We at Tunisia.com consider ourselves to be independent and above all to act in the interests of our visitors and the expat community in Tunisia. This ethos is most important when it comes to the property market in Tunisia, in Tunisia the vast majority of information provided by agents/ developers or in articles written by the former so one could be forgiven for feeling that a) you cannot loose buying Tunisian property and b) its as easy as falling off a log….neither scenario is true.
Culture
Tunisia inherited a lot of its legal framework from the French however a key differentiator in the property market is the Anglo Saxon obsession with property ownership. In Tunisia 80% percent of people own their own homes as a household (official statistic) though this has not changed either up or down for years (even as prices increased by 150%) but in essence most families no matter how poor normally have a member of the family that has a house.
When buying a property in Tunisia the process itself is very safe and secure problems come when the vendor or the purchaser try and circumvent the system out of ignorance or worse out of intent to steal.
Before entering any transaction in Tunisia get the advice of an independent (ie not provided by a friend or a real estate agent) lawyer. Don’t be pressed into handing over deposits or signing anything before this happens there will be another bargain so please be patient. Additionally if your using the services of an agent they should be registered with a number this allows you to check if they have any criminal past and although not a guarantee of good service means you may have some modicum of professionalism.
Its not that common in Tunisia to have leasehold for domestic property though it is common (especially recently) to have a mortgage and increasingly a large one. The widespread use of credit is a recent phenomenon and is highly developed and has corresponded with a building boom in the major population centers and outside them also.
Don’t believe the hype that Tunisia is some virgin territory where property is underpriced and the locals are not clued up. Property speculation is a national pastime here and many families have earned millions of dinars in the process. Its not uncommon to find empty lands inside cities where investors speculate and hold out for amazing prices which forces the suburbs to expand where ever the land is cheapest.
What is also even more impressive is the prices that some property fetches with what seems to the outsider as a opaque and relaxed marketing system. This means that seldom does the outside (even the next town) find a cheap bargain as you really have to have your ear to the ground locally and move fast for a bargain. This nearly always means as a foreigner your out since waiting for authorisation means that your not in a position to complete quickly, ironically your best bet for a bargain maybe to buy from another foreigner!
To start with its not actually that easy to find a good property for sale at a reasonable price. Like in the UK and EU there are serious sellers (need the money/moving) and time wasters whom are either rich already or cannot be bothered either way as they got the house for free, the latter group have no issue putting the property on the market for years and even increasing the price with each year? Many also feel that since they have been to France a house in Tunisia is worth the same as the one back home.
To get the best bargains you have to go to the place where you want to buy and visit all the shops, old men standing about and registered agency immobiliare. I am not saying avoid the latter as some do a good job however a lot of Tunisian sellers try and avoid the commission preferring to sell low key themselves since the majority of transaction are to locals anyhow (since they pay higher prices than foreigners!). Also you will find that a Tunisian seller will say I want eg 200,000 dinars and then the agent may go and put a price on top for him say 220,000! in either case lawyers are put in touch immediately.
Once you find the property and agree a price then your onto the next stage and it is often not quick (unless a new development built for foreign investment) and i suggest you read our article on buying a property in Tunisia for a first hand experience of this.
Our advice is to rent get to know everyone and be patient!
The Current Market
Sea view for 24,000 euros!…….I wish that was the real story however this is not the reality unless you want to by a studio apartment in the Tunisian equivalent of a great yarmouth suburb. Tunisia skipped the foreign investment frenzy of the 2004-2007 period and jumped straight to comparatively (considering infrastructure and local wages) expensive without really changing the rules to make it easy to buy which has resulted in many developments but little interest.
History
To understand how we got to the current market you have to understand a few things about Tunisian property.
Two generations ago the economy was a fraction of what it is today. Land near the coast was often given away for hotels/developments etc.
During the colonial era there was a lot of housebuilding and infrastructure.
The french “blackfooted” (their expression not mine) it back home and left a lot of property behind which became a bonanza for those left behind. Also at the time of the Arab Israel war a second exodus of the Jews left another opportunity.
1 million Tunisians work around the world circa 10% of the population.
Tunisian families seldom sell houses if they can its strongly preferred to money in the bank due to inflation.
So entering the modern world the average Tunisian enjoyed a cheap house that he owned with little or no finance and if he chose to do so he could get cheap land and build his house there. On top of this a lot of landowning elite had departed which meant that Tunisia was a remarkably balanced society and along with subsided food and some social housing a cheap cost of living.
Now with the years Tunisia has become one of if not the most advanced economy in africa and key to this is the overhauling of the banking system and the planning of an export led economy with a closed currency which allows inward investment without raising the value of the currency or indeed allowing those within the economy to take their Dinars and spend in another country. This has greatly increased the amount of liquidity in the Tunisian banking system and economy. With high unemployment this excess money has not fed into higher wages indeed to earn more than 1000 euros a month is a good salary say a middle manager experienced but not the boss. The money has found its way into consumption (cars, tvs etc) and a good deal into housing. to give you an example historically if you rented your house out in Tunisia you would have a yeild of 5% (which is quite low) today you would be lucky to get 3% yeild.
Additionally the lack of finance previously means that since a low number of homes are sold many families are sitting on equity mountains since houses that where say 100,000 dinars are 2/3 times the value currently, the story for land is even more spectacular for example a grandfather would pay 8 dinars a m2 in Bizerte Corniche and his grandson now would have to find 250 dinars a m2! This has contributed to a fall in birthrate of 5-7 kids per family to 1.5 kids per family in under 2 generations!
This has meant that the best way to buy a house is to have one already and like in the western economy it has become practically impossible for young people to buy a house and even the most highly paid having to settle for a flat when their parents earn significantly less and sit in a house.
So if you add this credit explosion to the diaspora of successful Tunisians around the world you end up with surprisingly expensive property especially in the best areas. If you want a apartment in the best parts of Tunis you need to bring 200,000 euros and nearly triple for a house of prestige in the same address. Even in up and coming areas a nice house is well over 100,000 euros meaning that often people come to Tunisia thinking they are going to buy a nice house in the medina or overlooking the sea in sidi bou said only to find the former 250,000 pounds and the latter over a million!
Saying that…… as in the UK if you do buy one of these super homes its ironically a safer bet than new build apartments located outside tourist resorts since there are very rich Tunisians and they definitely want to be there also. Tunis as a diplomatic center is able to get seriously good rents for the top properties its not unheard of to beat 10,000 dinars a month for the cream of the crop.
So in summary the Tunisian market has risen a lot recently there are a lot of properties being built and recently completed be careful and make sure that you negotiate hard!
