Offices and shops for rent in El Mourouj

El Mourouj is a town of residents, not a business district: people live here, do their shopping here, send their children to school here, and leave to work elsewhere in the morning. Commerce follows that logic. It sits at street level, in the shopping cores of each cite and above all around the metro and Carrefour in Mourouj 1: pharmacies, medical practices, cafés, private schools, gyms, bank branches. The demand that lands here under "محلات للكراء في المروج", premises to rent in El Mourouj, comes first from local shopkeepers and professionals who want to set up where they live.

Be clear about the supply: it is limited, two or three listings online at a time, posted by owners and a few agencies, and the best spots often change hands without a listing, through a sign on the shutter or word of mouth. So widen the search to all the offices and shops to rent in Ben Arous governorate, where Ben Arous town, Megrine and Ezzahra offer more premises.

Where the footfall is: Mourouj 1 and the cite centres

The only real pedestrian flow in the delegation is in Mourouj 1, between the hypermarket, the market and the metro stations. Premises there run from 25 to 60 m², on the ground floor of 1980s blocks, and carry the highest rents in El Mourouj; key money, the "khlou", is still frequently asked for the best placed ones. A commercial unit to rent in Mourouj 1 does not stay vacant for long, and you often have to accept a small floor area and an average condition.

The other cites each have their own shopping core, planned from the outset of the estate: a few dozen shops around a small square or a neighbourhood market in Mourouj 3, 4 and 5. The footfall there is that of the sector's residents, enough for a grocery, a hair salon or a bakery, not enough for a business that lives on passing trade. In Mourouj 6, the ground floors of the new residences are let by developers or co-owners to services that work by appointment or with a motorised clientele: pharmacy, practice, nursery, gym.

Practices, offices and service businesses

Office space in the strict sense barely exists in El Mourouj. What is let as an office is a ground floor or first floor apartment converted into a medical or paramedical practice, a law firm, a design office, a training centre or a kindergarten. That is the most common form of the office for rent in Mourouj, and it has its rules: check that the co-ownership rules or the neighbours tolerate the activity, that the municipality does not object to the change of use, and that the activity itself, for a nursery or a training centre for instance, has its licence. These properties sometimes appear among the property to rent in El Mourouj, the owner not having settled between residential and professional use.

Warehouses and hangars in Bir Kassaa

Bir Kassaa is the delegation's business hub: the Tunis wholesale market draws fruit and vegetable wholesalers, hauliers and cold stores, and the industrial zone extends that of Ben Arous. This is where to look for a warehouse to rent, a hangar of a few hundred m² or premises for a storage and delivery business, at rents per m² well below those of cite retail. The points to check are technical: access for heavy goods vehicles, ceiling height, three-phase power supply, drainage, and the state of the road surface, put to the test every morning by the market lorries.

Commercial lease, key money and formalities before opening

In Tunisia, the tenant of premises used for commercial, industrial or craft purposes enjoys, after two years of occupation, the protection of the 1977 law on commercial leases: a right to renewal and compensation in the event of eviction. El Mourouj landlords know this and sometimes prefer a one or two year contract for professional use, or ask for key money that offsets that protection. Read the exact nature of the lease before signing, have it registered, and set out in writing who pays for the fit-out, the municipal tax and the metal shutter.

Before opening, make sure the premises are designated for commercial use in the building permit, that they have their own STEG electricity meter, and that the sign and any terrace have their municipal authorisation. If you would rather own your premises than rent, the offices and shops for sale in El Mourouj page lists the rare units offered for sale.