Homes for rent in El Mourouj 1

El Mourouj 1 is the first estate to rise from the plain south of Ben Arous, from the 1980s onwards. Forty years later, it is a well established district: blocks of a few storeys near the main roads, housing estate homes in the inner streets, a market, schools, cafés where people know each other. Those looking for a place here most often type, in Arabic, "houses to rent in El Mourouj 1", and the word house covers anything with its own front door: a flat, a villa floor, a ground floor with a courtyard.

This page brings these different kinds of rental together within Mourouj 1 alone. Listings come from owners and agencies, and you contact the advertiser directly. To compare with the neighbouring estates, the page of homes to rent in El Mourouj covers the whole delegation, from Mourouj 2 to Mourouj 6.

Who rents in Mourouj 1, and why here

The dominant profile is the young household working in Tunis, Ben Arous or the business parks of the southern suburbs that does not want to depend on a car. The light rail links El Mourouj to the city centre, buses and shared taxis fill the gaps, and around Carrefour there is everything you need to shop without leaving the district. Next come families already settled in the delegation who need more room, and transferred civil servants looking for a simple home for a year or two.

Students are fewer than in Ariana or central Tunis, as there is no faculty in the estate itself; those you do meet share a flat in a block or rent a room fitted out on a roof terrace.

Flat, villa floor or whole house

The most common let remains the two-bedroom flat in a three or four storey block with no lift. It is the quickest property to view and the easiest to leave, and the rent for an S+2 stays a notch below what the recent residences of Mourouj 6 ask. For this type of property alone, the page of flats to rent in El Mourouj 1 sorts the listings.

The villa floor is the local speciality. On the estate plots, many owners have added a level with its own kitchen and an outside staircase, which they let while living downstairs. You gain space, often a terrace, and neighbours who keep an eye on the house when you are away. You lose a little privacy: the owner sees your visitors come and go, and you need to agree on the use of the roof and the washing line.

Finally, the whole house comes up less often. When it does reach the market, it is often because the owners have gone to live abroad or with their children. It appeals to large families, and its rent is clearly above that of a single floor, while remaining far from the levels of the northern suburbs.

The rhythm of listings in the district

In Mourouj 1, supply moves in waves. It grows in summer and at the start of the school year, when families move before schools open, then tightens in winter. Well located homes, a few minutes from the light rail or Carrefour, go within days; villa floors away from the main roads stay online longer and leave more room to negotiate. A furnished house to rent in Mourouj 1, by the month or the week, remains rare: almost all homes are let unfurnished, by the year.

If nothing fits, all the homes to rent in the Ben Arous governorate show what is coming up in Ben Arous, Mégrine or Ezzahra, a few minutes away.

Before signing

For a flat in a block, ask who looks after the stairs and the water tank, as many older buildings run without organised management. Go up to the top floor on a hot day to check the water pressure. For a villa floor, make sure water and electricity have their own meters, otherwise every bill becomes a negotiation. In every case, insist on a written lease, registered at the tax office, that sets out the deposit (generally one to two months' rent), the term and how minor repairs are shared.

Finally, walk round the home with the owner on the day you move in and note in writing the state of the walls, the joinery and the plumbing: in houses that are often more than thirty years old, that document is what protects your deposit when you leave.