more, but spare you buying a bed and a table for one academic year. Charges, water, electricity, gas and internet, are split equally unless agreed otherwise: put it in writing from the first month.

There are two ways into a flatshare. Either you take over a room in a flat already rented by others, and negotiate with them as much as with the landlord. Or you set up the flatshare together, and sign a single lease jointly. The second option offers better protection, provided everyone is named on the contract.

The back to university calendar

Everything is decided between the end of July and mid September, when university placements are published. Flatshares that free up in June, after the exams, go fast. A student who arrives after the start of term still finds rooms, but rarely where they wanted. Be wary of S+2 flats where the living room has been turned into a third bedroom: the share goes down, but there is no common room left and the kitchen becomes the only place to cross paths. During the year, places free up mainly in January and February, when internships begin.

Many Sfax landlords prefer to let to female students, or to flatmates of the same sex, and say so in the listing. Read it carefully before calling, and state your institution and the planned length of stay in your first message.

Before moving in

Ask who signed the lease and whether your name can be added to it. If you are taking over a former flatmate's place, get their share of the deposit refunded or transferred to you in writing. View the bedroom and not just the living room: window, sockets, damp, street noise.

Set a few simple rules from the outset: cleaning, guests, quiet hours, sharing the fridge. They prevent most conflicts. If the flat seems too small for the number of flatmates, compare with shared houses in Sfax, where rooms are often larger and the courtyard is shared.