Apartments for rent in La Medina

Looking for an apartment to rent in the Medina of Tunis means looking for an exception. The old town is made of courtyard houses, not apartment blocks, and the apartment in the usual sense, with a landing, a fitted kitchen and a modern bathroom, exists only in a few sectors. It takes two forms: homes in the low-rise blocks of the Hafsia, and floors of dars (traditional courtyard houses) converted into separate homes by owners who have divided the family house.

For the delegation, the supply of apartments to rent is limited and changes from one week to the next, and the listings that do appear almost always come from private owners. So you need to widen your search: the apartments to rent in Tunis governorate cover the city centre, Lafayette or Montplaisir, a few minutes from the Medina on foot or by light rail.

The Hafsia, the sector of real apartments

The Hafsia stands on the site of the former Hara, the Jewish quarter of the Medina, razed and then rebuilt in phases from the 1970s onwards. You find two- or three-storey buildings that echo the scale of the old town, with apartments from S+1 to S+3, shared courtyards and shops on the ground floor. It is the only sector of the Medina where you can rent a home designed as an apartment, with a regular layout and recent utilities.

Tenants there are long-settled families of modest means, civil servants, and a few students sharing. The location is central, close to rue de la Commission and the souks, and a short distance from Bab Bhar and avenue Habib Bourguiba.

Converted dar floors

Elsewhere, in Bab Mnara, around Tourbet El Bey or in the lanes near the Kasbah, the apartment to rent is often a converted dar floor: two or three rooms around a gallery, a small kitchen fitted into a former storeroom, an added shower room, and access via the house staircase. Some have been carefully renovated, original ceilings and tiles included, and are let furnished to foreigners or people working in the cultural sector. Others remain in their original state.

These homes have character but call for a few compromises: light that comes from the patio rather than the street, poor thermal insulation, close neighbours. For a family that needs a courtyard, the page of homes to rent in the Medina also includes dars let in their entirety.

Rents and points to check

An S+1 often rents for between 400 and 700 DT (Tunisian dinars) a month in the Medina, and an S+2 rarely goes above 900 DT, except for restored, furnished floors aimed at foreign tenants, which go for more. For the same floor area, you generally pay less than in the modern city centre, but the comfort is not the same.

Before signing, check for individual STEG (electricity) and SONEDE (water) meters, the state of the wiring, the watertightness of the roof terraces and damp in the walls. Ask who maintains the shared staircase and patio, and whether the owner allows an air conditioner to be fitted, which can be tricky on a protected façade. The written lease should set the deposit, usually one or two months, and the term. On Houni, you reach the owner directly: ask for photos of the patio and kitchen before making the trip.

Timing

Apartments free up mainly in June and September, following the university year and job transfers. In summer, some restored floors switch to holiday lets for tourists and the diaspora, and drop out of the yearly supply until October. Autumn and winter are therefore the best periods to find and negotiate. Come back to the page often: a well-placed listing goes within a few days. Those thinking of buying to live in or to let can browse the houses for sale in the Medina, where dars to divide still make up most of the supply.