Homes for rent in Manouba

Every September the same scene plays out in front of the Manouba campus: students from Kairouan, Gafsa or Le Kef go round the cafés looking for "room to let" notices. The start of the university year sets the tempo for the whole Manouba rental market, and rents for studios and S+1 units (one bedroom plus a living room, the way homes are counted here) climb from July to October before falling back in winter. Anyone after a family home is better off aiming for another period.

Every category is gathered here: houses, villa floors, apartments and rooms. For buildings only, go through apartments to rent in Manouba; for the whole governorate, through the page for homes to rent in Manouba.

The family house, Denden's flagship product

A house to rent in Manouba is found first in Denden and Denden Sud, in the form of a floor a family has finished fitting out to let: an outside staircase, sometimes a separate meter, and the owner's mother keeping an eye on the comings and goings from the ground floor. Expect 500 to 800 DT for an S+2 or S+3, which is well below Le Bardo for a comparable quality of life, metro included. A whole house in Denden over two levels rarely exceeds 1,200 DT unless it is brand new or has a double garage.

The downside: few written contracts in this sort of neighbourly letting. Insist on a registered lease, even with an owner you trust; it is the lease that sets the notice period and how the rent is indexed.

Ksar Saïd, El Agba and the villas with gardens

Ksar Saïd and, further west, El Agba hold the delegation's rare whole villas, on plots inherited from the days when Manouba was open orchard country. A house with a garden here is negotiated between 1,200 and 2,000 DT, and it is often teachers or managers from the Oued Ellil industrial zone who take them. Watch out for unfenced plots and dirt track access: visit after rain.

The centre and the campus: studios, rooms and house shares

Around the faculty of arts, the ISCAE and the higher business school, owners have carved houses into studios of 25 to 35 sq m that let for 250 to 400 DT, sometimes by the month, sometimes for the academic year only. There are plenty of listings for rooms in shared houses, provided you read the rules imposed: girls only, no visitors, shared STEG meter.

A studio five minutes' walk from a metro station is easily worth 50 DT more a month, largely recovered in what you save on shared taxis on rainy days.

Recent residences and what they change

Over the past decade, developer built residences, several of them near the Cité Ennasr in Manouba, have added S+2 units with a lift and parking to a supply that until then was made of houses. A house to rent in Manouba is therefore no longer the only option for a family; these apartments let for 600 to 900 DT and attract young couples working in Le Bardo or Tunis. On paper they have a management company and service charges, which is new for many tenants around here: ask what the amount is before signing, and who actually collects it.

For anyone thinking of buying rather than renting, the listings for houses for sale in Manouba give an idea of what ten years of rent represents.