Hello all, interested in buying property in Tunisia. It is not enough to contact somebody who is 'clued-up,' or simply 'deals' in property. Buying property in Tunisia is not like buying a property in England which is relatively straight forward and easy.
There are so many rules and regulations for foreigners buying in Tunisia. For example if you are looking for land to build your own villa as a friend of mine was, you can be told all sorts of things by the vendor, such as he has permission for building, or the land has been designated for building...etc, then you pay a fortune at a solicitors, and a fortune to have everything translated, only to find that the vendor lied to you all along, i.e. he has no permission, and the land is on agricultural land, which foreigners cannot buy.
You have to put an application into the governor when buying property if you are a foreign buyer and every contract that you sign will be in either French or Arabic. You could use the services of somebody 'dealing in property' and unbeknown to you, he could be getting a fortune in commission behind your back.
It is much better to use the services of a reputable real estate company, who have arrangements to sell the properties with the vendors and who are clear at the outset as to how much commission you will be paying. They will guide you through the process, instead of being left to do everything yourself and find your own solicitor etc. I have also heard many horror stories of people who found their own solicitor who in turn charged them a rate 200 x more than what he would have charged an ordinary Tunisian citizen.
All estate agents in Tunisia charge commission and so you should not listen to anybody who tells you that they will do it for nothing, as usually this is the kind of person that will sell you an apartment worth 50,000 Tunisian Dinars for 70,000 Dinars.
To sell properties in Tunisia you have to be either living there and know the market and what is going on, or have employees working for you in the area. You cannot expect to sit there in Europe and simply be 'in-the-know' or 'dealing in property!!' Or to deal with a company that doesn't specialise entirely in Tunisia and has many different countries on their website is usually the kind of person that started buying and selling properties in Tunisia, having never even visited the country and is just out to make a fast buck!!
I have bought very successfully through a British Estate agency,
http://www.thetunisianhouse.co.uk dealing in Tunisian property. They have been operating for over two years now and I was never left alone once to deal with anything. The lady running the business is married to a Tunisian, had been travelling out there for over 20 years, before living there for 2 years and setting up the business with employees on the ground in Tunisia working for her. She knows all of the vendors, individually and personally.
They even translated some of the official papers for me. If you need to know anything more, please contact me on my email address
lucyadams82@yahoo.co.uk as I will be happy to tell you about my experiences