Houses to rent in Kerkennah

The query that brings the most people to this page is written in Arabic and asks for houses to rent in Kerkennah with prices. That is indeed the question: in Kerkennah, the price of a house depends less on its size than on the week requested, the distance to the beach and whether there is a pool. The same house in Ouled Kacem can rent for three times as much in the second week of August as in October, when the island returns to its fifteen thousand or so inhabitants.

The listings for a house to rent in Kerkennah published here come almost entirely from owners, often Kerkennians settled in Sfax, Tunis or France, who let the family house when they are not using it. Supply hovers around ten listings and is renewed mostly in spring. To compare with houses in the city of Sfax, Mahrès or Chaffar, all the houses to rent in the Sfax governorate can be browsed on a single page.

The Kerkennah house and what you really rent

The archipelago's typical house is low, white, single-storey, arranged around a courtyard with its rainwater cistern, a few palm trees and sometimes a fig tree. In the villages of Remla, Ouled Kacem, Kellabine or Ennajet, this is the kind of building you find as a house rental in Kerkennah, modernised with a fitted kitchen and air conditioning in the bedrooms. The houses of the 1980s to 2000s, built with emigration money, are larger, often with an upper floor and a terrace for sleeping outside in summer.

The recent villas with a pool are concentrated towards Sidi Frej and on the west coast of Chergui, near the hotel zone. It is the only sector where a villa to rent in Kerkennah with a pool can be found regularly; elsewhere, the pool remains the exception. In Mellita, on Gharbi island, the supply is made up of family houses close to the port of Sidi Youssef, handy for anyone who does not want to cross the whole archipelago after the ferry.

Prices by season, as orders of magnitude

In July and August, a simple house with two or three bedrooms a few minutes from the sea often rents for between 600 and 1,200 DT (Tunisian dinars) a week, and demand outstrips supply from mid-July. A villa with a pool in Sidi Frej can exceed 2,000 DT a week in high season. In June and September, the same houses often lose a third of their price, and the sea is still warm: it is the period chosen by couples without school-age children and by foreign visitors.

By the year, the picture reverses: a village house rents for a few hundred dinars a month, rarely above 500 to 600 DT even for a decent property, but supply is scarce because owners want the house back for the summer. September-to-June contracts, designed for teachers and health staff posted to the archipelago, are a common formula that you have to ask the advertiser for explicitly.

Choosing your village

Remla concentrates the services: market, banks, pharmacy, health services, cafés open all year round. A house to rent in Kerkennah in Remla suits anyone staying several months. Ouled Kacem and Kellabine, next door, offer the same comfort with more calm. El Attaya, to the north, is the big fishing port and the liveliest village on a summer evening, with its boats and its seafront; Kraten, at the tip, is the most isolated, sought after for its beaches and its unlit sky. Ennajet, on the east coast, remains a quiet fishing village. Sidi Frej, finally, is the beach and the hotels, but few grocery shops outside the season.

Those who also want to see the villa floors, the studios and the few apartments on offer will widen their search to the page of all the homes to rent in Kerkennah.

Water, ferry, contract: the three points to settle before arriving

Water first. It comes from the mainland and the pressure drops in August; ask whether the house has a tank or a cistern in working order, and whether hot water depends on an electric or a solar water heater. The ferry next: in summer, crossings with a car need planning and the queues at the port of Sfax are long at weekends; a house whose owner leaves a car or bicycles on site is worth more than its advertised price. The contract last: for a week, a written exchange with the total price, the deposit and the key handover date is enough; for a year-round rental, insist on a signed contract, a deposit of one or two months and meter readings on arrival. Owners who are selling rather than letting are on the houses for sale in Kerkennah page.