James Whitmee

I am currently researching the office market around Tunis. Rents have been pretty flat for the last 3 years and I would put prime at around TND 160 /sq m /year. At the equivalent of around $9 /sq m /year this makes Tunis the cheapest capital city for offices in North Africa, and considerably cheaper than its neighbours (Libya and Algeria). Developers don't really acknowledge corporates' need for open-plan space and generally finish offices partitioned. This has driven some of the call centre requirements particularly into old industrial buildings in areas such as Charguia, which they have converted. Tunis' mega-schemes have either stopped, or are moving very slowly. None of them were really progressed to any great extent anyway. Most of the office development activity is in Les Berges du Lac II, El Ghazala Tecnoparc and Centre Urbain Nord (see photograph below). Although rents have been flat, land costs have surged and the seasoned developers are not buying as the prices do not make commercial sense.

                                                    Development activity at Centre Urbain Nord

                                                         View over Kram towards La Goulette