Homes for rent in El Haouaria

Looking for an apartment to rent in El Haouaria means discovering that the tip of Cap Bon is not a town of apartment blocks. The village has a few floors above shops and houses split into two homes, the villages of Sidi Daoud and Zaouiet El Mgaiez have fishermen's cottages and holiday homes, and the interior has farms. Renting in El Haouaria covers all of that: house floors, small houses, rare apartments, year-round or for the summer season.

On Houni, this page shows few listings, sometimes none out of season: El Haouaria landlords still rent a lot by word of mouth, and those who post online are private individuals, with no agency. If nothing fits, all the homes for rent in Nabeul governorate give access to Kélibia, about twenty kilometres away, where the supply is much wider, and to the whole coast down to Hammamet.

What is actually rented in El Haouaria

The apartment in the city sense, in a residence with building management and a lift, barely exists here. What listings call an apartment is most often a house floor with a separate entrance, an S+1 or S+2 above the owners' home, in El Haouaria Nord or El Haouaria Sud, let to a teacher, a transferred civil servant or a young village couple. Rents remain far below those of Nabeul or Hammamet, and a decent S+1 often rents for the price of a simple studio in town. Furnished is the rule, unfurnished the exception, and the garage is negotiated separately when there is one.

Whole houses for rent are mainly seasonal: the holiday home of a Tunis family or an emigrant, let by the week between June and September, at Zaouiet El Mgaiez, Sidi Daoud or near the big El Haouaria beach. The dedicated page of houses for rent in El Haouaria details this summer market, which accounts for most searches.

The calendar: a market that flips twice a year

From June to September, anything with a terrace and a view is let to holidaymakers, and the yearly tenant finds nothing: landlords prefer three well-paid weeks in August to twelve months of modest rent. From mid-September, the market flips. Beach houses closed for the winter are sometimes offered from October to May at low rents, furnished, on condition of leaving before summer. This is the chance for teachers taking up their post in September, retirees coming to spend a quiet winter and households working at the port, in farming or at the Sidi Daoud wind farm. Seasonal staff at beach cafés and restaurants look for a room or a small S+1 in the village from May, before summer prices set in.

The sparrowhawk festival in June and the August peak are the two times not to look for a year-round home; the right time is October, when the winter listings appear.

Furnishings, water, contract

Most homes on offer are furnished, because they have served as holiday homes. Check the actual condition of the furniture and appliances after a summer of rentals. Look at the water: outside the village, many houses depend on a well or a cistern, and pressure drops in August. Look at the wind: a room facing north-west without solid shutters will be cold in winter, as El Haouaria is one of the windiest spots in the country.

For a yearly rental, insist on a written, registered contract and a deposit of one or two months, and set down in writing whether the lease covers July and August: this is the most common point of friction with owners of holiday homes. For the summer, a simple written agreement is enough, but specify the deposit, what it covers and the dates. Tenants who end up buying, and there are many at the tip of Cap Bon, will find the property for sale in El Haouaria on the neighbouring page.