Apartments for rent in Gabès Sud

A flat is not the traditional way of living in Gabès, where the courtyard house is still the norm, but it has found its place in the south of the town with the Zrig campus. An apartment to rent in Gabes, in the Gabès Sud delegation, is most often a studio or an S+1 on the ground floor of a house, let to a student or a young teacher, or an S+2 in a small recent building for a couple of civil servants. Large developer blocks are rare; this is small co-ownership of three or four storeys, often built by a family that lives on one of the floors.

Online listings hover around a dozen at a time, almost all from private owners, sometimes from an agency in town. To compare with the centre, Bab Bhar and the Gabès Médina districts, all the apartments to rent in the Gabès governorate fit on a single page.

Zrig, the campus and the start of the academic year

It all starts in Zrig. The science faculty, the ISET and the neighbouring institutes have made the district the town's student market: studios of 20 to 30 m², S+1 flats shared by two, simply furnished, less than ten minutes' walk from the lecture halls. A studio often rents for between 180 and 300 DT depending on whether it is furnished and air-conditioned, an S+1 a little more. Owners frequently ask for rent by the term or the semester, and some let only to girls or only to boys.

The calendar is strict: properties come free in June, the first listings appear in August, and everything is gone by mid-September. A student arriving in October will still find something, but further from campus and more expensive. Conversely, in July, a flat to rent in Gabes in Zrig is open to negotiation, because the owner prefers a yearly tenant to a studio left empty for two months.

S+2 and S+3 for families

For a family, the supply of flats is mainly in Zrig Eddakhlania and along the avenues linking Zrig to Sidi Boulbaba, in buildings from the 2000s and 2010s: S+2 of 90 to 110 m², balcony, sometimes a garage, rarely a lift. Tenants are Groupe chimique managers, teachers and doctors posted to Gabès for a few years who do not want the constraints of a house. A decent S+2 often rents for between 450 and 700 DT, a recent S+3 can go above 800 DT, which remains well below Sfax or Sousse.

These flats come free as transfers happen, so mostly in summer and at the end of the calendar year. Many Gabès families nonetheless prefer a house for the same price; if that is your case, houses to rent in Gabès Sud exist, although the supply there is even thinner.

Furnished, by the month, by the day

Searches for a furnished apartment to rent in Gabès and for daily rentals are numerous, and it is worth being clear about what the delegation offers. Furnished flats by the year exist for students and for managers passing through. Furnished flats by the month appear in summer, when Gabès families settled in Tunis or abroad come back for July and August and an owner lets the flat of children who have moved away. Daily rentals remain marginal: Gabès is not a holiday-stay town, and the few flats let by the night are aimed at families on a visit or professionals on assignment in the industrial zone.

For a furnished flat, ask for an inventory signed by both sides on moving in: it is what avoids arguments over the deposit on moving out, especially for a student studio let for ten months.

Contract, charges and details that matter in Gabès

Insist on a written lease, registered at the tax office, stating the term, the notice period and the amount of the deposit, usually one month, two for a furnished flat. In a house split into studios, check whether electricity and water run through a shared meter with a flat-rate split, which is common and a source of disputes, or through separate STEG and SONEDE meters.

A ground-floor flat in the oasis or near the sea can suffer from damp: look at the bottom of the walls. Air conditioning is almost essential from June to September, ask whether it is provided. And to see villa floors too, which are not classed as flats but come close, the page of property to rent in Gabès Sud brings together everything let in the delegation.