Shared flats in El Menzah

Sharing a whole flat is the answer for those who want neither a hall of residence nor a room with a family. In El Menzah, the arrangement takes two forms. On one side, three or four students renting an S+3 together in Manar 2 to be within walking distance of the El Manar campus. On the other, two young employees sharing an S+2 in Menzah 4 or Manar 1 because a full rent in the delegation weighs too heavily on a first salary.

The supply shown here is thin: flatshare listings for the delegation are few and change from one week to the next. It is not that the practice is lacking, it is that it is often set up off the websites, between friends or through class groups. Two habits help: following the shared flats in Tunis governorate, where the supply is wider, and looking for a whole flat to rent so as to set up the flatshare yourself.

Setting up a flatshare from a whole flat

Most often, a flatshare starts with an ordinary rental listing: an unfurnished or furnished S+2 or S+3 that two or three people decide to take together. Among the apartments to rent in El Menzah, the S+3 flats in the low-rise blocks of Manar 1 and Menzah 1 lend themselves well to it: three bedrooms of similar size, a living room big enough for several people, a separate kitchen.

Say from the first call that you are a group of flatmates. Some owners refuse, others readily accept it for students whose parents stand as guarantors. Those who say yes generally ask that all the flatmates appear on the contract, or that only one signs with a family guarantee. The first option protects everyone better: if one flatmate leaves, the others are not left alone facing the landlord.

Manar 2 for students, Menzah 4 and Manar 1 for professionals

Manar 2 concentrates the flats shared between students from the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, the ENIT engineering school or the law faculty. Buildings there are recent or mid-rise, shops are plentiful, and nights are lively during exam periods. An S+3 split three ways there often comes to a sum close to a lodger's room, with more freedom.

Menzah 4 draws flatmates who are mostly in work: the Cité Olympique, the stadium and the El Menzah swimming pool are the landmarks, and central Tunis and the Centre Urbain Nord business district both remain within reach. Manar 1 is quieter and dearer; there you see flatshares of young doctors, teachers or managers on assignments of a few months. Anyone searching for "menzah 6" or "menzah 9" should know that those estates are in Ariana governorate and do not feature on this page.

Rent, deposit, bills: what to put in black and white

Rent splits easily, bills far less so. From day one, settle who pays the STEG electricity and SONEDE water bills, the internet subscription and, in managed developments, the building service charge. A simple rule, written on a sheet signed by everyone, avoids end-of-quarter rows. Keep the receipts for every payment to the landlord. Also plan for furniture bought together, fridge or washing machine: who keeps it on leaving, and at what price it is bought back. It is these small questions, more than the rent, that break up a flatshare mid-year.

The deposit, often one or two months' rent, is paid once for the whole flat: note who put up which share, because it will be returned in a single sum. Draw up a written inventory, with photos, and read the meters. Finally, think about the end of the academic year: if the lease runs for twelve months and two flatmates go home in June, you will have to either find a replacement or pay for the summer. For one person, a room may be enough, and the page on flatshares in El Menzah also gathers lodger rooms in family homes.