Apartments for rent in Hammam Lif

The search for an apartment to rent in Hammam Lif is one of the most frequent in the southern suburbs, and one of the most frustrating: the town has few buildings for its population, and what is let on an upper floor is often a villa floor that the owner does not call a flat. Listings classed as a flat are few here and change from week to week, while the neighbouring page, which gathers all property to rent in Hammam Lif, offers more choice, floors and houses included. Start there.

This page remains useful for understanding where to look and how much to budget, and it fills up as private owners and agencies publish. For a flat right away, all the apartments to rent in the Ben Arous governorate cover Ezzahra, Radès, Ben Arous town and Mégrine, a few train stops away.

Where the flats are: the centre, from the station to the corniche

Hammam Lif's buildings are concentrated in the centre, between the station and the seafront, along the shopping avenues. Three to five storeys, a shop on the ground floor, S+2 and S+3 flats above, built between the 1970s and the 2000s; few lifts, balconies overlooking the street or the courtyard. A few more recent developments, with underground parking and a caretaker, have appeared in the area listings call Hammam Lif Ville 2, more residential, and towards the Ezzahra boundary.

An S+2 in an older central building often rents for between 600 and 850 DT, an S+1 around 450 to 650 DT; in a recent development, add a third. A flat with a sea view, rare, carries its own premium. Near the station, the rent includes the time saved: the southern suburbs train reaches Tunis in about half an hour, which makes Hammam Lif a commuters' address.

The villa floor, the flat that does not say its name

In the villa streets of Hammam Lif Ville and on the slopes of the Boukornine, most "flats" are villa floors: three or four rooms, a terrace, a separate entrance up an outside staircase, the owner downstairs. They offer more space than an S+2 in a building for a comparable rent, often between 600 and 900 DT, and suit families as well as students sharing.

Their limits are well known: a water or electricity meter sometimes shared with the ground floor, an owner on site who has a say on visitors and hours, and the sound insulation of a house rather than a building. When a listing speaks of a floor, it is most likely to be classed on the page of houses to rent in Hammam Lif.

Students, young couples and the September return

Demand for flats in Hammam Lif comes first from young couples working in Tunis or in the Ben Arous and Mégrine industrial zones, who find a lower rent here than in the northern suburbs, with the sea as a bonus. It then comes from students at the institutions of Radès and Borj Cédria, who look for a furnished S+1 or S+2 to share and call in numbers between late August and mid-October. A furnished flat offered at the start of term goes within days; the same one, offered in January, waits.

In summer, finally, some of the flats near the beach switch to seasonal letting, by the week or the month, and disappear from yearly rentals. A lease signed in September or October is the surest way to keep a flat for twelve months in a row.

Before signing: charges, damp, the train

Ask for the breakdown of charges: in older central buildings, the management is sometimes informal and the upkeep of the stairwell and the roof terrace is decided between neighbours. Look at the walls of the sea-facing rooms after rain, sea air and the north wind mark the facades. And visit on a weekday at the time trains and lorries pass on the national road, a Sunday morning tells you nothing about the real noise.

The lease must be written and registered, with the amount of the deposit, usually one month, two for a furnished flat, and the list of equipment left in place. An owner who refuses to register the contract leaves you with no recourse in a dispute, and in Hammam Lif as elsewhere, it is when you try to get the deposit back that you remember it.