Homes for rent in Bab El Bhar

Bab El Bhar, the "gate of the sea", is first of all the arch on Place de la Victoire, at the entrance to the Medina. It is also the name of the delegation that starts there, runs up Avenue Habib Bourguiba and Avenue de Paris, crosses Lafayette and Montplaisir, then stretches out to Berges du Lac 1 and 2 and the Centre Urbain Nord. Within that perimeter you can rent almost anything: a room in a family flat on Rue de Marseille, an executive S+3 at Lac 2 (three bedrooms plus a living room, the local way of counting), a furnished flat by the week for a work assignment in Tunis.

This page brings together the rental listings of every category in the delegation, posted on houni.tn by owners and agencies.

Renting by the year: three budgets, three sectors

In the city centre and around Lafayette, older stock dominates. Studios, S+1 and S+2 units in buildings from the 1930s to the 1960s, often without a lift, at rents that remain among the lowest in the capital for such a central address. The suburban train at Tunis station, the metro at Place Barcelone and the buses along Avenue de Paris make a car unnecessary.

Renting at Lac 2 is the other extreme, with rents that start where city centre rents stop. You see more company cars and diplomatic plates there than anywhere else in Tunis, and leases are often signed for two or three years, the length of a posting.

In between sit the Centre Urbain Nord and Montplaisir: recent buildings in managed residences, S+1 and S+2 units designed for single people and couples working at the corporate headquarters nearby. Properties to let in the Centre Urbain Nord go quickly in September, when newly hired bank and insurance staff all start looking at once.

Furnished by the month, the week or the night

Daily rentals in central Tunis have always existed, for families from the interior coming up for paperwork or a hospital stay, but the booking platforms gave them published prices and reviews. Around Avenue de Paris and Rue de Yougoslavie, expect 80 to 150 DT a night for a decent furnished studio; at Lac 2 it is double that, for equipped apartments with parking. By the week or the month the rate drops fast: negotiate as soon as your stay goes beyond ten days.

Plenty of enquiries are also for a single room in a family home or a shared flat, especially on the Lafayette side and around Rue de Marseille, from students at the Bourguiba Institute of Modern Languages, interns and young civil servants. These rooms let by the month, furnished, and the owner often lives on the premises: better to know that before agreeing.

What the listings do not tell you

The city centre empties in the evening and on Sundays. It is quiet, but less lively than people imagine, and some streets are poorly lit. A Sunday afternoon gives you the measure of the area. At Lac 2 the problem is the opposite: everything is done by car, and a residence without an allocated parking space is a residence to avoid. In the Centre Urbain Nord, daytime parking is saturated by office workers, though it frees up in the evening.

The contract rules are the same everywhere: a lease registered at the tax office, a written inventory of condition, and a reading of the STEG and SONEDE meters on the day you get the keys. In the newer residences at the Lac and the Centre Urbain Nord, ask what the service charge is and who pays it; it commonly exceeds 80 DT a month where there is a pool and a caretaker.

The rest of the capital is on the page for homes to rent in Tunis. Within the delegation, apartments for rent in Bab El Bhar make up most of the supply, and houses for rent, which are rare, are found mainly around Berges du Lac.