Houses for rent in Korba

When people type "house to rent in Korba by the sea", in Arabic or in French, they are almost always after the same thing: a house with a terrace, a few minutes' walk from the beach, for two or three weeks in July or August. Korba, on the east coast of Cap Bon between Nabeul and Menzel Temime, is one of the summer destinations for Tunis families who want the sea without Hammamet prices, and for emigrants who do not yet own a villa of their own.

House rentals in Korba on Houni are nonetheless a narrow market: one or two listings online at a time, posted by private owners, sometimes an emigrant's villa left in the care of a relative on the spot. The reader calls the owner directly. As supply shifts quickly, it is worth looking too at the page of homes to rent in Korba, which brings houses and flats together, and at all the houses to rent across the Nabeul governorate for the neighbouring beaches.

The summer villa in Korba Est and Tazerka

Most of the seasonal supply is in Korba Est, in the streets running down from the town to the beach, and in Tazerka, whose seafront is more residential. These are two-storey villas built by emigrants, let furnished when the family is not coming, or let for part of the summer and lived in for the rest. Roof terrace, enclosed yard for the car, two or three air-conditioned bedrooms, sometimes a pergola: comfort varies a great deal from one house to the next, and the photos do not tell the whole story.

Listings come out in May and June; the first two weeks of August are booked first, often by families who come back every year. A high-season week runs to hundreds of dinars for a simple house and well over a thousand dinars for a comfortable villa near the sand. A deposit of about a third is customary. Ask for the exact distance to the sea, the number of working air conditioners, and whether the water comes from the mains or a tank: in August, that is the question that matters.

The yearly house: Korba Ouest and the centre

Out of season, a house to rent in Korba by the year is another product: a single-storey town house or a ground floor on the Korba Ouest and central estates, let unfurnished to a family settling in, to a transferred civil servant with children, or to a couple waiting for their own build to be finished. The owners are often Korba people who moved to Tunis or abroad, keep the family house and would rather let it than leave it shut.

Such a property often goes for between 500 and 900 DT a month depending on condition, floor area and garage, markedly less than in Nabeul. The September return is the right time: houses let in summer come free, and an owner who had a poor season readily accepts a yearly lease. Some summer villas are in fact let from October to May at a very gentle price, on condition of leaving before July; a good deal for anyone with a summer solution. For a floor or a studio rather than a whole house, see the flats to rent in Korba.

Boulidine, Garaet Sassi: the country house

In the inland farming areas, Boulidine and Garaet Sassi, a country house to rent turns up from time to time, sometimes with a patch of land, a shed or a few fruit trees. Tenants are farm workers' families, technicians from nearby farms, or Korba people who want space for a modest rent. You need a car, and must accept that the track deteriorates in wet weather and that the power is sometimes single-phase.

The owner is often an heir who no longer farms; rent is agreed by the year, sometimes in exchange for looking after the garden or the trees. Put everything in writing, including use of the well water, a classic source of disagreement.

Contract, deposit and inventory

For a yearly let, insist on a contract registered at the tax office, a one-month deposit, two at most for a furnished place, and an inventory with STEG and SONEDE meter readings on the day you move in. Check that the owner really is the owner, or holds a mandate from the family: in jointly owned houses, one brother sometimes lets without the others' agreement, and the tenant ends up in the middle of a quarrel.

For a summer let, a written exchange setting the dates, the total price, the deposit, the number of people and the furniture inventory is usually enough. Ask for a recent video rather than photos from five summers ago, and check by phone who will meet you on arrival and who holds the keys if the owner is abroad.