Offices and shops for rent in Raoued

In Raoued, business property revolves around two hubs that have nothing in common. On one side, the El Ghazala technology park, with its engineering schools and digital companies, draws service firms, consultancies and start-ups looking for an office a few minutes from their partners. On the other, the shopping streets of the residential districts, Cité El Ghazela, Riadh El Andalous, Raoued centre, where people look for a ground-floor unit for a grocery, a pharmacy, a hairdresser or a café.

Supply online is small: a few listings, most posted by the owners of the premises. So you have to be ready to widen the search. The offices and shops for rent in Ariana governorate page covers Ariana Ville, Ennasr and La Soukra, where the office stock is much larger.

Offices around the El Ghazala technology park

The technology park lets its own space under its own rules, and its premises do not go through classified ads. What you find here are the offices around it: a villa floor turned into an open-plan office, a flat in a residential block let for business use, a recent building with units delivered as bare shells on the roads leading to the park. These spaces suit a team of five to fifteen people who want to stay close to the ecosystem without paying its prices.

Before signing for a converted flat, check that the co-ownership rules allow office use, that the building can take air conditioning for a whole floor and that fibre is already run up to the floor. Staff parking is another sore point, as the nearby streets fill up on weekdays.

Local shops: Cité El Ghazela, Riadh El Andalous, Raoued centre

A shop for rent in Raoued is almost always on the ground floor of a house or a small building put up by its owner, with a metal shutter onto the street. Cité El Ghazela is the liveliest sector, with a clientele of students and young workers out late in the evening: fast food, cafés, launderettes and stationers do well there. Riadh El Andalous has a family, better-off clientele, suited to pharmacies, bakeries and health services.

Towards Jaafer, Enkhilet and the beach road, rents drop but so does footfall: a local convenience shop can work there, a concept that lives on passing trade much less so. Near the beach, a few units only really trade from June to September, something the owner sometimes forgets to mention.

Footfall, commercial lease and key money

Measure the footfall yourself. Walk past the unit on a Tuesday morning and a Saturday evening, count the pedestrians and see where cars can stop. A frontage on a fast road with no parking is often worth less than a small street where customers park outside the door.

The Tunisian commercial lease protects an established tenant, with a right to renewal after a few years of trading, so it is normal for the owner to take care over the wording. Have the permitted activity, the length, the rent review and the split of works spelled out. Some well-placed units change hands with key money paid to the outgoing occupant; that sum does not always appear in the listing, so ask about it at first contact.

Check the permitted use before fitting out

A unit on the ground floor of a house does not necessarily have permission for commercial use. For a business open to the public, a café, a medical practice, a gym, the municipality requires compliant premises, and some businesses have had to close after months of works for lack of a permit. Ask the owner for the building permit and, if possible, the history of activities carried on there.

If your plan involves living on site, a house floor above a commercial ground floor can solve both problems; the property for rent in Raoued page lists them regularly. And those who want to build their own premises will look at the land for sale in Raoued, checking that the zoning allows the planned activity.