Houses for rent in Rafraf

Rafraf has two faces. Up above, the village, with its sloping streets and houses packed tightly together; down below, the beach, a long curve of sand facing the islet of Pilau, where summer houses have been built over the decades. The house to rent in Rafraf you are after depends on that choice: a few weeks by the water in July or August, or a village house for the year.

Listings come almost entirely from private owners: village families, people from Tunis who own a holiday home, emigrants who leave the keys with a cousin. You call them directly. To compare with Sounine, Metline or the town of Ras Djebel, the page of houses to rent in Ras Djebel covers the whole delegation.

A seaside house for the summer

The most common search, by far, is for a house to rent by the sea in Rafraf. These houses are rarely architect-designed villas: they are family-built homes on one or two levels, with a roof terrace for the evenings, a courtyard for the car and bedrooms designed to sleep plenty of people. Often, the owning family lives on one floor and rents out the other.

The closer you are to the sand, the higher the price, and August costs clearly more than June or September. Houses on the higher ground, between the beach and the village, offer a compromise: a few minutes on foot or by car to get down, more quiet in the evening, often a view over the bay. Rentals go by the week, the fortnight or the month, and regular families book from one year to the next. It is best to start looking in spring, when owners set their prices and the best houses have not yet been taken.

Renting in the village all year

Out of season, Rafraf goes back to being a large, quiet village, and the house for rent changes in nature. You find town houses with a courtyard, ground floors with the owner living upstairs, sometimes a beach house whose owner would rather let it in winter than leave it shut. Yearly rents generally stay modest, well below those in Bizerte, and attract teachers, local employees and couples from the area waiting to finish building their own home. Some summer house owners also offer a rental from September to June, cheaper, on condition that the keys are handed back before the season: a useful arrangement for anyone working in Ras Djebel or Menzel Bourguiba who does not need to stay over the summer.

If a whole house is too big, the flats to rent in Rafraf cover self-contained floors and small units, and the page of homes to rent in Rafraf brings the two together.

What to check before booking

For a summer stay, ask for recent photos and the exact number of beds, check the water tank and the water pressure, which can drop in midsummer when the village fills up, and ask where the car can be parked: near the beach, the streets are packed in August. Put the dates, the amount of the advance and what happens if you cancel in writing, even in a simple message.

For a yearly rental, a contract registered at the tax office (recette des finances) protects both sides. Note the deposit, who pays for water and electricity, and draw up a dated inventory with photos. Houses near the sea suffer from damp and salt: look at the north-facing walls, the window frames and the water heater. A visit after an autumn rain tells you more than a visit in bright sunshine.