Tunisia Housing Profile

TUNISIA
TUNISIA HOUSING PROFILE

HOUSING PROFILE
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

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(UN-HABITAT), 2011
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HS Number: HS/132/11E
ISBN Number (Volume): 978-92-1-132417-4
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TUNISIA
HOUSING PROFILE
TUNISIA Housing Profile
Acknowledgments
Housing Profile Core Team
Supervisors: Claudio Acioly and Mohamed El Sioufi
Task Manager: Jean D’Aragon
Principal Author: David Sims
Contributors: Tarek El-Sheikh, Jean D’Aragon, Claudio Acioly and Nicholas Simcik-Arese
Editors: Tom Osanjo, Jean D’Aragon and Nicholas Simcik-Arese
Programme Management and Assistance: Christina Power and Helen Musoke
Financial Support: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada
Logistical Support: UN-HABITAT Kuwait Office
Research Support: Nigel Browne, Institute of Housing and Urban Development (IHS), Jean D’Aragon
ii
Foreword
Foreword
UN-HABITAT is mandated by the United with one another and other urban policies. It seeks
Nations General Assembly to promote socially and at identifying factors hindering the housing market
environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the to work properly, particularly for the urban poor.
goal of providing adequate housing for all. Based on constraints and opportunities in the policy,
institutional, and regulatory frameworks, the Profile
Over the last three decades, Tunisia has been very identifies some recommendations for appropriate
successful in reducing the proportion of its population policy responses and priority actions to improve
living under the poverty line, improving the lives access to adequate housing in Tunisia.
of the country’s urban dwellers through access to
water and sanitation, electricity, and in reducing the I am confident that the Tunisia Housing Profile will be
percentage of slum population, as well as the number a useful tool for all the housing sector actors striving
of slum dwellers in absolute terms, while succeeding towards improving access to adequate housing for the
to increase the quality and quantity of the country’s Tunisian population. Knowing the importance of the
housing stock. housing sector in the overall economy of a country, I
hope that this report will help strengthen the housing
While Tunisia’s housing sector has benefited from sector so that it can fully contribute to the economic
government’s reforms in terms of institutions, and social development of Tunisia by enhancing
regulations, and financing in support of housing employment opportunities, especially for the most
production and improvement. There are lessons for vulnerable groups, as well as developing further
other countries to learn from this experience. However, linkages to the other sectors of the Tunisian economy.
there are still some challenges ahead for the county to
achieve the Habitat Agenda goal of adequate shelter I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all
for all, where the Tunisian authorities would need to those who have contributed to the preparation of this
explore in developing their new housing policies. report.
This publication, the Tunisia Housing Profile, aims
to help Tunisia in addressing those challenges by
providing a systemic analysis of the housing sector in
cities in Tunisia and disclosing some various aspects of
I am confident that the Tunisia
the housing delivery system in the country, including Housing Profile will be a useful
its functions, bottlenecks, current practices, and tool for all the housing sector
capacity development needs.
actors striving towards improving
The report carries an analysis of five key elements access to adequate housing for
in the sector, namely, land, basic services, housing
finance, building materials and construction the Tunisian population.
technologies, and labour. It examines how those
Joan Clos
components are governed by policy, institutional
and legal frameworks, and how they are linked
JOAN CLOS
Under-Secretary General of the United Nations

Executive Director,
UN-HABITAT
Foreword iii
PREFACE
This report is published by UN-HABITAT as one of a • Land supply mechanisms

series of housing sector profiles in selected developing
• The construction industry and building materials
countries under its Adequate Housing for All
Programme. Malawi, Uganda, Senegal, and Tunisia This report was prepared by David Sims, housing
are four countries where the Housing Sector Profile economist consultant and principal author,
project is being piloted through the sponsorship of supported by a team in UN-Habitat Nairobi. The
the International Development Research Centre methodology used was a desk study, using secondary
(IDRC) Canada. data sources, mainly those available from the internet.
Of most use were reports and data from government
UN-HABITAT’s Housing Policy Section has institutions such as the Tunisian National Statistical
developed a housing sector profile methodology to Institute (INS, Institut National des Statistiques),
support the auditing of housing sectors in different the Urbanisation Agency for Greater Tunis (AUGT,
countries as an integral part of broad housing sector l’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine),
reforms and policy formulation and implementation. the Housing Bank (la Banque de l’Habitat), and
Thus these profiles are analytical tools to provide infrastructure authorities (SONADE, ONAS,
governments and Habitat Agenda Partners with a and STEG). Media websites based in Tunisia were
comprehensive assessment of their housing delivery also used extensively, as were academic reports and
systems. reports produced by foreign donors. In addition to
The objective of the Housing Sector Profile Study for these sources, important information and views were
Tunisia is to undertake a comprehensive analysis of collected from housing stakeholders during a mission
the housing sector in cities and towns in Tunisia and to Tunisia undertaken by Tarek El Sheikh, UN-
to shed light on the functioning of various aspects of HABITAT housing officer, in October 2010.
housing delivery systems in the country as currently Although Tunisia’s population is over two-thirds
practiced, including identification of bottlenecks urban and the emphasis of this Study is on the housing
and other obstacles to achieving the goal of adequate sector in urban Tunisia, wherever information exists
housing for all. It is meant to produce improved attention is also put on housing dynamics in rural
knowledge and understanding of the sector that will areas. It is rural areas, particularly those near to cities,
enable the Government of Tunisia, the Ministry of which are under strong urbanization pressures, and
Equipment, Housing and Territorial Development in addition there continues to be significant rural-
(MEHAT, le Ministère de l'Equipement, de l'Habitat to-urban migration. Thus “rural” housing issues tend
et de l'Aménagement du Territoire) and other central to converge on “urban” housing issues, and it would
and local authorities to formulate appropriate be wrong to assume arbitrarily that urban Tunisia is
policy responses and recommendations leading separate and distinct from rural Tunisia.
to improvement of housing provision in Tunisia.
In this effort UN-HABITAT’s conceptual policy
framework for housing, that stresses enabling
strategies to stimulate the production of adequate
housing, is used. (See bibliography for references to
key UN-HABITAT documents on enabling housing
strategies.) This Study covers the following sub-
themes:
• Policy and institutional frameworks
• Legal and regulatory frameworks
• Housing finance, markets, and producers
• Infrastructure and other basic urban services
iv
Table of contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
Foreword iii
PREFACE iv
List of Tables viii
List of Boxes Ix
List of Figures x
List of ACRONYMS xIi
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
1 1. INTRODUCTION 4
1.1 BRIEF ON COUNTRY GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY,
AND PEOPLES 4
1.2 POPULATION AND URBANIZATION: FACTS AND FIGURES 5
1.3 THE ECONOMY, STANDARDS OF LIVING, AND
UNEMPLOYMENT 6
1.4 POVERTY AND MEETING MDGS 6
1.5 GOVERNMENT 7
1.6 EDUCATION 8
1.7 URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND CURRENT URBAN ISSUES 8
1.8 CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES: GENDER, HIV/
AIDS, YOUTH AND CAPACITY BUILDING 9
2
2. POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 12
2.1 GENERAL INSTITUTIONAL AND
ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT 12
2.2 BRIEF HISTORY OF HOUSING POLICY IN TUNISIA 12
2.3 LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
RELATED TO HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 14
2.4 KEY GOVERNMENT PLAYERS IN
HOUSING PROVISION AND IMPROVEMENT 15
2.5 KEY NON-GOVERNMENT PLAYERS IN
HOUSING AND THEIR ACTIVITIES 17
2.6 KEY GOVERNMENT PLAYERS IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT 18
2.7 INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE TO HOUSING
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN TUNISIA 20
3. KEY PLAYERS IN HOUSING 24
3
3.1 HOUSING PROVISION IN TUNISIA SINCE 1994 24
3.2 OVERVIEW OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE
HOUSING STOCK BY TYPE OF PROVIDER 24
3.3 THE PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL HOUSING PRODUCER
(AUTO-CONSTRUCTEUR ) BOTH FORMAL AND
INFORMAL 25
3.4 THE FORMAL PRIVATE SECTOR 28
3.5 THE STATE AND SOCIAL HOUSING 29
3.6 EMERGENCE OF LARGE REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS 30
3.7 POSSIBLE CHANGE IN MIX OF HOUSING PROVIDERS 32
Table of Contents v
4. HOUSING NEEDS AND DEMAND 35

4 4.1 GROSS HOUSING NEEDS 35
4.2 CURRENT HOUSING DEMAND AND AFFORDABILITY 38
4.3 URBAN HOUSEHOLD HOUSING
AFFORDABILITY: GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 42
5 5. CURRENT HOUSING STOCK 43
5.1 HOUSING STOCK SIZE AND GROWTH 43
5.2 HOUSING TYPES 44
5.3 HOUSING UNIT SIZES 45
5.4 OCCUPANCY OF HOUSING UNITS 46
5.5 TENURE OF HOUSING UNITS 46
5.6 HOUSING CONDITIONS AND ESTIMATES OF
PRECARIOUS, DETERIORATED, OR OTHER MARGINAL
HOUSING 47
5.7 AVERAGE HOUSING AND HOUSING LAND PRICES 47
5.8 HOUSING TYPOLOGIES DESCRIBED 48
6. URBAN LAND SUPPLY 52
6
6.1 URBAN LAND ADMINISTRATION, POLICIES,
LEGAL FRAMEWORK, AND TAXATION 52
6.2 KEY PLAYERS IN THE URBAN LAND SECTOR 52
6.3 SOURCES OF LAND FOR HOUSING:
CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL LAND 53
6.4 LAND MARKETS, LAND VALUES, AND URBAN SPRAWL 54
6.5 EVOLUTION OF URBAN LAND POLICIES AND
THE ISSUE OF RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES 55
6.6 INFORMALITY AND TENSIONS
ON THE PERI-URBAN FRONTIER 56
7
7. HOUSING FINANCE 59
7.1 THE LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK
FOR HOUSING FINANCE IN TUNISIA 59
7.2 FINANCING TO INDIVIDUALS FOR
NEW HOUSING UNIT ACQUISITION 60
7.3 FINANCE TO HOUSING PROVIDERS 61
7.4 HOUSING IMPROVEMENTS AND MICRO-FINANCE 62
8 7.5 OVERALL ASSESSMENT 62
8. INFRASTRUCTURE AND BASIC URBAN SERVICES 65
8.1 BASIC URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE
PROVISION IN A NUTSHELL 65
8.2 POTABLE WATER 65
8.3 WASTEWATER 68
8.4 ROADS AND SURFACE DRAINAGE 71
8.5 ELECTRICITY AND NATURAL GAS 71
8.6 INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE
PROVISION IN PARTICULAR AREAS 72
8.7 EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE IN URBAN
INFRASTRUCTURE IN TUNISIA 73
vi
Table of contents
9. CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND BUILDING MATERIALS 74

9.1 THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN A NUTSHELL 74
9 9.2 INSTITUTIONAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS
GOVERNING THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR 75
9.3 CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY ACTORS 75
9.4 BUILDING MATERIALS: TRADITIONAL AND
INDUSTRIALIZED PRODUCTION AND COSTS 77
9.5 CONSTRUCTION SKILLS AND
CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT 78
9.6 ENERGY COSTS AND EFFICIENCY IN
HOUSING CONSTRUCTION 79
9.7 ISSUES RELATING TO BUILDING
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION AND
AFFORDABLE HOUSING 80
10. DYNAMICS OF THE HOUSING MARKET 82
10
10.1 THE STRUCTURE AND PERFORMANCE
OF THE HOUSING MARKET IN TUNISIA 82
10.2 ACTORS IN HOUSING MARKETS 83
10.3 RENTAL MARKETS 84
10.4 IMPEDIMENTS TO MARKET FLUIDITY:
REGISTRATION, TITLING, FEES AND TAXES 84
11
11. CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 86
11.1 TUNISIA’S HOUSING SECTOR: AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD 86
11.2 AN ENGAGED ENABLING STRATEGY FOR HOUSING 86
11.3 OUTSTANDING ISSUE OF HOUSING AFFORDABILITY 87
11.4 OUTSTANDING ISSUES IN HOUSING FINANCE 87
11.5 OUTSTANDING ISSUES IN URBAN LAND
SCARCITY AND THE PERI-URBAN CONFLICT 88
11.6 THE ISSUE OF HOME OWNERSHIP VERSUS RENTAL 88
11.7 ISSUES RELATING TO BUILDING MATERIALS AND
CONSTRUCTION AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING 89
11.8 THE ISSUE OF EQUITY AND EXCLUSION IN HOUSING
PROGRAMMES 89
11.9 URBAN UPGRADING ISSUES 89
11.10 POLICY IMPLICATIONS: PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS 89
APPENDICES
1. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE
CONSTRAINTS MATRIX 92
2. tunisia HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE
PRIORITY ACTION PLAN 95
BIBLIOGRAPHY 99
Table of Contents vii

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: Tunisian Population and Growth Rate Projections
(Medium Variant) 5
Table 1.2: Basic Facts and Figures on Tunisia 9
Table 1.3: Population Growth and Urbanisation in Tunisia 10
Table 2.1: USAID and World Bank Projects in Tunisa in Housing and
Urban Development 1960-2000 21
Table 3.1: Increase in Number of Housing Units in Tunisia 1994 - 2004 24
Table 3.2: Annual Production of Housing Units
in Tunisia by Provider 2006-2010 25
Table 3.3: Total Production of Housing Units by SNIT, 1969-2010 31
Table 4.1: Evolution of the Number of Households in Tunisia 1994-2004 35
Table 4.2: Estimated Number of Households and Additional Households,
Urban and Rural, for Selected Years in
thousands of households) 36
Table 4.3: Registered Marriages and Divorces for All Tunisia, 2004-2008 36
Table 4.4: Estimated Number of New Housing Units
Needed to Accommodate Newly Forming Families
for Selected Years (in thousands of households) 37
Table 4.5: Estimated need for replacement of the
housing stock for selected years 37
Table 4.6: Estimated Total Housing Units Needed in Tunisia
for Selected Years 37
Table 4.7: Derivation of Estimated 2010
Urban Household Expenditures by Income
Decile (in Tunisian Dinars) 38
Table 4.8: Estimated Price-to-Income Ratios
for Three Housing Types, by Income Decile (Urban Tunisia) 39
Table 4.9: Percentage of Monthly Household Income
Required to Pay Modest Monthly Rents by Decile 40
Table 4.10: Estimates of Amount of Urban Household
Monthly Income Available for Housing Payments 41
Table 4.11: Calculation of Monthly Mortgage
Payments by Type of Housing Unit 41
Table 5.1: Increase in Housing Units in Tunisia and Greater Tunis 1975-2004 43
Table 5.2: Rates of Growth of the Housing Stock
1994-2004 in Rural and Urban Areas 44
Table 5.3: Distribution of the Housing Stock by Typology
for All Tunisia 2004 44
Table 5.4: Distribution of Urban and Rural Housing Units
by Typology in 2004 45
Table 5.5: Increase of Housing Units by Typology
1994 – 2004, Tunisia and Greater Tunis 45
Table 5.6: Distribution of Housing Units by Size, 1994 and 2004 46
Table 5.7: Distribution of Housing Units by Occupancy Status in 2004 46
Table 7.1: Main Individual Housing Loan Schemes Managed by BH 61
viii
BOXES
Table 7.2: FNAH Schemes for Housing Maintenance and Improvement 62

Table 8.1: Percentages of Households Connected
To Drinking Water Systems byGeographic Region
for Selected Years, oth Urban and Rural Areas 66
Table 8.2: Drinking Water Consumption Tariffs for 2001 67
Table 8.3: ONAS Service Indicators, 1975-2009 68
Table 8.4: Evolution of ONAS Services and Coverage 1997-2009 68
Table 8.5: Percentages of Households Connected to ONAS
Sanitation Systems by Geographic Region for Selected Years 69
Table 8.6: Percentages of Households Connected to STEG Electrical
Network by Geographic Region for Selected Years 72
LIST OF BOXES
Box 2.1: Tunisia’s Information Base for Housing and Urban Development 17
Box 2.2: Tunisia’s Success at Urban Upgrading 19
Box 3.1: History and Extent of Informal Housing in Tunisia 28
Box 6.1: Peri-urban Land Dynamics: Case of Menzel Bouzelfa, Cap Bon 57
Box 9.1: The Tunisian Association of Urban Planners 76
Box 10.1: Legislation in Tunisia Governing Housing Unit Rentals 84
TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Tunis Medina after rehabilitation 7

Figure 2.1: Before and after urban rehabilitation, Hay
Farhat Hashadi in Al Mahmoudia 14
Figure 2.2: Tunis Medina after rehabilitation (Tunis
Municipality and the Society for Rehabilitation of Old Tunis) 20
Figure 3.1: Up-scale private individual cum developer
apartment buildings, Tunis City 26
Figure 3.2: Example of individual-built low rise
apartment buildings, Al-Zohor Neighborhood 26
Figure 3.3: Informal progressive construction, Sidi Hussain Area 27
Figure 3.4: Densifying informal neighborhood, Al Zohor Area 27
Figure 3.5: New peri-urban informal housing 29
Figure 3.6: Private developer apartment blocks, Tunis City 30
Figure 3.7: Résidence Bahi Ladgham 31
Figure 3.8: Résidence Carrefour q 32
Figure 3.9: New SNIT housing estate in Sidi Hussain, Tunis 32
Figure 3.10: SNIT low-rise apartment complex, Sidi Hussain, Tunis 32
Figure 3.11: SNIT Low-rise apartment complex, Sidi Hussain, Tunis 32
Figure 3.12: Tunisian mega project model 33
Figure 5.1: Tunis City private “villa type” neighborhood 45
Figure 5.2: Example of rural housing, outside Sidi Bu Said 45
Figure 5.3: Old multi-story courtyard house in El Hajja Quarter, Tunis 48
Figure 5.4: Courtyard house urban fabric, Baja old town 48
Figure 5.5: Sfax inner city courtyard housing 48
Figure 5.6: Cité El Zohour informal house neighbourhood 49
Figure 5.7: Informal neighbourhood mainly of one- story
Arab/traditional housing on fringe of Manuba 49
Figure 5.8: Recent informal fringe housing subdivision
in Hay el Rafaha, west of Tunis 49
Figure 5.9: Fouchana rehabilitated informal area, south of El Arous 49
Figure 5.10: Sayeda Al Manoubia older informal area of
single story houses in process of densification 49
Figure 5.11: Up-scale villa housing development, peri-urban Nabeul 49
Figure 5.12: Lower class villa development in peri
urban area of Manzel Tamim, Cap Bon 50
Figure 5.13: Baja, new area zoned for 4-6 story apartment buildings 50
Figure 5.14: Social housing project: apartment
buildings and single story row housing 50
Figure 5.15: Oued El Leil, low-rise duplex social housing 50
Figure 5.16: West Ariana new villa subdivision, average lot size 600m 2
Figure 5.17: Sfax, new row house and duplex social housing 51
Figure 5.18: Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl at Sakiet ed Dieir 51
Figure 5.19: Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl 51
x
FIGURES
Figure 5.20: Sfax apartment buildings 51

Figure 6.1: Example of a clandestine informal subdivision 53
Figure 6.2: Gabes western fringe: informal
subdivision and marginal land conversion 54
Figure 6.3: Gabes, south of Sanani al Nahal: semi-formal land subdivision 54
Figure 6.4: Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl into olive orchards 55
Figure 6.5: Kasserine east fringe: Formal land subdivision 55
Figure 6.6: Medenine informal sprawl cluster on arid land 56
Figure 8.1: Old and new water purification plants 67
Figure 8.2: Tunis in Ottoman times, old water standpipe system 67
Figure 8.3: New sewerage main under construction 71
Figure 8.4: Installation of collector sewers 71
Figure 8.5: Back alley in older informal area of Hay Sidi Mansour, Sfax 71
Figure 8.6: Overhead medium and low tension power
distribution in informal area 73
Figure 9.1: Example of construction in SNIT
housing project, Sidi Hussain, Tunis 76
Figure 9.2: Example of very narrow frontage
informal housing under construction 76
Figure 9.3: Detail of typical informal
construction materials, Al Zohor Area 77
Figure 9.4: Detail of use of extruded brick and REINFORCED CONCRETE
frame in informal housing 78
Figure 9.5: Example of RC concrete frame and extruded
brick infill in social housing construction 78
FIGURES xi
LIST OF Acronyms
ACRONYM NAME IN FRENCH NAME IN ENGLISH
AFH AGENCE FONCIÈRE D’HABITATION HOUSING LAND AGENCY
ANME AGENCE NATIONALE POUR LA NATIONAL AGENCY FOR ENERGY

MÂITRISE DE L’ENERGIE (ANME) RATIONALIZATION
ARRU L’AGENCE DE RÉHABILITATION ET URBAN REHABILITATION AND
DE RÉNOVATION URBAINE RENVOVATION AGENCY
AUGT AGENCE D’URBANISME DU URBAN AGENCY FOR GREATER
GRAND TUNIS TUNIS
BH BANQUE DE L’HABITAT HOUSING BANK
BCT BANQUE CENTRALE DE TUNISIE TUNISIAN CENTRAL BANK
BOT CONSTRUCTION –EXPLOITATION BUILD-OPERATE-TRANSFER

–TRANSFERT
CNEL CAISSE NATIONALE D’EPARGNE NATIONAL HOUSING SAVINGS FUND
LOGEMENT
CPF LA DIRECTION DE LA THE DIRECTORATE OF
CONSERVATION DE LA PROPRIÉTÉ CONSERVATION OF REAL PROPERTY
CPSCL CAISSE DE PRÊTS DE SOUTIEN DES LOAN FUND TO SUPPORT LOCAL
COLLECTIVITÉS LOCALES AUTHORITIES
CNRPS, CNSS LES CAISSES nationales DE NATIONAL FUNDS FOR SOCIAL
SÉCURITÉ SOCIALE SECURITY
DGH DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE DE GENERAL DIRECTORATE FOR
L’HABITAT HOUSING
DGGR DIRECTION GÉNÉRALE DU GÉNIE GENERAL DIRECTORATE FOR RURAL
RURAL ENGINEERING
FNAH FONDS NATIONAL POUR NATIONAL FUND FOR

L’AMÉLIORATION DE L’HABITAT HOUSE IMPROVEMENT AND
REHABILITATION
FSN FONDS DE SOLIDARITÉ NATIONAL SOLIDARITY FUND 26-26
NATIONALE 26-26
FOPROLOS FONDS DE PROMOTION DES FUND FOR PROMOTING HOUSING
LOGEMENTS POUR LES SALARIÉS FOR WAGE EARNERS
INS INSTITUT NATIONAL DES NATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTITUTE
STATISTIQUES
MEHAT MINISTÈRE DE L’ÉQUIPEMENT MINISTRY OF EQUIPMENT, HOUSING
DE L’HABITAT ET DE AND TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT
L’AMÉNAGEMENT DU TERRITOIRE
MENA (MOAN) (RÉGION DU) MOYEN-ORIENT ET MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
DE L'AFRIQUE DU NORD (REGION)
MAERH MINISTÈRE DE L’AGRICULTURE, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE,
ENVIRONNEMENT, ET RESOURCES ENVIRONMENT, AND HYDRAULIC
HYDRAULIQUES RESOURCES
MW MEGAWATT MEGAWATT
xii
Acronyms
ACRONYM NAME IN FRENCH NAME IN ENGLISH
OIF L’OBSERVATOIRE DE L’IMMOBILIER HOUSING AND PROPERTY

ET DU FONCIER OBSERVATORY
OTC OFFICE DE LA TOPOGRAPHIE ET OFFICE OF TOPOGRAPHY AND THE
DU CADASTRE CADASTRE
PAU PLAN D’AMENAGEMENT URBAIN URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN
PNAQP PROJET NATIONAL NATIONAL SANITATION

D’ASSAINISSEMENT POUR LES PROJECT FOR LOW-INCOME
QUARTIERS POPULAIRES NEIGHBORHOODS
PNRLR PROGRAMME NATIONAL DE NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR
RÉSORPTION DES LOGEMENTS INTEGRATION OF RUDIMENTARY
RUDIMENTAIRES HOUSING
PNRQP PROGRAMME NATIONAL DE NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR
RÉHABILITATION DES QUARTIERS REHABILITATING POPULAR
POPULAIRES QUARTERS
SMIG SALAIRE MINIMUM INDUSTRIEL MINIMUM GUARANTEED
GARANTI INDUSTRIAL WAGE
SNIT LA SOCIÉTÉ NATIONALE THE NATIONAL HOUSING COMPANY
IMMOBILIÈRE DE TUNISIE OF TUNISIA
SPROLS LA SOCIÉTÉ DE PROMOTION DES THE COMPANY FOR PROMOTION OF
LOGEMENTS SOCIAUX SOCIAL HOUSING
SONADE SOCIÉTÉ NATIONALE THE NATIONAL WATER SUPPLY
D’EXPLOITATION ET DE AUTHORITY
DISTRIBUTION DES EAUX
STEG SOCIÉTÉ TUNISIENNE DE THE COMPANY FOR ELECTRICITY
L’ ELECTRICITÉ ET DU GAZ AND GAS
TD DINAR TUNISIEN TUNISIAN DINAR
TI TRIBUNAL IMMOBILIER PROPERTY TRIBUNAL
OURGT OBSERVATOIRE URBAIN URBAN AND REGIONAL

RÉGIONAL DU GRAND TUNIS OBSERVATORY OF THE GREAT TUNIS
Acronyms xiii
executive summary
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
It is without any doubt that over the last thirty to loan programmes, urban households in the lower
forty years Tunisia’s housing sector has recorded income deciles currently find it extremely difficult
impressive gains. There has been considerable progress to afford purchasing even modest housing units. The
in advancing the accessibility to adequate and quality calculations used involve a number of assumptions,
of shelter for a very large segment of the Tunisian but even if more optimistic assumptions were
population. Mostly through the efforts of individual employed, the conclusion would stand that today a
builders, the country has been producing housing faster near-majority of urban households cannot afford to
than families are forming. State enterprises have also purchase a modest housing unit, even assuming that
added significantly to the housing stock, building over they can qualify and obtain housing loans. The only
300,000 units of varying types and sizes since 1960. housing type affordable to urban households under
And in recent years, with considerable government the median income is that which is self-built in peri-
support, the corporate private sector has become an urban areas and may be deemed illegal. And since
important producer of housing. Infrastructure for many households cannot qualify for housing loans
housing has also advanced impressively; household for various reasons, there are many other families that
coverage rates for treated piped water and electricity cannot begin to purchase/build a new unit. In sum, it
have reached almost 100 per cent, and coverage for can be concluded that there remains a huge housing
wastewater in urban areas exceeds 85 per cent. In affordability challenge in urban Tunisia, and one that,
parallel, government social programmes have led to a due to rapidly rising housing costs and increasing land
dramatic fall in poverty rates, tumbling from 22 per scarcity, is bound to get worse.
cent of the population in 1975 to a mere 3.7 per cent
Housing finance: The mortgage-based housing finance
today.
system that Tunisia has built up over four decades
Achievements in Tunisia’s housing sector are is impressive in terms of its coverage and maturity,
perhaps most impressive in terms of the institutions, diversity of its products, and ability to innovate.
regulations, and financing in support of housing However, there are still certain outstanding issues,
production and improvement. especially concerning financial sustainability, interest
rates and subsidies, targeting the poor, indebtedness,
The banking sector has created housing finance and the exclusion of many from mortgage financing.
institutions through which a sophisticated range
of housing loan products are channelled to target a Urban land scarcity and the peri-urban frontier:
wide range of clients, including low-income families. Most developable land around Tunisian cities and
Savings-for-housing schemes have been important towns can be called peri-urban. With land for
housing finance mechanisms since the 1970s and urban development becoming more scarce and,
are very strong today. There are State institutions especially, more and more expensive, it is inevitable
dedicated to assembling and providing land for that competition for land on this peri-urban frontier
housing projects. Other State schemes provide small becomes more and more acute. Today in Tunisia the
loans for house improvement and maintenance. main groups competing for this peri-urban land are
Small-lot subdivisions and core housing have been (1) formal land and real estate developers, (2) middle
piloted. And Tunisia has one of the best records of class and well off urban families, and (3) poor families
any country in the MENA region in terms of urban seeking a modest affordable plot of land upon which
upgrading institutions and programmes that primarily to build progressively. This process by multiple
target poor informal neighbourhoods. actors to find suitable cheap land makes for a very
competitive scramble for land. Years and years of
Looked at as a whole, Tunisia’s housing approach government programmes to create formal alternatives
can be considered a shining example of the housing to informal and unregulated land conversion on the
enabling strategy, UN-HABITAT’s conceptual policy peri-urban frontier have not been able to stop or even
framework for housing. Yet although Tunisia scores appreciably slow the phenomenon. Although not a
very highly in its “enabling” housing strategy, there desirable situation, it is a fact that only on the un-
are indications that all is not perfect and that many regulated peri-urban fringe can a lower income family
challenges remain. These can be briefly summarized ever hope to secure a little plot of land and embark
as follows: on the process of building and owning its own home.
Housing affordability: Both in terms of cost- Home ownership versus rental: Tunisia has a very
to-price ratios and in terms of standard housing high rate of home ownership, both of the existing
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
TUNISIA HousingSEctor
NEPAL Housing ProfileProfile
housing stock and of new additions to it. Rental Why not give the same kinds of incentives to the
tenure is low and even decreasing, with only 15 per private individual, who is, after all, by far the main
cent of total households living as tenants as of 2009. producer of housing in Tunisia?
The government sees home-ownership as something
inherent in Tunisian culture and has adopted an 80 Urban upgrading: Tunisia’s extensive experiment
per cent ownership rate as an essential element of its with urban upgrading and neighbourhood
national housing strategy. In most countries rental rehabilitation justifiably deserves praise. But until now
housing markets are much more extensive, and these programmes have little or no involvement by the
most housing experts see rental tenure as playing an communities affected. It is generally recognized that
important part in ensuring a good mix of housing community participation in upgrading ensures more
alternatives. Rental systems, present alongside home effective results, and mobilizing community initiatives
ownership, contribute to maximizing choice and can lower the overall financial burden of upgrading
mobility and thus allow housing markets to perform projects.
more efficiently. Could Tunisia benefit by more rental Policy Implications: Preliminary
housing?1 Thoughts
Building materials and construction: Costs of basic It is difficult to leap from analysis to policy
materials are high and increasing, at rates that are very recommendations. This housing sector profile has
much higher than increases in wages and incomes and been a rapid exercise based on less-than-complete
even higher than general inflation. This is making the information and without exposure to policy dialogue.
production of all types of housing units more and more On top of this, since January 2011 the political
expensive in Tunisia, and also is further complicating landscape in Tunisia has completely changed, and
the already difficult housing affordability equation. new political dynamics and forces are being unleashed
Thus it would seem that efforts at developing which cannot but affect the way policies and
alternative materials and at minimizing the use of programmes are developed in the housing sector.
expensive, energy-intensive materials in construction
would be a welcome initiative. The construction Even so, now is an opportune time to suggest
sector itself is very bureaucratic and regulated. In this certain housing policy adjustments. Along with
sense, not only does this control/regulation add to other revolutionary changes, Tunisians now expect
overall costs of construction, it makes the activities a government which is much more transparent with
of the individual housing producer difficult, and its policies, programmes, and actions and much more
frequently they are forced into illegality. This is a responsive to the needs of the poor and disadvantaged.
crucial issue since so much of housing, particularly Tunisians also expect a government that is less beholden
affordable housing, is produced by individuals. This to special interests. There are new democratic forces
in turn suggests that there be very straightforward coming into play, and thus there is a great opportunity
and simplified regulations and standards for small to seize the historic moment and begin to reconsider
footprint buildings. national housing policies and priorities. The following
are some suggestions that hopefully will stimulate the
Equity and exclusion in housing programmes:
debate.
Looking at the array of housing loan products
available through government programs in Tunisia, it Equity, subsidies, and reaching those most in
seems that, with few exceptions, the targets are for the need: At the highest policy levels, the government
most part the urban middle and upper middle classes. needs to take a hard look at who enjoys what housing
A huge number of Tunisian families simply cannot subsidies, including indirect subsidies through taxes,
now afford to meet the instalment payments required land concessions, and preferences. This would be a
by these housing loan schemes, and the future looks kind of critical inventory, to assess how well subsidies
even bleaker. If a government-operated housing are reaching those in need. And to better define “those
finance system cannot respond primarily to the needs in need” a much more refined analysis of household
of lower-income families, what is it for? Could not the affordability needs to be undertaken, as well as an
private developer sector combined with private banks identification of excluded social and economic groups.
relieve government systems from financing housing
for the middle classes? Another equity issue relates Supporting the modest owner-builder: With auto-
to the government policy of supporting the private constuction or self-help (housing) building by far the
developer sector. There are numerous funding, tax and dominant mode of housing production in Tunisia,
land incentives given to private developers, but this it would seem that the government should first and
has not resulted in much if any affordable housing. foremost be directing its enabling strategy towards this
2
executive SUMMARY
EXECUTIVE summary
mode. It would seem logical to consider what measures game? Are there no measures to be taken to combat
are needed in terms of land, finance, infrastructure, sprawl and vacant land speculation? Are there no ways
and building standards to better stimulate those of to encourage rational land subdivisions and compact,
modest means to house themselves. dense neighbourhoods? One measure to be considered
is to raise the annual vacant land tax and better apply
Market efficiency and market choice: There are a it. With assistance, municipalities could use the vacant
number of measures that could be considered to make land tax to fight land speculation, an evil that both
housing markets more fluid and efficient. The property raises land costs dramatically and contributes to urban
transfer fee, which in Tunisia is quite large, should be sprawl.
reduced or eliminated all together. Instead, the annual
property tax, which exists in Tunisia and is imposed Simplified regulations and control: To support
by local authorities, needs strengthening and more the owner-builder process, the building code and
equitable application. To improve market flexibility the building permit regime needs to be revisited.
and market choice, Tunisia needs to reconsider its Costs and hassles that result from these bureaucratic
bias towards home ownership. Ways to make rental processes could be greatly reduced if clear, simplified
housing systems work better and more efficiently in regulations and control measures were introduced for
urban housing markets need to be investigated. straightforward, small footprint buildings.
Community participation in urban upgrading: Appropriate building technologies: Tunisia needs

Following the democratic awakening, Tunisia now to explore alternatives to its current dependency on
has a great opportunity to engage local communities building materials with high-energy inputs, mainly
as partners in urban upgrading schemes. Civil society cement, steel re-enforcing bar, and extruded clay brick.
is weak in Tunisia, but with support neighbourhood This will not be easy, but without local alternatives it is
associations could quickly evolve. A number of difficult to see how housing production will ever cease
community participation mechanisms can be grafted its spiralling inflation. Stabilized soil block would seem
onto upgrading programmes, including monitoring to be one candidate, as would a revival of the shallow
and evaluation of projects and even participatory brick vault for roofing. The same can be said for
budgeting. construction technologies. There is a trend in Tunisia
for more sophisticated and “corporate” construction
Land and the peri-urban frontier: Tomorrow’s techniques, which in turn require more imported
urban areas are being formed today, partly through technologies and expertise. Such a trend is inevitable,
“anarchistic” informal development on the peri-urban but it need not become exclusive. Less high-energy and
frontier. Rather than wait until these areas mature and more labour-intensive housing construction processes
are deemed targets for upgrading, i.e. development (more befitting the owner-builder) can exist side by
after the fact, is there no way to get ahead of the side with modern construction methods.
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
For arguments in favor of rental housing for the poor, see UN-HABITAT 2003
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
01
INTRODUCTION
This chapter briefly introduces Tunisia in order to set Tunisia has had a long history, mainly linked to that
the context for subsequent chapters. It concentrates of the Mediterranean. The ancient city of Carthage
on country basics such as history, demographics, was founded in the Ninth Century BC by the
health and educational status of the population, the Phoenicians. After a series of wars with Greek city-
government, and the economy. It also includes a states of Sicily in the Fifth Century BC, Carthage
section on household incomes and poverty. A note rose to power and eventually became the dominant
on the availability of information on Tunisia and its civilization in the Western Mediterranean. In Roman
urban and housing sectors is included. Finally, there times Tunisia became the Africa Province and was one
is a brief on urban development in Tunisia, which of the granaries of the Empire. Around the beginning
identifies a number of issues. of the Eighth Century AD the region was conquered
by Arab Muslims, who founded the city of Kairouan,
1.1 BRIEF ON COUNTRY GEOGRAPHY, the first city of Islam in North Africa. Tunisia
flourished under early Arab rule. Successive Muslim
HISTORY AND PEOPLES1 dynasties ruled Tunisia with occasional instabilities
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is located caused mainly by Berber rebellions. The invasion of
in North Africa and lies along the Mediterranean Tunisia by Banu Hilal, a warlike Arab Bedouin tribe
coast. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and encouraged by Fatimids of Egypt in the Eleventh
Libya to the southeast. It lies south of, Malta, Sicily Century, sent the region’s urban and economic life
and Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km2 with into decline. In 1159, Tunisia was conquered by
an estimated population of just over 10,300,000. the Almohad Caliphs. They were succeeded by the
Its name is derived from the capital Tunis. It is the Berber Hafsids (c.1230-1574), under whom Tunisia
northernmost country in Africa and the smallest of the prospered. Tunisia was conquered by the Ottoman
nations situated along the continent’s Atlas mountain Empire in 1575 and under its Turkish governors,
range. Around forty per cent of the country’s area the Beys, Tunisia attained near-independence. The
is composed of the Sahara desert, with much of the Hussein dynasty of Beys, established in 1705, lasted
remainder consisting of fertile soil and a semi-arid until 1956. From 1881-1956 the country was under
to temperate climate. The country has an extensive French occupation. European settlements in the
1,300 km coastline along the Mediterranean. country were actively encouraged and the number
of French colonists grew from 34,000 in 1906 to
Despite its relatively small size, Tunisia has great 144,000 in 1945. In 1910 there were also 105,000
geographical and climatic diversity. A hilly extension Italians in Tunisia. During the Second World War
of the Atlas Mountains traverses Tunisia in a Tunisia was the site of a number of battles between
northeasterly direction from the Algerian border the Allies and the Axis, and following the war
to the Cape Bon peninsula. North of this range Tunisian political life opened up, leading in 1956 to
is a region characterized by low, rolling hills and independence from the French.
plains. The Sahil is a plain along Tunisia’s eastern
Mediterranean coast famous because of its olive The people of Tunisia descend mostly from Arab and
monoculture. Inland from the Sahil are the Steppes, Berber tribes but also became mixed with people of
a range of hills south of Gafsa. Much of the southern various Mediterranean stock. There are no distinct
region is semi-arid and desert. The lowest point in ethnic groups except small Bedouin tribes in the
Tunisa is Shatt al Gharsah, at 17 m, and the highest is South, and virtually the entire population is Muslim.
Jebel ech Chambi, at 1,544 metres. The constitution declares Islam as the official state
4
CHAPTER one
Table 1.1: Tunisian Population and Growth Rate Projections (Medium Variant)
Year Total population Associated Annual Growth Rate

1990 8.22 million 1.68%
2010 10.37 million 0.98%
2020 11.37 million 0.72%
2030 12.13 million 0.55%
2050 12.71 million 0.03%
Source: United Nations 2008.
religion and requires the President to be Muslim. the national population will have virtually stabilized
However, in many ways Tunisia has evolved into one at about 12.7 million.
of the most secular societies in the region. Arabic is
Tunisia’s official language. But, as is the case in the rest Tunisia has become increasingly urban since 1950,
of the Arab world, the public uses a vernacular form and this urbanization trend is continuing. In 1966
of Arabic. There is also a small minority of speakers only 1.82 million persons lived in urban areas,
of Shelha, a Berber language. The French language representing 40.1 per cent of the total population.
plays a very major role in the country, despite having The urban population in 1975 had grown to 47.5 per
no official status. It is widely used in education, the cent of the total, in 1984 to 52.8 per cent, in 1994 to
press, and in business, and most Tunisians are able to 61 per cent, and reaching 64.9 per cent in 2004. The
speak it. Many Tunisians, particularly those residing rate of increase of the urban population was extremely
in large urban areas, readily mix Tunisian Arabic with high in the 1966-1994 period, averaging almost 4
French. per cent per year. However, this rate dropped to 1.21
per cent in the 1994-2004 period, and even more
modest urban growth is expected in the future, unless
1.2 POPULATION AND URBANIZATION: commune boundaries are re-drawn to include more
FACTS AND FIGURES rural areas.4 See also Table 1.3.
The last national Census conducted by the INS in In terms of geographical distribution, two-thirds of
2004 recorded a total population of 9.911 million the population live in coastal areas, particularly in the
inhabitants, of which 6.43 million or 64.9 per cent North East and Central East Regions. These coastal
were classified as living in urban places (milieu areas are also the most urbanized with the highest
communal ).2 There were also almost a million population densities. In the western and especially
persons of Tunisian origin living in Europe (mainly the southern areas of the country inhabitation is
France), due to high out-migration rates in the much sparser.
1960s and 1970s. As of 2010 the total population
was estimated at 10.374 million inhabitants by the
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.3 It TUNISIA HAS HAD A
was estimated by the same source that the sex ratio in
2010 was 101.1 males per 100 females, and that the REMARKABLE SUCCESS IN
gross density was 63 persons per km2. LOWERING BIRTH RATES
Tunisia has had a remarkable success in lowering AND THUS THE RATES OF
birth rates and thus the rates of natural increase of the
population in the last two decades. In the intercensal NATURAL INCREASE OF THE
period 1966-1975 the rate of natural increase was POPULATION IN THE LAST
2.35 per cent per year, rising to 2.48 per cent per year
over the 1975-1984 period, then decreasing to 2.35 TWO DECADES, (AND) IT IS
per cent per year 1984-1994 and falling dramatically EXPECTED THAT BY 2050 THE
to only 1.21 per cent per year in the 1994-2004
period. And this trend is continuing. According NATIONAL POPULATION WILL
to projections made by the UN Department of HAVE VIRTUALLY STABILIZED
Economic and Social Affairs, the national population
will grow at a small and diminishing rate, as shown in AT ABOUT 12.7 MILLION.
Table 1.1. As can be seen, it is expected that by 2050
Introduction 5
Grand Tunis (composed of the four governorates of cent, manufacturing at 35 per cent, and agriculture at
Tunis: Ariana, Ben Arous, La Manouba, and Tunis) 11 per cent. Tight control by government over the
represents by far the largest urban concentration in economy has been relaxed in the last 10 years, with
the country.5 Its population grew from 1.39 million increased privatization, direct foreign investment,
in 1984 to 2.25 million in 2004, containing in that simplification of the tax structure, and a prudent
year a full 23 per cent of the national population and government debt management. Increasing integration
35 per cent of the country’s urban population. The into the world economy (especially into Europe) has
rates of population increase of Grand Tunis have been been a main contributor to economic growth. Almost
exceeding that of the national urbanization growth 40 per cent of Tunisia’s GDP is exported. Tunisia also
rate. For example, over the 1994-2004 period the has a good track record of keeping inflation under
annual rate of increase of Grand Tunis was 2.1 per cent control at or below 3 per cent per year (with the
versus only 1.2 per cent for country’s urban places.6 exception of 2008 and 2009, when it rose to 5 per
It is interesting to note that the small non-communal cent).
population of Grand Tunis (175,500 persons in
2004) grew at a faster rate than urban Tunisia over The development model that Tunisia has pursued
the 1994-2004 period, 2.1per cent per year versus over the last two decades represents an excellent track
1.2 per cent per year, implying that Grand Tunis is record in general. However, the Tunisian economy
expanding rapidly into contiguous rural areas. remains unable to generate sufficient jobs to absorb
the growing labour force. Unemployment has been
Other major cities in Tunisia are mostly found along persistently high – officially at 13.3 per cent in 2009.
coastal areas. They include Sfax, the second largest It is worse for educated youth, peaking at 30 per cent
city with a 2004 population of 855,000, Sousse (pop. for individuals aged 20-24 years and at 25 per cent
544,000), and Bizerte (pop. 114,000). Other non- for young university graduates.
coastal cities include Kairouan (pop 546,000), Gabes
(pop. 342,000), Aryanah (pop. 98,000), and Gafsa The main challenge facing Tunisia’s economy over the
(pop. 85,000). There are in total 257 municipalities, long term is not only to maintain a pattern of high
of which only nine have populations in excess of economic growth, but one that generates significantly
100,000 inhabitants.7 more employment, higher household incomes, more
equitable income distribution, and at the same time
preserves the nation’s natural and cultural assets.
1.3 THE ECONOMY, STANDARDS OF
LIVING AND UNEMPLOYMENT
1.4 POVERTY AND MEETING MDGS
The Tunisian economy has sustained an average 5.3
One of the most impressive of Tunisia’s social
per cent growth rate in GDP over the 1962-2000
statistics is the dramatic drop in the proportion of the
period, with a steady increase in per capita income
population living under the poverty line. According
over the same period of 3.2 per cent8. In 2010 real
to the INS, the poverty headcount index (percentage
GDP growth was 3.8 per cent and is expected by
the World Bank to rise to 4.8 per cent in 2011 (pre
revolution estimates). It is estimated that in 2010 the
nation’s GDP reached USD 100.3 billion (in PPP) ONE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE
and USD 43.9 million (at the official exchange rate.) OF TUNISIA’S SOCIAL
Per capita income in PPP was USD 9,500, one of
the highest in Africa and ranked 113th in the world. STATISTICS IS THE DRAMATIC
However, good GDP per capita figures mask an DROP IN THE PROPORTION
unequal income distribution in Tunisia. The Gini
coefficient was 40 in 2005, slightly down from 41.7 OF THE POPULATION LIVING
in 1995. The Gini coefficient of 40 in 2005 put UNDER THE POVERTY LINE.
Tunisia in 61st rank in the world. In 2000 the lowest
10 per cent of households only consumed 3.2 per ACCORDING TO THE INS,
cent of the nation’s total consumption, whereas the THE POVERTY HEADCOUNT
portion of consumption for the highest 10 per cent
of households was 31.5 per cent.9
INDEX…DECREASED FROM 22
PER CENT IN 1975… TO 3.8
Tunisia has a diverse economy, with important
agricultural, mining, tourism, and manufacturing PER CENT IN 2005.
sectors. Contributions to GDP were services at 54 per
6
CHAPTER one
Figure 1.1 Tunis Medina after rehabilitation

© Tarek El-Sheikh
of the population living under the nutrition-based elected. An independent judiciary exists. The
poverty line) decreased from 22 per cent in 1975 to military does not play an obvious role in politics, but
7.7 per cent in 1985, to 6.2 per cent in 1995, and its influence, through ex-army presidents, has been
finally to 3.8 per cent in 2005.10 Some observers have strong.
raised doubts about the consistency of these poverty
Following independence from France in 1956,
time-series indicators, but the results are nonetheless
President Habib Bourguiba established a strict one-
impressive.11
party state. He dominated the country for 31 years,
According to the World Bank, Tunisia is well on repressing Islamic fundamentalism and establishing
track to reach Millennium Development Goals. For rights for women unmatched by any other Arab
example, by 2015 it is expected that all students nation. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, of a
regardless of gender should complete primary school. military background, acceded to the executive office
Health outcomes are better than those found in other in 1987, replacing Habib Bourguiba whose health
MENA countries, and life expectancy has already was failing. Prior to this Ben Ali was Bourguiba’s
reached 74 years. Rapid progress has been made on prime minister. The day of the succession, 7th of
infant and maternal mortality rates, malnutrition November, was until recently celebrated by the State
has dropped markedly, and HIV/AIDs prevalence as national holiday.
is extremely low. More than 80 per cent of the The regime has been expert in passing laws that make
population are covered by health care benefits.12 it appear democratic to outsiders. Since 1987, Tunisia
has reformed its political system several times. It has
1.5 GOVERNMENT formally abolished life presidency and opened up
parliament to opposition parties. In reality, however,
On paper Tunisia is a procedural democracy, with all power was monopolized formally by the President
a republican presidential system and a bicameral and his party and informally by influential families
parliament composed of the Chamber of Deputies such as the all-powerful Trabelsis from the President’s
and the Chamber of Advisors. The President is wife’s side. The President’s party was renamed from
elected every 5 years, and he appoints a Prime Bourguiba’s Socialist Destourian Party and was
Minister and cabinet of ministers. Regional governors known as the Constitutional Democratic Rally
(of 24 governorates) and local administrators also (RCD in French). It was composed of about 2 million
are appointed by the central government. Largely members and more than 6,000 representations
consultative mayors and municipal councils are throughout the country. The RCD was intertwined
Introduction 7
and largely overlapping with all-important State While children generally acquire Tunisian Arabic
institutions. Further reforms were announced by the at home, when they enter school at age 6, they are
President in 2009. taught to read and write in Standard Arabic. From
the age of 8, they are taught French while English is
Until the revolution, hardly anyone dared to introduced at the age of 12.
openly criticize the regime. All protest was severely
suppressed and did not get reported in the media.
Self-censorship was widespread. Daily newspapers 1.7 URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND
ran eulogistic articles praising the President whose CURRENT URBAN ISSUES
picture graced the first page of newspapers on a
In planning terms, the Tunisian authorities have for
daily basis. Large pictures of President Ben Ali and
years recognized that there is imbalance in regional
‘spontaneously’ erected banners praising him were
and urban development. The north and eastern
found on all public buildings and majors streets.
coast, especially the agglomerations of Greater
The internet was severely restricted. Nevertheless the
internet has witnessed a considerable development Tunis, Nabeul/Hammamet, Sfax, and Sousse, have
with more than 1.1 million users and hundreds of been the main destination of rural-urban-migrants
internet cafes, known as publinet. for decades. Greater Tunis enjoys significant
agglomeration and scale economies. At 2.4 million
In December 2010, sparked by the self-immolation of inhabitants, it now contains almost one quarter of
a fruit seller in the small central town of Sidibouzid, the country’s population, and it is in addition the
Tunisia witnessed a wave of increasingly large seat of government (which, it might be added, is
public protests against the regime of Ben Ali, partly very centralized). Sfax and Sousse are manufacturing
underpinned by internet social media. Unarmed centers and ports, and the whole of the eastern coast
demonstrators from all walks of life joined in calling is the locus of most of Tunisia’s tourist industry.
for more democratic freedoms, an end to security It is these northern and coastal areas that receive
repression and corruption, and improved living most rainfall, enabling a more intensive agriculture
conditions for the poor and unemployed. To the than in southern areas of the country. On the other
astonishment of many observers who had assumed hand, large cities in the interior (such as Kairouan)
that the regime’s strong security apparatus and and small cities in the south, west and interior have
cooptation of many in the middle classes guaranteed stagnant economies, which do not attract much
unwavering control, the protests spread and migration. According to Ghazi Ali Khedhri, the
escalated. On 18 January 2011, the President Ben Ali General Director of the Territorial Planning Division
and his family fled the country. Since this time the (Direction d’amenagement du territoire MEHAT),
situation in Tunisia can best be described as a social some 70 per cent of the country’s total population is
revolution in progress. Most of the security system concentrated along a 30 km band of coastline.14
has been dismantled, and ministers and personalities
closely associated with the former regime have been Tunisia, with a very successful program of population
progressively dismissed and even arrested. control, has seen a marked reduction in rural to
urban migration in the last 10 years. Currently most
migration is from city-to-city, since over two-thirds of
1.6 EDUCATION the population live in urban areas.
Education is given a high priority in Tunisia and In policy terms the government has been trying to
education expenditures account for 6 per cent of correct these regional imbalances, through special
GDP. Basic education for children between the ages investment and industry zones in lagging areas,
of 6 and 16 has been compulsory since 1991. In 2007 through higher budgets for services in these areas,
a full 97.4 per cent of primary school age children and through the promotion of eco-tourism. However,
were enrolled, and primary school completion rates the advantages of the increasingly urbanized north
were 91 per cent for girls and 87 per cent for boys. and east are such that there is little if any impact of
And an astounding 57 per cent of the labour force has these policies on the ground. Various commentators
received some tertiary education. Tunisia ranked 17th have observed the continuing deterioration of urban
in the category of “quality of the [higher] educational centres in the interior and the growth of peripheral
system” and 21st in the category of “quality of primary settlements around the major cities.15
education” in The Global Competitiveness Report
2008-9, released by The World Economic Forum.13 In Greater Tunis and around major cities urban sprawl
There are six universities and colleges in Tunisia. has become a major problem. In the 1970s and 1980s
large peripheral informal settlements had been created,
8
CHAPTER one
but at least these were relatively compact. Now, to the collapse of old residential structures and the
however, urban sprawl is fueled primarily by middle conversion of residential use to city-centre commerce.
and upper class suburban developments and real Ex-inhabitants of these central areas can now be
estate speculation, both approved and unapproved. found in peripheral settlements.16
Large lots are becoming more frequent. Also, there
is a growing environmental problem as this urban 1.8 CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES: GENDER,
sprawl extends into orchards and agricultural fields. HIV/AIDS, YOUTH AND CAPACITY
Another important urban trend in Tunisia is the BUILDING
depopulation of the traditional urban cores, which In Tunisia women enjoy higher civil liberties than in
started in the 1970s. For example, the population other Arab countries. For example, both legislative
of the city centre of Greater Tunis has been halved chambers are composed of more than 20 per cent
over the 1975-2004 period. This depopulation is due of women, and enrollment and completion rates
Table 1.2: Basic Facts and Figures on Tunisia
Item Year Value

Area 2010 163,610 sq.km.
Population July 2011 10,629,186
Percentage of population under 15 years 2011 23.2%
Median age 2010 30 years
Life expectancy at birth 2008 75.0 years
Current population growth per year 2011 0.98%
Gross Domestic Product (PPP) 2010 USD 100.3 billion
GDP per capita (PPP) 2010 USD 9,500
Tunisia’s GDP in global ranking 2009 72nd
Exchange rate TD to USD 2010 1 USD = 1.35 TD
Central Bank base interest rate 2009 4.5%
Annual growth of GDP 2010 3.4%
Prevalence of HIV/AIDs 2010 less than 0.1%
Under one mortality rate 2008 18.4 deaths in 1000 births
Consumer price inflation rates 2010 4.5%
Human Development Index 2010 0.683**
Human Development Index ranking 2010 81st **
Percentage below poverty line 2005 3.8%
National Gini Coefficient 2005 40
Number of households 2004 2,185,839*
Mean household size 2004 4.51*
Percentage urban population 2010 67%
Mean household expenditure 2005 TD 684/month*
Median household expenditure 2005 TD 503/month*
Net out migration 2010 0.3% of population
Illiteracy rate 2009 25.7%
Primary school completion rate 2008 92.8%
Unemployment 2010 14%
Youth (15-24 years) unemployment 2005 30.7%
* Institut National des Statistiques

** http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/TUN.html
Source for all other indicators: http://www.indexmundi.com/tunisia/, quoting CIA Factbook
Introduction 9

Table 1.3: Population Growth and Urbanisation in Tunisia
Year Total population Annual Growth Total urban Urban population

Rate (%) population percentage
1975 5.59 million N/A 2.65 million 47.5%
1984 6.97 million 2.48% 3.68 million 52.8%
1994 8.79 million 2.35% 5.36 million 61%
2004 9.91 million 1.21% 6.43 million 64.9%
2010 (est) 10.5 million 0.98% 7.04 million 67%
Source: AUGT 2008(a), p. 4.
for girls and women in primary, secondary, and the country were living with HIV/AIDS in 2007, and
tertiary education are equal to or exceed those for that the incidence was less than 0.1 per cent of the
boys and men. Tunisia is the only Arab country population.
where polygamy is forbidden by law. This is part of
a provision in the country’s Code of Personal Status, As described above, youth in Tunisia benefit from a
which was introduced by the former president good education system. However, unemployment
Bourguiba in 1956 and gave women equal rights in among youth and recent graduates is very high, and
most spheres. It remains to be seen if Tunisia’s positive was one of the underlying factors that led to the
gender policies will remain in place once political massive protests in January 2011, which led to the
pluralism takes hold in the country. downfall of the Ben Ali regime.
There is a very low incidence of HIV/AIDS in

Tunisia. The University of California San Francisco
HIV Watch web site estimates that 3,700 persons in
10
CHAPTER one
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
This section is based on a number of sources, including Wikipedia 2010
2
AUGT 2008(a), p. 4.
3
United Nations 2008.
4
AUGT 2008(a), p. 4.
5
The Governorate of Tunis includes 21 delegations and contains the Municipality of Tunis with a 2004
population of 983,000.
6
Ibid., p. 4
7
El-Sheikh 2010, p. 5.
8
Ayadi 2005.
9
US Central Intelligence Agency 2010.
10
Institut National des Statistiques 2007.
11
Ben Romdhane 2008.
12
World Bank 2011. For more detailed information on Tunisia and the MDGs, see UNDP 2004.
13
World Economic Forum 2009.
14
Interview published Prospective 2010.
15
United Nations 2009.
16
Horwood 2010.
Introduction 11
02
POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND

LEGAL FRAMEWORKS
This chapter focuses on the policy and institutional plans. The housing and urban development sectors
frameworks relating to housing and urban planning/ have been important elements in these plans, and
management. It first takes an historic approach, they underscore the policy of the government
describing the efforts of government over the last three that housing is both a social right for citizens and
decades to regulate and plan for urban development, an important economic sector. To this end, the
to develop institutions, programs, and policies to government has over the last four decades set up a
support affordable housing, and to combat poverty. plethora of institutions dealing with housing and
Then descriptions of the main institutions in housing has also developed a large and evolving corpus of
operating today and the programs they support are legislation dealing with housing production, housing
presented. Included are short summaries of activities markets, housing agencies, real property rights, and
of NGOs and foreign donors in supporting housing urban development.
in Tunisia.
A characteristic of the institutional environment
Before proceeding, it is worthwhile to summarize the for housing and urban development in Tunisia is
results of the efforts by government and its institutions the concentration of powers at the central level,
to develop and support the housing sector, mainly either in ministries or central government agencies
through enabling measures and programmes. It is and banks. This has remained true over decades,
undeniable that there has been impressive progress in even though there have been efforts to give local
advancing the accessibility and quality of shelter for administrations (communes or municipalités) greater
a very large segment of the Tunisian population. For roles and to improve their capacities, and there have
example, now household coverage rates for treated been attempts to involve the private sector in housing
piped water and electricity are at almost 100 per cent production. National-level executive agencies have
and coverage for wastewater in urban areas exceeds 85 also made efforts to improve their coordination with
per cent. Since 1960 over 300,000 low-cost housing local units, especially in land assembly and delivery,
units have been built directly by State enterprises. slum upgrading and central city rehabilitation, and
The banking sector has developed a sophisticated integrated urban project development.
range of housing loan products to target a wide range
of clients, including low-income families. Small lot
subdivisions and core housing have been piloted. And 2.2 BRIEF HISTORY OF HOUSING
Tunisia has one of the best records of any country POLICY IN TUNISIA1
in the MENA region in terms of sustained urban
upgrading programmes that primarily target poor To understand how Tunisia has arrived at its current
informal neighbourhoods. institutional and programmatic approaches to
housing, it is important to see how housing policy
evolved over the last four decades and in particular
2.1 GENERAL INSTITUTIONAL AND how this evolution has been influenced by the
ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT changing national development policy environment
as well as by periodic international assistance.
From the 1960s Tunisia has aimed to promote and
guide national development through a series of five- Immediately after independence in 1956, Tunisia
year national social and economic development nationalized a number of key economic sectors that
12
CHAPTER two
had been dominated by the French. Only the public

sector could fill the vacuum, and it was this sector that
took the lead in economic and social development.
IT IS UNDENIABLE THAT
Also, politically and economically this meant strong THERE HAS BEEN IMPRESSIVE
direction and control from the center. PROGRESS IN ADVANCING
Starting in the 1960s, Tunisia launched a very THE ACCESSIBILITY AND
ambitious social housing program, mainly through
the National Property Company of Tunisia (SNIT), QUALITY OF SHELTER FOR A
the Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB), and VERY LARGE SEGMENT OF
government ministries themselves. This housing was
financed by the State through generous subsidies,
THE TUNISIAN POPULATION.
and as in other areas of the economy it was the
centrally controlled public sector that dominated less government control, less regulation, and a more
completely. In the 1970s, as urbanization accelerated private sector oriented economy. Tunisia published
and the phenomenon of gourbis (informal peripheral its first housing policy document in 1988 (enshrined
urban settlements) proliferated, the government’s in the Seventh Social and Economic Development
first response was demolition and resettlement Strategy) and directly after this in 1989 CNEL was
in government housing. In 1974 the National transformed into the Housing Bank, an autonomous
Housing and Savings Fund (CNEL) was set up, as State corporation which was eventually partially
was the Housing Land Agency (AFH) and ONAS, privatized. The private sector became seen as an
the national wastewater company. Thus SNIT could important potential producer of lower cost housing,
concentrate exclusively on the construction of social and in one project (El Mourouj IV) a private
housing, leaving the associated land provision, developer purchased land from AFH. Also, the Loan
sanitation, and finance to other institutions. Fund to Support Local Authorities (CPSCL) was set
However, it slowly became clear that direct up to lend funds to municipalities.
government housing provision could not solve the In the 1990s and up to today the trend to involve
growing housing problem alone. Slowly, policy the private sector in low cost housing has continued,
dialogue and pilot projects began to shift emphasis
with many laws and measures aimed at stimulating
towards enabling housing strategies. In the late
the private developer sector. However, whereas the
1970s pilot efforts included core housing financed
government has reduced its direct housing production
by CNEL, sites and services, smaller, lower standard
role, the private sector has only reluctantly stepped
and more affordable social housing units, and the first
in to produce housing that is really affordable. This
comprehensive slum upgrading project in Mellassine
situation has been exacerbated by the almost total
in Tunis. This last project led to the acceptance by the
disappearance of public land for housing and rapidly
government of the concept of upgrading or gradual
rising urban land prices. And although many private
improvement of infrastructure and housing in a
banks have begun to provide mortgage financing and
particular area, rather than wholesale demolition and
the number of housing loan schemes offered through
urban renewal. In 1981 Tunisia established ARRU a
FOPROLOS and other government financing
new government agency charged with carrying out
schemes have increased, the high cost of housing and
and coordinating upgrading activities throughout the
land has made the situation untenable for poorer
country. At the same time ONAS began to be heavily
households seeking to acquire housing units.
involved in extending sewerage networks to deprived
urban areas. This shift in policy towards urban In the Eighth National Development Plan (1992-
upgrading was strongly supported by international 1996) the government declared its intention to
donors. strengthen the local government system. It also
expressed the need to address urban problems by
In the 1980s more efforts were undertaken to diversify
strengthening local institutions both financially and
modes of housing production and specifically to
managerially. CPSCL, which provides finance to
involve the private sector. Land development and sites
municipalities, was reformed into a more independent
and services projects were initiated, aiming to provide
and stronger institution. Also, central government
serviced housing lots both at individual builders and
agencies such as ARRU, AFH and ONAS became
the nascent corporate private sector.
more involved in integrated urban upgrading. Even
In 1986 Tunisia began to go through a structural so, the move towards more decentralization in
adjustment process and with it came a shift toward government has not progressed much.
POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 13

Figure 2.1 Before and after urban rehabilitation, Hay Farhat Hashadi in Al Mahmoudia
Source : L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine (ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al
fowdaoui » (The Tunisian Experience in Limiting Random Housing), power point presentation, June 2010
In 1995-1998 the Sustainable Tunis Project was including reform of the interest rates applied to
carried out by the Municipality of Tunis and its them.
partners, focusing on urban environmental issues.
This was supported by UN-HABITAT and UNEP • The Housing Bank (BH) is to be strengthened
under the Sustainable Cities Programme. and encouraged to diversify its housing finance
products, including its housing-savings schemes,
Over the period 2001-2003 a City Development reduction of interest rates charged on its loans,
Strategy for Tunis was developed within the Cities and raising the funding available for housing
Alliance framework with support from the World credit.
Bank and UN-HABITAT. Consultative approaches
were emphasized, which engaged the private and • Encouraging the further entry of commercial
NGO sectors and academics as well as government banks into housing loan programmes
officials. • Further improving the living conditions of low
The current status of national housing policy is income residents in popular quarters.
reflected in a number of measures adopted by the • Integrating into housing policy the importance
Council of Ministers in September 2010 (which of sustainable development and respect for the
builds on the national housing strategy adopted in environment, including in terms of building
1988): 2 materials, architectural design, and conservation
• The servicing of 5,250 hectares of new land for of natural resources.
building, with the optimal exploitation of these It is expected that these measures will benefit over 4
raw lands according to urban plans.
million citizens (some 688,000 families), which will
• The production of 123,000 units of social require investments on the order of TD 1.06 billion.
housing with simplified procedures for loan
financing and attention to cost-efficiency. 2.3 LEGAL AND REGULATORY
• Continued upgrading of housing in high-density FRAMEWORKS RELATED
towns and increasing budgetary allocations for TO HOUSING AND URBAN
this purpose. DEVELOPMENT
• Continuation of the development of different Since independence in 1956 the Tunisian
housing finance mechanisms oriented towards Government has issued a series of laws, decrees, and
and suitable for the different social classes, acts aiming at improving housing production, land
14
CHAPTER two
availability and servicing, access to housing finance, • Law 17 of 1990 organized the real estate
and improving older deteriorated urban areas. The developer profession, which allowed private
most important of these are listed below, organized developers to acquire, service, and subdivide land
according to the dates of the legislation: It should be and construct housing estates and gave them
noted that the Tunisian government has frequently incentives to construct affordable social housing.
modified legislation through decrees and acts, aiming Various other laws and decrees and acts have
to keep the corpus of legislation relating to housing further regulated the operations of real estate
and urban development cohesive and up-to-date. developers, mostly in 1990 and 1991.
• Law 154 of 1959 set the regulations for the • Law 46 of 1990 modifying the Urban Planning
formation and operation of housing cooperatives. Code (Code de l’aménagement du territoire et
de l’urbanisme) to deal with slum areas, illegal
• Law 5 of 1965 promulgating the Code for Real housing, and informal urban settlements. This
Property Rights, modified by law 98 of 2005. A Code was further modified by Laws 122 of 1994,
decree (Décret 1646 de 1998) regulates the co- 78 of 2003, and 71 of 2005.
propriety of buildings and groups of buildings.
• Law 320 of 1992 allowing private civil works
• Law 21 of 1973 enabled the establishment of companies to enter into government contracts.
the Housing Land Agency (AFH, Agence Foncière
d’Habitation). • Law 108 of 1995 established the Greater Tunis
Development Agency
• Law 34 of 1976 relating to building permits,
modified by Law 18 of 1990 and further • Law 77 of 2004 enabling the establishment
modified by a number of ministerial acts between of the National Home Improvement and
1995 and 2007. Rehabilitation Fund (FNAH, Fond national
d’amélioration de l’habitat). Two decrees in 2007
• Law 35 of 1976 organized the relationship further elaborated the funding of and access to
between owners and tenants in dwellings (i.e. for this Fund.
rental housing). It was amended by Law 122 of
1993 to grant permanent occupancy rights for
certain social categories. Rentals were further
2.4 KEY GOVERNMENT PLAYERS
regulated by an Act (arrêté) in 1999 dealing with IN HOUSING PROVISION AND
building approvals for vertical construction of IMPROVEMENT
multi-family dwellings for rent. The following paragraphs list the key players currently
• Decrees 54 of 1976 and 624 of 1978 authorising involved in housing provision and improvement in
the National Pension and Social Fund (CNRPS Tunisia, and also briefly describe their functions.
and CNSS) to grant loans for home ownership They are organized into two categories, central
or land purchase. level ministries and agencies, central level housing
finance institutions, and central level infrastructure
• Law 54 of 1977 enabling the establishment of authorities. The operations and rolls of most of these
the Fund for Promotion of Housing for Salaried institutions are elaborated in much more detail in
Employees (FOPROLOS, le Fonds de promotion subsequent chapters.
des logements pour les salariés.) This law has been
frequently modified over the years by decrees in CENTRAL LEVEL MINISTRIES AND AGENCIES
1977, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2007. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Housing and
• Law 55 of 1981 organizing the real estate agent Regional Development (Ministère de l’Équipement,
de l’Habitat et de l’Aménagement du Territoire or
profession, modified by Law 77 of 2005.
MEHAT) is the apex institution dealing with
• Law 69 of 1981 enabled the establishment of housing in Tunisia. It is responsible for preparing,
the Urban Rehabilitation of the Renovation coordinating and guiding national housing policies
Agency (ARRU, L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de and strategies, mainly through its Department of
Rénovation Urbaine) Housing (DGH, Direction Générale de l’Habitat,
formed in 1988). This Department is responsible
• Decree 1413 of 1988 establishing the General for developing housing programmes and also for
Directorate for Housing within MEHAT monitoring policy implementation and programme

achievements. The Ministry also has a Department of SNIT, builds mainly social and economic housing.
Planning, which is responsible for urban planning in Its levels of production both now and in the past have
the country, as explained in Section 2.6 below. been less than those of SNIT.
The Housing Directorate (DGH) of MEHAT is The Housing Land Agency (AFH, Agence Foncière
responsible for developing housing programmes d’Habitation) was created in 1973 with the powers
and policies and also for monitoring policy to expropriate land for the public good as well as the
implementation and programme achievements pre-emptive right to purchase land. AFH was created
through its Housing Observatory (OIF, l’Observatoire to supply land for the construction of affordable
de l’Immobilier et du Foncier). See also Box 2.1. social housing, to enter into land markets to control
prices and to reduce land speculation, and to assist
The Tunisian Housing Corporation (SNIT, la Société municipalities in land management.
Nationale Immobilière de Tunisie) was established in
1957 and has functioned as the main agency for the CENTRAL LEVEL BANKS AND FINANCE
provision of social housing for low and middle income INSTITUTIONS
families in Tunisia. It is a corporation wholly owned
by the State. By 2010 SNIT had built about 261,000 The Housing Bank, (BH, Banque de l’Habitat) was
housing units. Its level of production is currently established in 1989, replacing the former government
much reduced from earlier decades. In the past National Housing and Savings Fund (CNEL, Caisse
SNIT has undertaken neighbourhood renovations Nationale d’Epargne Logement). The Housing Bank
in Bab-Souika / Halfaouine, the demolition of was set up as an autonomous bank accountable for its
oukalas (old trading khans), and the demolition of financial results and able to raise funds through the
rudimentary housing, relocating inhabitants in new sale of share capital. It makes loans to individuals for
units. SNIT decentralized in 1979 and since then house purchase, house improvement, and residential
has operated under three divisions, in addition to its land purchase. BH has also been instrumental in
national headquarters in Tunis which covers Greater supporting private sector involvement in housing
Tunis plus the governorate of Nabeul. SNIT North projects, mainly through construction loans to
has its headquarters in Bizerte and operates in the qualifying private developers. Over half of BH
governorates of Béja, Le Kef, Jendouba et Siliana. disbursements for low income housing are made to
SNIT Center has its headquarters in Sousse and private enterprises.
operates in the governorates of Sousse, Monastir, There are roughly 20 private commercial banks
Mahdia, Kairouan et Kasserine. Finally, SNIT South in Tunisia that have housing loan programmes for
operates in the governorates of Sfax, Gabès, Tozeur, individuals, mainly targeting middle and upper
Gafsa, Medenine, Kébili, Sidi Bouzid et Tataouine.3 income families.
The Company for the Promotion of Social Housing The Housing Promotion Fund for Salaried Persons
(SPROLS, la Société de Promotion des Logements (FOPROLOS) was created in 1977 to assist lower
Sociaux) is another public enterprise which, like income groups to acquire housing. The fund is
partly financed through employer contributions,
and it finances the construction or purchase of social
TUNISIA IS FORTUNATE IN housing according to preset criteria. By 2006 it had
THAT IT HAS SIGNIFICANT financed roughly 20,000 units for low-income social
categories.
CAPACITIES TO CARRY OUT
RESEARCH AND STUDIES ON The National Fund for House Improvement
and Rehabilitation (FNAH, Fond National pour
ASPECTS OF THE HOUSING l’Amélioration de l’Habitat) was established in 2004.
AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT As a result of ARRU’s first three urban improvement
and rehabilitation projects, it was deemed necessary
SECTORS AND ALSO TO as a means to support low income families living in
MONITOR HOUSING MARKET these upgrading areas. Loans are disbursed for home
improvement for those whose salaries are below a set
BEHAVIOUR. IN THIS TUNISIA minimum.
IS AHEAD OF ALMOST ALL The National Solidarity Fund 26-26 (FSN, Fonds de
MENA REGION COUNTRIES. Solidarité Nationale 26-26) was established in 1992
with the objective of supporting the poorest of the
16
CHAPTER two
poor to attain decent living standards. The fund is

financed from the government budget and private Box 2.1: Tunisia’s Information Base for
and corporate donations. In 2006 the fund was Housing and Urban Development
allowed to finance the improvement of housing for
the very poor living in upgrading and rehabilitation Tunisia is fortunate in that it has significant
capacities to carry out research and studies on
areas both in Greater Tunis and other large towns.
aspects of the housing and urban development
CENTRAL-LEVEL INFRASTRUCTURE sectors and also to monitor housing market
behaviour. In this Tunisia is ahead of almost all
AUTHORITIES
MENA region countries.
Financially autonomous national infrastructure The Greater Tunis Development Agency (AUGT,
authorities are responsible for the provision and Agence d’Urbanisme du Grand Tunis) was
operation of (1) potable water, (2) wastewater, (3) established in 1995 to develop urban studies,
telecommunications and (4) electricity and gas to monitor urban development, and to develop
throughout Tunisian cities. Main roads and transport intervention plans for Greater Tunis as well as other
corridors in towns and regions are the responsibility urban centers. It has a dedicated research facility,
of the Roads and Bridges Authority, an arm of the the Regional and Urban Observatory for Greater
Tunis (Observatoire Urbain Régional du Grand
Ministry of Transport and Equipment. These central-
Tunis), and this facility publishes a number of very
level institutions and their performance are described useful statistical, mapping, and thematic reports.
in detail in Chapter 8.
In 2002, MEHAT’s Direction Générale de
l’Habitat decided to create a housing observatory
2.5 KEY NON-GOVERNMENT PLAYERS (L’Observatoire de L’immobilier et du Foncier,
IN HOUSING AND THEIR ACTIVITIES OIF). This observatory was set up with technical
assistance from AUGT and has been functioning
By far the most important non-government player since 2006. This Observatory prepares trimester
in Tunisia’s housing sector is the individual housing reports on housing indicators, and it has embarked
builder. As will be seen in Chapter 3, it is individual on a GIS system at the national scale. It also
families which have built the majority of urban undertakes focused studies of aspects of the
housing units, usually accessing land directly from housing sector, and the following have been some
of its outputs:
private land owners or, sometimes, through various
government land development and subdivision 1. Condominium ownership in residential building
projects. Most of this individual construction is legal in Tunisia
(i.e. building permits are obtained), but also much 2. Elements of a new locational policy for the
housing, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, was built housing sector
informally. Individual house building remains the 3. Anarchic or un-controlled housing in Tunisia
most important housing production mode today. 4. Social housing in the Tunis District
5. Vacant housing in Greater Tunis
Private sector developers and real estate companies
had hardly any activities in Tunisia from the 1960s 6. Construction costs of social and economic
through the 1980s. However, starting in the 1990s, housing
and following enabling legislation and the adoption of 7. Dilapidated and unhealthy housing in Tunisia
policies that aimed at attracting the private developer It also compiles periodic thematic reports, which
to produce affordable housing, private housing have indicators on
developers have become more and more prominent. Building permits issued
However, their production of housing suitable to Social housing
lower income families has proven to be weak, and Land for sale
even today they tend to concentrate on middle class Housing for rent
apartment housing and up-scale residential projects.
Finally, OIF publishes trimester information
For both individual builders and private developers, bulletins.
the construction contractor and building trade
enterprises are all important. These are described in
Chapter 9. significant scale, and currently they are mostly
inactive. Typically, once a cooperative was formed, it
Following enabling legislation in 1959, housing would acquire and service land and build houses, then
cooperatives came to be popular, although housing transfer these to its members. Housing cooperative
production by cooperatives has never reached a members were usually those working in government

institutions, such as the military, the police, and CENTRAL LEVEL

ministries.
In Tunisia the Department of Urban Planning
NGOs, PVOs, and local community associations (Direction de l’Urbanisme) of the MEHAT is
have been very weak in Tunisia, especially since responsible for developing city and land related
legislation in the 1960s introduced a new regulatory studies, structure plans, master plans, and area
system that forced local associations into larger, development plans. Its main task is the preparation
national organizations, which were under the of city plans (called plans d’amenagement urbain,
quasi-control of the government. Only in the late PAU) either directly by the Bureau’s technical staff
1990s did the government begin to perceive that or through consulting firms. Most cities and towns
community organizations could have a positive role have had comprehensive plans prepared, and in many
in local economic and social development. Such revisions are common. These are mainly physical land
development-oriented NGOs remain very marginal, use plans, which function as “guidance” documents
although there have been attempts to include the to provide a general framework for land development
community participation dimension in some urban and infrastructure decisions. They are not rigid and
area development and rehabilitation projects. On the do not define in detail all land uses and residential
other hand there are a large number of associations, densities. Municipalities themselves are expected to
mostly national, which are active in the social fine-tune plans on a more-or-less continuous basis.
welfare field, but these depend almost completely These plans are the basis for permissions to subdivide
on State subsidies. There are also local and national land and designate land uses. They govern densities
environmental NGOs that are very active, but they and, ultimately, the issuance of building permits. Also,
tend to focus on preserving natural resources, wildlife, central land development agencies such as AFH and
and water bodies.4 AFI plan and execute their projects in cities using the
approved city plans for guidance and in consultation
There are a number of universities and training
with municipalities and infrastructure providers.
institutes in Tunisia that have departments
relating to urban development, housing, and land It should be noted that in case a town does not have
administration. Their faculty members carry out an approved development plan, or in areas outside
research and figure prominently in conferences and communal boundaries, the MEHAT remains the
colloquies on urban issues. Most prominent are: sole permit authority. Thus emerging towns and
peri-urban areas may in some cases be bereft of the
• Ecole Nationale d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme
planning advantages inherent in city development
de Tunis, University of Carthage
plans.
• Institut Superieur des Technologies de
The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance
l’Environnement et de Batiment (ISTEUB),
perform important financing and supervision
University of Seven November, Carthage
functions over local authorities, as explained below.
• Institut Preparatoire aux Etudes d’Ingenieurs de
The Urban Rehabilitation and Renovation
Sfax, University of Sfax
Agency (ARRU, Agence de Réhabilitation et de
• Institut de Recherche sur le Magreb Rénovation Urbaine) was created in 1981 and is in
Contemporain, Tunis charge of renovating and rehabilitating old quarters
and unregulated informal residential areas in cities.
ARRU has gained a reputation for excellence in terms
2.6 KEY GOVERNMENT PLAYERS IN of its structure, operations, functions, and mandate.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT Over the 1982-2009 period over 36 slum/informal
neighbourhoods have been upgrading in larger cities
The following paragraphs list the key players currently
throughout Tunisia. Currently ARRU is continuing
involved in aspects of urban development and also
to consolidate its activities and is the main arm of
briefly describe their functions. They are organized
the National Programme for Rehabilitating Popular
into two categories, central level ministries and
Neighbourhoods (PNRQP, Programme national de
agencies, and local level institutions. The operations
réhabilitation des quartiers populaires, established
and rolls of some of these institutions are elaborated
in 2004). In a particular neighbourhood ARRU
in much more detail in subsequent chapters.
typically focuses on improving water, sanitation,
roads, electricity, and public spaces, and at the same
time it coordinates with central and local sectoral
authorities for the provision of schools, clinics, and
18
CHAPTER two
house improvement. ARRU works closely with AFH

to ensure that land is available for social housing Box 2.2: Tunisia’s Success at Urban
or serviced plots for those affected by its urban Upgrading
upgrading efforts.
It can be said that Tunisia is a leader in the MENA
The Greater Tunis Development Agency (AUGT, region in effective upgrading of slums, informal
Agence d’Urbanisme du Grand Tunis) was established settlements, and deteriorated city centres. In fact,
over three decades the Tunisian Government’s
in 1995 to develop urban studies, to monitor urban programs of urban upgrading and rehabilitation
development, and to develop intervention plans for have improved the lives of more people than any
Greater Tunis, by far the largest urban agglomeration other housing or land development programme
in Tunisia. It assists municipalities through capacity in the country. Today urban upgrading is firmly
building and technical assistance to prepare plans for placed as an important component of Tunisia’s
housing as well as urban development policies.
neighbourhood extensions and urban rehabilitation. Its achievements are well documented in the
It also acts as a research facility for the MEHAT, literature.
providing data, maps, and studies to support urban Tunisian authorities started to adopt enlightened
planning and action plans in Greater Tunis and other policies towards low-income urban areas in the
cities, as needed. AUGT’s research and information late 1970s. Several urban development projects
functions are handled by its Regional and Urban were initiated in 1978-79 with some support
Observatory for Greater Tunis (Observatoire Urbain from international donors. These projects sought
to integrate informal and squatter areas into
Régional du Grand Tunis). the surrounding urban fabric, regularizing land
tenure, and upgrading local infrastructure. By
LOCAL LEVELS
2003 some 25 per cent of urban dwellers in some
700 neighbourhoods had been reached by these
There are some 250 municipalities (communes) in
rehabilitation programmes, and the number of
Tunisia, ranging from the very large such as Tunis beneficiaries was estimated at 1.5 million. This was
to the very small (populations of less than 20,000). due to the effective institutional structure, which
Each is administered by a communal council elected was set up, most notably with the establishment
by the local population. The head of the council of the Urban Rehabilitation and Renovation
Agency (ARRU, Agence pour la Renovation
is then elected by council members.7 The powers
Urbaine) in 1981. It was also made possible by
of communal councils are narrowly defined, and a sustained commitment by the government to
their actions are subject to supervision of both the make financial resources available.5
governor of the relevant governorate (26 governors, In 2004 the National Fund for Housing
also appointed by the President) and ultimately by the Development was set up to complement the
Ministry of the Interior. Commune councils have the rehabilitation and regeneration work of ARRU by
right to own and develop land and to levy property focusing on the eradication of primitive buildings
and other taxes. However, in most communes the and the rehabilitation of housing, including
dilapidated ancient structures such as wakalas in
majority of both capital and recurrent budgets are medieval Tunis.
covered by transfers from the central government.
A new program in 2007-2009 improved living
Performance of municipalities in Tunisia varies, and conditions for 26 neighbourhoods, covering
except for the largest cities (e.g. Tunis, Sfax, and 166,000 residents. Among other achievements,
this program facilitated the construction of 329
Sousse) municipalities find it difficult to perform their km of roads, 70 km of canals and sewerage
urban management functions due to inadequate staff, networks, a light network, the rehabilitation of
lack of professional staff, and insufficient own-source thousands of homes, the development of sports
revenues, even though there have been a number of and leisure centres, and the creation of industrial
programs initiated since the 1980s aimed at increasing estates and thousands of micro-projects, creating
an estimated 7,500 jobs. There is currently a 2009-
municipal capacities. In many municipalities tax 2012 program underway that aims to rehabilitate
collection is poor. The Central Projects Unit of the another 56 neighbourhoods in 21 regions covering
Direction des Collectivités Publiques Locales in the 260,000 inhabitants.
Ministries of Interior and Finance offer management Although successful in most aspects, the PNRQP
and technical assistance services to municipalities. (Programme national de réhabilitation des
Also, the Caisse de Prêts de Soutien des Collectivités quartiers populaires) has been criticized for an
Locales (CPSCL, part of the DCPL) operates a loan almost complete lack of grass-roots community
participation. Also, its continued effectiveness
programme for municipal capital investments.
requires continuous budgetary support from the
central government, since formulae for full cost
The main responsibilities of municipalities are
recovery remain problematic.6
solid waste collection, local streets, local sewers,

Figure 2.2 Tunis Medina after rehabilitation (Tunis Municipality and the Society for Rehabilitation of Old Tunis)
Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh
markets, street lighting, parks, and most recreational (RHUDO), which provided considerable technical
services. The main urban development functions assistance and capacity building to Tunisia as well as
(e.g. main roads, water and wastewater, electricity, other countries in the region, was located in Tunis
land use planning and land subdivision), however, from 1977 until its closing in 1997.
are the responsibility of central-level agencies, as
described above. Central infrastructure agencies International assistance from USAID and the World
such as SONADE and ONAS can be delegated by Bank to the sector has slowed significantly since 2000.
municipalities to undertake local works, and technical The U.S. Agency for International Development
cooperation between these central authorities and (USAID) ended any new projects in Tunisia in
municipalities is common. Municipalities have been 1994, when Tunisia’s economic advances led to the
given the power to issue building permits, but these country’s “graduation” from USAID funding. On
must be approved centrally. the other hand, the World Bank has continued to
support Tunisia with a number of narrowly-focused
urban infrastructure projects (although it has ended
2.7 INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE its involvement in Tunisia’s housing sector). Such
TO HOUSING AND URBAN World Bank projects in 2000-2010 were:8
DEVELOPMENT IN TUNISIA
• Urban Water Supply Project, 2005, USD 38
Tunisia has had a long history of collaboration with million
bilateral and international donors in the areas of
housing and urban development. In fact, Tunisia has • Tunis West Sewerage, 2006, USD 67 million
probably received more assistance to these sectors
• Sustainable Municipal Solid Waste Management
than any other country in the MENA Region. A
Project, 2007, USD 22 million
number of projects and programmes were carried
out in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and these • North Tunis Wastewater Project, 2010, USD 52
included loans and/or grants to help finance housing million
and municipal development projects, usually with a
significant amount of technical assistance attached. Currently there is only one World Bank pipeline
Two of the most prominent donors were USAID and project related to urban development, “Integrated
the World Bank (which sometimes joined together as Local Development (Municipal Development)”
project co-financers) as shown in Table 2.1. USAID’s valued at USD 60 million which is scheduled to
Regional Housing and Urban Development Office start in 2011 and is co-financed with the AFD. This
20
CHAPTER two
Table 2.1: USAID and World Bank Projects in Tunisia in Housing and Urban Development 1960-2000
1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
USAID HG-001 USAID HG-002 World Bank, Third USAID HG-004D

Urban Project, USD 25
Cité Carnoy, USD 5 Ibn Khaldoun, USD 15 million, upgrading, sites Municipal Finance, USD 15
million, 1966, low-middle million and services, support for million, 1992, Support for
income housing establishment of ARRU CPSCL and local authorities
1972, lower income
housing with SNIT
World Bank First Urban USAID HG-004A World Bank, First Municipal
Project, 1976, Urban Development (PDM-1),
Transport and Support for Urban Development, USD USD 75 million, 1992,
the District of Tunis 24 million, 1985, Land Support for CPSCL and
Development with CNEL local authorities
and AFH
USAID HG-003 World Bank, Fourth Urban USAID HG-005
Project, USD 30 million,
Upgrading and core houses, 1986, continuation of Private Participation in
USD 20 million, 1977, Third Urban Project Environmental Services,
Ibn Khaldoun, Mellassine USD 40 million, 1993
Upgrading, and CNEL core
houses
World Bank Second Urban USAID HG-004B Second Municipal
Project, USD 14 million, Development (PDM-2),
1979, Upgrading and Sites Urban Development USD 80 million, 1997,
and Services continuation of PDM-1
1986, USD 24 million, 30
towns programme, with
ONAS servicing
USAID HG-004C
Housing Bank, 1988, USD

15 million, support for
Housing Bank
World Bank Fifth Urban
Project, $58 million,
1989, support for Housing
Bank and private sector
participation in housing
Source: Lippe 1997, pp 19-20.
effort finances urban investments through the Fund to the private sector (both corporate and individual)
for Loans and Support to Local Authorities (CPSCL for increasing its activities in affordable housing
Caisse des Prêts et de Soutien aux Collectivités provision could be attributed to the impact of these
Locales). projects. Also, these projects aimed at improving
the availability of housing finance and the supply of
Project reviews of both USAID and World Bank
serviced land for housing, both of which are elements
projects which were carried out in the 1980s and
of an enabling housing strategy. Donor support to
1990s were generally very positive, not only in terms
improve the performance of local administrative units
of achieving project objectives and targets, but also
in municipal management and planning also achieved
in the impact these projects have had in influencing
some success, although the rigid control through the
housing and urban development policies in Tunisia.
Ministry of Interior over municipalities and their
It was said that much of the shifting of government
feeble legal mandates constrained such efforts.9
policies away from the direct provision of low-cost
housing and towards more enabling housing strategies The French Development Agency (AFD, Agence
was influenced by these projects. Specifically, support Française de Développement) has been very active in

Tunisia starting in 1992. As of 2010 AFD and its

private investment arm PROPARCO had committed IT CAN BE SAID THAT
financing of Euro 1.76 billion to the country. One
of its lead sectors in Tunisia is water and sanitation TUNISIA IS A LEADER IN THE
(roughly 10 per cent of its country portfolio in MENA REGION IN EFFECTIVE
2009), including financing, capacity building and
ensuring the adoption of sustainability principles. UPGRADING OF SLUMS,
Also, since 1995 AFD has committed Euro 170 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS, AND
million for seven projects as part of its programme
of upgrading peripheral popular urban areas which DETERIORATED CITY CENTRES…
include local infrastructure and integration of urban TODAY URBAN UPGRADING
fabrics (L’aménagement des quartiers populaires: un
développement urbain sans bidonvilles). Another
IS FIRMLY PLACED AS AN
initiative, the Programme National de Réqualification IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF
Urbaine (PNRU, supported with a loan of Euro 50 TUNISIA’S HOUSING AS WELL
million in 2008), has two components: (1) Servicing
of new urban expansion areas to absorb families of AS URBAN DEVELOPMENT
modest incomes, with a pilot project in El Matar in POLICIES.
Sousse; and (2) Rehabilitation of historic town centers
in Kairouan, Sousse, Sfax, and Tunis). Included in
the PNRU are grants for studies and for institutional the areas of the economy and commerce, manpower
development of ARRU. The AFD is also active in training, agriculture, energy and the environment.
Tunisia in urban public transport: since 2008 AFD Although none of its activities are strictly in the
has financed the extension of the light metro system housing or urban development sectors, the EU
for Tunis with a loan of Euro 40 million. And AFD is supports sustainable environmental management and
a co-financer (along with the European Commission, energy-conservation measures, some of which relate
and the European Investment Bank and KfW) of the to urban areas.11
Rapid Rail Network for Greater Tunis (RFR, Reseau
The German Development Bank KfW has been
Ferré Rapide du Grand Tunis, started in 2010)
active in Tunisia for years, especially in the water
and also of another project relating to air quality
sector. It has contributed heavily to ONAS to design
and energy conservation in urban public transport.
and improve technical aspects of wastewater systems
Finally, AFD has supported capacity building for
and to develop better tariff schedules.12
municipalities. For this AFD has (1) committed
lines of credit totalling Euro 150 million channelled Many other international development agencies
through CPSCL of the Ministry of Interior and (2) have been or are active in Tunisia in housing and
is co-financing with the World Bank the delivery of urban development, although mostly on small
garbage trucks to selected municipalities and other scales and mainly confined to support for technical
institutional and training support for municipalities assistance, capacity building, policy dialogue, and
under the Programme Sectoriel Municipal.10 sectoral studies. Among them are IDRC, GTZ, UN-
Habitat, and UNDP.
The European Union (EU) has had an active
development cooperation programme with Tunisia
for decades. Currently the EU supports Tunisia in
22
CHAPTER two
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
Much of this section, up to 1996, is based on Lippe 1997, pp. 10-12.
2
Agence Tunis Afrique Press 2010.
3
SNIT Website 2011
4
An example of a local development association is the Association Locale de Developpement – Rohia –
Siliana, which assists a rural area in a number of activities such as micro-credit and environmental services.
Even though the Association aims at the “improvement of the local habitat,” improving housing per se is not
one of its activities. (Mansouri 2007.)
5
Kraiem 2003.
6
For more information see Malouch 2007.
7
The head of the Commune of Tunis is appointed by the President of the Republic.
8
World Bank 2011(b)
9
Lippe 1997, p 16.
10
AFD Website 2011
11
EC Website 2011
12
KfW Website 2011

03
KEY PLAYERS IN HOUSING
Tunisia has witnessed an impressive growth in its maintained or even increasing. For example, it is
housing stock in the last three decades. Who builds stated that mid-census estimates for 2009 show that
this housing, in terms of quantity, type, and location? the total number of housing units in Tunisia was
This chapter provides an answer by reviewing the 2,886,800, which translates into an annual increase
main producers and their modalities. Both past and, of 77,200 units per year over the 2004-2009 period.1
especially, current housing provider volumes will be This begs the question: who is building all of these
assessed. Possible future trends will also be discussed. units?
3.1 HOUSING PROVISION IN TUNISIA 3.2 OVERVIEW OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO

SINCE 1994 THE HOUSING STOCK BY TYPE OF
PROVIDER
Tunisia has recorded impressive increases in its
housing stock, especially in the last two decades. According to the Observatoire de l’Immobilier et
Housing units have been created at a faster rate du Foncier (OIF) at MEHAT, over the 2006-2010
than the growth of the population, even in urban period a total of 252,000 new housing units were
areas where population growth has been greatest. registered. The breakdown by mode of production was
The growth in the inter-censal period 1994-2004 is overwelming “individual,” with “private developer”
presented in Table 3.1. coming second and public or social housing coming a
very distant third, as can be seen in Table 3.2.
Based on this table, the average annual increase in
urban areas was 51,469 housing units per year and Are these figures accurate? It is understood that they
11,760 housing units in rural areas, or a total average derive from property permits and registrations of the
annual increase of 63,229 housing units. Most of this municipalities. They probably do not include all rural
increase occurred in urban areas, where the annual housing or extra-legal informal housing. It is also not
rate of increase of housing units was an impressive confirmed that all these units are “ready to occupy.”
3.6 per cent, and even higher in Greater Tunis at 4 Unfortunately, it is difficult to answer these questions,
per cent. Partial information for later years shows especially given that municipal performance is
that this rate of increase of housing units is being variable and that records are less-than-perfect in some

Table 3.1: Increase in Number of Housing Units in Tunisia 1994 - 2004
1994 2004 % Annual Increase

Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total
Tunis 199,436 0 199,436 265,585 0 265,585 2.9 2.9
Grand Tunis 373,877 25,931 399,808 554,952 38,063 593,015 4.0 3.9 4.0
All Tunisia 1,211,267 657,255 1,868,522 1,725,979 774,851 2,500,830 3.6 1.7 3.0
Source: AUGT 2008(c), p. 4
24
CHAPTER three
Table 3.2: Annual Production of Housing Units in Tunisia by Provider 2006-2010
Individual Private Public Total

2006 40,950 6,270 3,112 50,332
2007 36,432 6,910 544 43,886
2008 41,208 8,408 982 50,598
2009 39,252 11,946 796 51,994
2010 42,448 11,946 796 55,190
Total 200,290 45,480 6,230 252,000
Per cent of total 79.5% 18% 2.5% 100%
Average Annual Rate 40,058 9,096 1,246 50,400
Source: El-Sheikh 2010, p. 16. El-Sheikh’s figures relate to the first semester of each year.
These have been doubled to reach annual figures.
communes. However, it is clear that if the volume of Formal Individual Housing

housing production is underestimated by MEHAT, Formal individual housing is produced under
it is the private individual housing producer that is prevailing laws and regulations, meaning that the
undercounted. On the other hand, public housing producer obtains a building permit for both new
production and that of the formal private sector will construction and additions (which in turn requires
definitely be recorded accurately. that the land plot conform to planning and subdivision
Therefore, the main conclusion is clear. Currently regulations and that housing plans conform to
and over the last few years, it is private individuals the Building Code, among other requirements, as
who build or commission the large majority of new described in Chapter 9).
housing units in urban Tunisia, as well as practically The building permit regime is quite bureaucratic and
all the new housing in rural areas. Private developers usually entails considerable cost as well as time. The
come a distant second, selling houses and apartment formal individual builder must first acquire land in
units to families. Housing units produced by the areas which have been designated for residential use
State, mainly by SNIT and SPROLS, come a very by the Urban Development Plans (PAU) and conform
distant third. The following sections describe the to subdivision plans. In most cases he or she must
housing production activities of each of these three purchase the land from existing private landowners,
types of producers. who may be ex-farmers or subdivision companies.
Although the government Housing Land Agency
3.3 THE PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL (AFH) has programs that create small plots of land
HOUSING PRODUCER (auto-
constucteur) BOTH FORMAL TUNISIA HAS RECORDED
AND INFORMAL
IMPRESSIVE INCREASES IN ITS
While it is clear that the private individual mode of
housing production has and continues to dominate HOUSING STOCK, ESPECIALLY
the housing sector in Tunisia, paradoxically there is IN THE LAST TWO DECADES.
little available information about the phenomenon.
It is presumed that almost all of this production
HOUSING UNITS HAVE BEEN
is individual houses, villas, or small multi-family CREATED AT A FASTER RATE
buildings, although the sizes and amenities of these
units are hard to calculate (see also Chapter 5, which
THAN THE GROWTH OF THE
discusses the current housing stock in Tunisia). It POPULATION, EVEN IN URBAN
is also unclear what portion of this mode is formal AREAS WHERE POPULATION
and what is informal. In the following paragraphs
formal versus informal housing produced by private GROWTH HAS BEEN
individuals are treated separately. GREATEST.
KEY PLAYERS IN HOUSING 25

Figure 3.1 Up-scale private individual cum developer apartment Figure 3.2 Example of individual-built low rise apartment buildings,
buildings, Tunis City Al-Zohor Neighborhood
Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh
at moderate prices specifically for purchase by lower as l’habitat clandestin, l’habitat anarchique, le logement
income families who wish to build their own homes, insalubre, quartiers spontanés, etc. For years government
it is understood that the quantity of such land plots policies have tried to prohibit the phenomenon, and
is very limited. Thus, for the majority of individual in addition among planning and housing professionals
housing producers, the only recourse is to find parcels informal housing is considered a plague, a cancer, and
of land on the open market. This market, due to land a challenge to State authority.
scarcity and to speculation, has become extremely
expensive. What is the volume of informal housing currently being
built in urban Tunisia? Government figures show that,
Modest income families that have acquired a land whereas informal housing production was common
parcel may qualify for State construction loans up to the 1980s, considerable success has since been
from the Housing Bank (BH) or other agencies at achieved in limiting its spread and in upgrading older
advantageous terms and interest rates similar to those informal areas (see Box 3.1.). MEHAT has published
operating for housing unit purchase, but normally figures which show that in 2010 there were only
requiring significant equity contributions (see also 4087 building violations for substandard housing in
Chapter 7, Housing Finance). However, the funds Tunisia, of which the largest number, 1904 violations,
available for these construction loan programmes are were found in Greater Tunis. In 2009 there were 4114
limited and demand far outstrips supply. In addition, violations nationally, of which 2137 were in Greater
there are many bureaucratic conditions put on these Tunis, meaning a slight reduction over the previous
loans. year.2
In effect, the high cost associated with acquiring land If these “violations” are equivalent to all informal
on the open market, combined with the high cost of housing units produced, then in 2009 and 2010
construction and associated permits, means that for informal housing production represented 8 to 10 per
most wishing to build their own homes “formally,” cent of national production and roughly 15 per cent
affordability is the crucial issue. Only lower-income of private individual housing construction. However,
families that can either leverage considerable family this would seem to underestimate the phenomenon.
equity or are lucky enough to qualify for government There is ample anecdotal evidence that a substantial
land and financing can hope to become sanctioned amount of informal housing is being built, especially
owner-builders. on marginal peri-urban land outside municipal
boundaries or in zones not designated for residential
Informal Individual Housing use and not issued with “violations.” The illegal
Informal housing is defined as housing that is built construction of additional floors onto structures is
in contravention of planning, subdivision, and/or also common. One author has called it urbanisation
building permit regimes in place. In Tunisia there are galopante dans la peripherie (galloping urbanization
a number of terms to describe the phenomenon, such on the periphery) and des milliers de constructions
26
CHAPTER three
anarchiques qui poussent comme des champignons, Most Tunisian commentators can see nothing good
champignons, sans aucune planification, ni aménagement in informal housing areas. They see only shoddy
(thousands of anarchic buildings which spring up like construction, narrow lanes, people piled on each
mushrooms, without any planning or services).3 It is other, windows that open onto walls, no green space,
common for the informal building process to avoid insufficient basic infrastructure, little in the way of
or circumvent municipal control, and the relationship public services, public health problems, noise, and
has been described as a game of “cat and mouse.” nauseating odours. Even worse, they are described as
This may involve construction at night, or with a being inhabited by criminals and menacing gangs, of
“fine” paid to the municipal inspector to ignore the breeding delinquency and anti-social behaviour, and
building being constructed until it is finished and of destroying the aesthetic of the urban landscape.
inhabited. Whole areas are said to be developed by And these same commentators lay the blame for all
lotisseurs clandestins (clandestine land subdividers) this squarely upon the municipalities, who they say
who subdivide land, paying bribes and selling it on are lax in their control duties or even complicit in the
to individual builders. In these cases there is safety in anarchic process.
numbers. Since the State is loath to employ bulldozers This common pejorative attitude towards all informal
and demolition crews on inhabited housing, it is all- housing is widespread, but ironically there is evidence
important that finished houses are occupied as quickly that currently a substantial amount of illegal building
as possible. In addition, it is often possible to fabricate is actually being carried out by the well-to-do or
building permits. middle classes, who are building villas in peripheral
and peri-urban areas within commutes by car of the
In most cases of informal construction, the land has
major cities. For them the big advantage is being able
been bought from the previous legal owner. However,
to find much cheaper land, which allows them to
there are some continued cases of squatters building
afford huge plots and to build without the onus of
on State domain land, although it is impossible to
control.
know how common this is (in fact, in the literature
the word “squatter” and “informal” are sometimes What commentators of informal housing in Tunisia
erroneously used synonymously). rarely mention is that large spontaneous urban zones
represent the cheapest form of housing and the only
Examples abound. Sijoumi, Ras Ettabia, Ettadhamen, type of housing process that many, perhaps over 50
and neighborhoods in the districts of Sidi H’çine, per cent of urban families, can afford (see Chapter 4
Jayara, Mnihla, and Ejoumi are all typically established on housing affordability). In addition, it is ignored
informal settlements in which illegal densification that these zones generate considerable employment
is common.4 New areas on peripheral land can be and enterprise opportunities, and that most of the
found in many locales, especially around small towns informal housing stock is of quite good quality. It is
that are within the geographic orb of Greater Tunis perverse that the same commentators that castigate
(and where there might be less municipal control). current informal housing practices will describe
Figure 3.3 Informal progressive construction, Sidi Hussain Area Figure 3.4 Densifying informal neighbourhood, Al Zohor Area

the government’s past successes in upgrading and

one governorate of Greater Tunis, it was estimated
rehabilitating older informal urban areas (see box
that in 1989 over 434 hectares, representing
Chapter 2) in glowing terms, ignoring the fact that
16 per cent of the total urbanized space of the
these areas were the product of the same informal governorate, were covered by informal settlements.6
processes that are ongoing today.
Most observers feel the pace of informality
The effects of the Tunisian Revolution on housing slackened by 1990, though no serious studies are
modes of production are hard to read as of yet. But known to have tried to quantify the continued
there is considerable mention in the Tunisian press of growth of informal areas. Starting around 1980,
incidences of new informal areas and of land and even the government began to launch a more nuanced
policy of upgrading most of the larger informal
public housing squatting. It would seem that, in this
areas through ARRU and other dedicated bodies. By
climate, the informal mode of housing production the 1990s the upgrading efforts had been enshrined
only increases. in national policy and implemented through the
framework of PNRQP (see box in Chapter 2). These
3.4 THE FORMAL PRIVATE SECTOR upgrading and rehabilitation efforts are considered
by most Tunisian as well as foreign observers
The formal private housing sector, composed of small, to have been very successful and are frequently
medium, and large property developers, has been described.
positively encouraged by Tunisian Government policy In fact, most of what we know of informal housing
since the National Housing Strategy was formulated development comes from write-ups of Tunisia’s
successes in urban upgrading of older types of
informal settlements. Little is known about new
Box 3.1: History and Extent of Informal informal development. As in many other Arab
Housing in Tunisia countries, it seems that the phenomenon of informal
housing today is somewhat embarrassing, and it is
preferred to refer to the history of informality and
Just after the 2nd World War in the late 1940s,
how older areas have been successfully transformed.
the first wave of informality appeared in Tunisia
The implication is clear: real intervention into or
with the creation of “gourbivilles” in near-central
support for the informal housing process only occurs
locations of the major cities. These were populated
post-facto through various kinds of upgrading once
by a massive rural exodus, and most were made
an area matures. The State’s policy towards newer
up of rudimentary structures predominated by
informal areas remains negative and preventive,
single rooms rented to families. At the time of
however popular newer informal areas may be,
independence in 1956 a “belt” of gourbivilles
and even though local authorities are passive or
surrounded Tunis and its Medina. The government
even active agents for them. Of course, it will be
response to these “gourbis” was demolition and
extremely interesting to see how policies towards
either resettlement or forced return to the villages
and acceptance of informal housing processes will
of origin.
play out in Tunisia’s post-revolutionary phase.
The second wave of informality began in the 1960s
and peaked in the 1970s with the creation of
peripheral spontaneous urban settlements around in 1988. In February 1990 Law 17 created the enabling
major towns, on marginal and other land that legislation for private real estate developers, which set
was either bought or squatted. Housing varied the framework for the formation, registration, and
from rudimentary to quite substantial courtyard operation of these real estate developers. An association
and multi-family units, usually only a single story of real estate developers was formed in 1994. In the
high. Over time, owners invested considerably
early 1990’s decrees have given private developers tax-
in this housing. In some cases whole new areas
were created by clandestine land subdividers, and
breaks and other incentives to produce modest and
in these quite regular, grid-pattern areas housing affordable housing. Land for such housing projects is,
was generally of acceptable quality, but roads in some cases, provided by AFH at both market and
were mostly narrow and utilities were completely below market rates.
lacking.
In 2010 there are 1782 registered private real estate
Surveys conducted in 1980 in Tunisia’s main urban developers in Tunisia, up from only 50 in the early
areas identified some 210 squatter/informal areas 1980s.7
with more than 500,000 inhabitants, representing
28 per cent of the total population of the cities Recently, the volume of private developer housing has
investigated.5 The phenomenon continued been increasing in Tunisia, from an estimated 6,270
throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In Ben Arous, units in 2006 to almost 12,000 units in 2010. Whether
28
CHAPTER three
this strong growth trend will continue remains to be Over the 2008-2010 period the total disbursements
seen. In any event, the majority of private developer of SNIT averaged roughly TD 70 million. This
housing aims at the middle and upper classes, although translates into a rate of disbursement for new units at
in the Tunisian real estate press there is talk of the need TD 47,400 per unit, including general administration
to go slightly down market to meet a larger segment charges. The large majority of units built by SNIT
of housing demand. The perception among many are of the “social” or “economic” categories, although
Tunisians is that private developers, who enjoy many a minority of units are of “high standing”, and in
concessions from the State, market units at inflated addition SNIT builds commercial units integrated
prices and can reap enormous profits. into its housing projects, usually on the ground floors.
It also integrates a mix of unit sizes (one bedroom to
3.5 THE STATE AND SOCIAL HOUSING three bedroom units) into its projects. Since the 1990s
SNIT has reduced the average size of its units to make
The main State producer of public housing is the
them more affordable, and also to meet demand from
National Housing Company of Tunisia (SNIT, La
smaller households (which are becoming more and
Société Nationale Immobilière de Tunisie) and there is
more common in urban Tunisia).
also the Company for Social Housing (SPROLS, La
Société de Promotion des Logements Sociaux). SNIT acquires serviced land for its projects either
from AHD or from the allocation of existing public
Although currently State-produced housing represents
lands at no cost. SNIT is however responsible for on-
only roughly three to five per cent of total housing
site infrastructure.
unit production in Tunisia, this low rate is a recent
phenomenon. This can be seen from the past rhythms Families or individuals seeking SNIT housing units
of SNIT production, where production was much make applications directly to SNIT offices or by
higher, especially in the period 1969-1986, as shown internet. Applicants must meet income and other
in Table 3.3: criteria, and once vetted an application goes on a
waiting list. For those applying for “economic” or
Even though its housing production role has “high-standing” units, when there are units available
decreased, SNIT remains responsible for management priority goes to the oldest date of application. The
of the substantial number of units it has built. Also, in same priority applies for “social” units, but in specific
2001 SNIT was charged by the Council of Ministers projects beneficiaries can be chosen by lottery. An
with regularizing the legal and technical status of its applicant may chose to pay the whole amount, in
housing stock, in order that each beneficiary of a which case the unit is immediately delivered. An
SNIT housing unit could obtain legal private title. As applicant may also arrange for financing for the unit
of 2010 a total of 99,170 units had been regularized from one of the many mortgage programmes available
in this manner. (which are usually financing programmes available
Figure 3.5 New peri-urban informal housing

Source: L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine (ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al

Figure 3.6 Private developer apartment blocks, Tunis City

from government agencies, see Chapter 7). In this project also contains a children’s garden, a primary
case once financing is arranged the unit is delivered. school, playgrounds and landscaping. Housing units
range from one to three bedrooms plus living room.
To give the reader a more concrete idea of the activities
of SNIT, two housing projects recently completed are Résidence Carrefour
presented: Constructed between 1992 and 1995, this complex is
Résidence Bahi Ladgham, El Mansoura, located in La Cite Khadra, Municipality of Tunis. It is
comprised of 133 apartment units of “semi-standing”
Municipality of Soukra:
quality in blocks of G+7, plus a separate commercial
This project, planned in 1998, includes 864 apartment block of G+1. Apartments range in size from one to
units plus commercial units on the ground floor, three bedrooms plus living room.
with the four upper floors reserved for housing. The
In addition to SNIT, there is another public enterprise
that produces low-cost housing: the Company for
CURRENTLY… IT IS PRIVATE Social Housing (SPROLS, La Société de Promotion des
Logements Sociaux). Apartment units of 50 m2, 75
INDIVIDUALS WHO BUILD OR m2, 80 m2, and 100 m2 are built as well as duplex
COMMISSION THE LARGE houses in the 50 to 65 m2 range. The organization
MAJORITY OF NEW HOUSING was formed in 1977 (Law 53 of 1977) and modified
in 1993 (by Law 78). It is an affiliate of the Ministry
UNITS IN URBAN TUNISIA, AS of Equipment and Transport. SPROLS is smaller in
WELL AS PRACTICALLY ALL output than SNIT. Since its inception it has built
21,333 housing units in different parts of the country.
THE NEW HOUSING IN RURAL Currently it is constructing 468 housing units.8
AREAS. PRIVATE DEVELOPERS
COME A DISTANT SECOND, 3.6 EMERGENCE OF LARGE REAL
ESTATE DEVELOPERS
SELLING HOUSES AND
APARTMENT UNITS TO FAMILIES. Starting in 2006, a number of “mega projects” have
been announced, mostly around Tunis but also
HOUSING UNITS PRODUCED Sfax, Sousse, and Bizerte. These huge integrated real
BY THE STATE… COME A VERY estate ventures are mainly financed by Arab capital.
Some are under construction and some have been
DISTANT THIRD. delayed. They represent a trend that can be seen
throughout Arab countries such as Egypt, Morroco,
30
CHAPTER three
Table 3.3: Total Production of Housing Units by SNIT, 1969-2010
Plan Period Number of housing units Implied annual rate in units

produced per year
1969-1973 33,663 6,733
1974-1976 41,689 13,896
5 Plan
th
1977-1981 71,000 14,200
6 Plan
th
1982-1986 60,620 12,124
7 Plan
th
1987-1991 19,089 3,818
8 Plan
th
1992-1996 6,625 1,325
9 Plan
th
1997-2001 12,533 2,507
10 Plan
th
2002-2006 8,415 1,683
11 Plan
th
2007-2010 5,904 1,476
Source: SNIT website, http://www.snit.com.tn/html/pgfr.html
and even Yemen, where luxurious gated residential when completed will include tourist villages and a
communities are promoted, aimed at a new class of residential city of 22,000 inhabitants.
wealthy families who seek a high and exclusive quality
of life. Some of the projects announced or under way While such exclusive projects may stimulate the real
in Tunisia include:9 estate sector and add to the local economy, they can
by no means be considered to be producing housing
Tunis Sports City, being promoted by the Bukhatir units affordable by anyone but the richest Tunisians.
Group near Tunis, is an integrated real estate project In addition, this phenomenon of high-end residential
that, in addition to high-quality apartments, offers complexes seems to preoccupy government planners
a center of sports, including two stadiums, a golf and officials more and more as well as the Tunisian
course, and an Olympic-size pool. The first phase has real estate industry. And each of these projects takes
been completed. Total investment cost is said to reach up enormous amounts of land which (1) might have
Euro 3.7 billion. been used for more affordable housing projects and
(2) further exacerbates the already acute scarcity of
Mediterranean Gate is an integrated gated-
developable land around major cities. The issue of
community near Tunis announced by Sama Dubai
land scarcity for housing is taken up in Chapter 6.
Group. This project is currently understood to be “on
hold.”
Les Jardins de Gammarth on the Bay of Gammarth
offers a mix of luxurious residences, including
apartments, duplexes, and villas, promoted by the
Tunisian Société Carthaginoise de Développement
Touristique.
La Cité Bled El Ward, estimated to cost USD 10
billion, is a huge project of the Emirati firm Al
Maabar International Investments Company located
on 5000 hectares at Sebkhat de l’Ariana north of
Tunis. In addition to high-standing residential units,
it will contain beaches, sports amenities, and other
attractions.
Al Qusoor Marina is a large luxury residential and
boating complex of Emaar Property Limited (Dubai) Figure 3.7 Résidence Bahi Ladgham
to be located near Sousse. Source: SNIT website http://www.snit.com.tn/html/pgfr.html,
accessed 30 March 2011.
Taparura, located some three kilometers north
of Sfax, is a grand project on 400 hectares which

Figure 3.8 Résidence Carrefour Figure 3.9 New SNIT housing estate in Sidi Hussain, Tunis
Source: SNIT website; http://www.snit.com.tn/html/pgfr.html, Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh
3.7 POSSIBLE CHANGE IN MIX OF acquires land and commissions house construction.
HOUSING PROVIDERS This competition at the lower-middle market level
is all the more stiff since the individual production
It is difficult to look into the future of Tunisia’s housing mode is considerably cheaper than purchasing a
production. Certainly it can be expected that the completed unit from a developer, economies of scale
formal private sector, which is involved in everything not withstanding. (See also Chapter 5.)
from huge mega projects to small housing schemes,
will increase and deepen its modalities of production. Do State housing producers have much hope for
But if what is observed in other Arab countries is to be the future? Recent trends are not promising, and
any indication of trends, in Tunisia the private sector re-expansion of the sector up to, for example,
will remain aimed primarily at the upper ends of the SNIT production levels of the 1990s will require
urban housing market, where they know demand huge additional budget commitments from central
and profit margins can remain high. Private sector government. However, it would seem that there is a
actors will be seduced by the mega project integrated chance to encourage more diverse and less expensive
real estate venture mirage. It will be risky for these products as part of the social housing portfolio. Small
developers to move down into the real middle class complete units (such as studio apartments), small
market, where they will find stiff competition coming core housing, and very small serviced building plots
from the owner-builder and from the individual who will be more affordable and at the same time allow
Figure 3.10 SNIT low-rise apartment complex, Sidi Hussain, Tunis Figure 3.11 SNIT Low-rise apartments complex, Sidi Hussain, Tunis
32
CHAPTER three
Figure 3.12 Tunisian mega project model

Source: http://www.lereflex-immobilier.net/actualite_immob.php?id=2462, citing www.mille-et-une-tunisie.com,
a given budget to go further. In the past SNIT and

other players have experimented with some of these …THE PHENOMENON OF
alternative products, and thus the expertise exists.
Furthermore, SNIT should not be in the business INFORMAL HOUSING TODAY IS
of producing middle-class, high quality apartment SOMEWHAT EMBARRASSING,
blocks, which directly compete with products of the
private developer sector. AND IT IS PREFERRED TO
Whatever the future of social housing and private
REFER TO THE HISTORY OF
developer housing in Tunisia, it is inevitable that the INFORMALITY AND HOW
private individual will remain the prime mode of
housing production in Tunisia. Thus it is logical that
OLDER AREAS HAVE BEEN
ways are found to better support the process and to SUCCESSFULLY TRANSFORMED.
allow more social and economic classes to join this THE IMPLICATION IS CLEAR:
mode of production.
REAL INTERVENTION INTO OR
SUPPORT FOR THE INFORMAL
HOUSING PROCESS ONLY
OCCURS POST-FACTO THROUGH
VARIOUS KINDS OF UPGRADING
ONCE AN AREA MATURES.

SECTION ENDNOTES
1
Agence Tunis Afrique Press 2011.
2
3
Maârouf 2010
4
Horwood 2010, p. 6.
5
Kraiem 2003, pp. 16-17
6
Hechmi 1989.
7
MEHAT website 2011.
8
SPROLS Website 2011.
9
Lereflex-immobilier Website 2011.
34
CHAPTER FOUR
04
HOUSING NEEDS AND DEMAND
In this chapter an attempt is made to establish the and others in the income distribution. This will lead
scale and nature of national housing needs and to a discussion of current coverage, identifying which
demand. Here national “housing needs” is defined groups are excluded from finance systems and thus
as the absolute physical shortfall or gap between which must rely on savings and other own-sources.
the number of suitable housing units in the country
at any particular time and the number of suitable
housing units needed to adequately house the 4.1 GROSS HOUSING NEEDS
whole population. Thus gross housing needs are Current household formation estimates, urban
based on demographic parameters and on existing and rural
housing stock shortfalls, projected and compared to
A thematic report prepared by OURGT gives a
government estimates.
good analysis of the number of households and their
In this chapter housing demand is defined as the evolution in Tunisia, based on the 1994 and 2004
national demand for available housing units that Census results. Over this period the total number of
are financially affordable to those seeking housing. households grew from 1.70 million in 1994 to 2.19
Thus this is effective demand within existing housing million in 2004. Details of this evolution are given in
markets, including the markets for State produced Table 4.1.
housing. The starting point in affordability analysis
is household income distribution by deciles, assumed This table shows that the number of households in
household ability-to-pay for housing, and assumed the urban milieu is increasing rapidly, at 3.1 per
access to certain financing schemes (described in cent per year, and even faster in Grand Tunis, at 3.4
detail in Chapter 7). This allows a rough assessment of per cent annually. Given that over the same period
effective housing demand for the median household the Tunisian population was only increasing at an
Table 4.1: Evolution of the Number of Households in Tunisia 1994-2004
Tunis City Grand Tunis All Tunisia

Urban households 195,557 357,457 1,093,205
Rural households 0 25,669 611,558
1994
Total households 195,557 383,126 1,704,763
Urban households 244,018 498,124 1,488,656
Rural households 0 35,872 697,183
2004
Total households 244,018 533,996 2,185,839
Urban households 2.2% 3.4% 3.1%

Annual increase Rural households 0% 3.4% 1.3%
between 1994 and 2004
Total households 2.2% 3.4% 2.5%
Source: AUGT 2008(1).
HOUSING NEEDS AND DEMAND 35


Table 4.2: Estimated Number of Households and Additional Households, Urban and Rural, for Selected Years
Year Estimated Estimated Estimated Estimated Estimated Estimated

no. of urban additional no. of rural additional no. of total additional
households urban households rural households total
households households households
2009 1,727.4 53.5 756.5 9.8 2,470.0 63.3
2012 1,893.1 58.7 786.4 10.2 2,679.5 68.9
2015 2,074.7 64.3 817.5 10.6 2,892.1 74.9
2018 2,273.6 70.5 849.8 11.0 3,123.4 81.5
estimated 1.2 per cent per year (urban at 1.83 per cent Should it be assumed that all newly formed households
and rural at 0.17 per cent), it is clear that Tunisian will require new housing units? Even though in
households are forming at a more rapid rate than the Tunisia the trend is towards smaller, nuclear families,
general population increase. This is due, as discussed at least a small portion of newly forming households
above in Chapter 1, to a general trend towards smaller will be accommodated in existing housing units,
families combined with a high concentration of men particularly in “traditional house” type of housing.
and women of marriageable age (which is a result Here it is assumed that 10 per cent of new households
of former high population growth in the 1970s and in urban areas will be so accommodated as well as
1980s). 20 per cent of new households in rural areas. Under
these assumptions, the future annual need for new
The total estimated population of Tunisia in 2009 was housing units for additional families can be calculated
10.33 million and the total number of households as shown in Table 4.4.
2.47 million (the urban population in 2009 was
estimated at 6.92 million). The observed increase In addition to this housing need, it must be assumed
of the total number of households in the 1994- that some dilapidated, sub-standard, and overcrowded
housing units in the existing housing stock are in
2004 period was 2.5 per cent per year (3.1 per cent
need of replacement (mainly due to the extreme age
per year for urban households and 1.3 per cent per
of units, their small size, and their deterioration).
year for rural households). It is assumed that these
Commonly in country housing analysis this need is
rates of increase in the number of households are estimated at between 1 to 2 per cent of the housing
continuing. This means that in 2009 it is estimated stock per year. Because of the relative young age of
that 53,549 urban households and 9,835 additional most of the housing stock in Tunisia, we have selected
rural households were added.1 a 1 per cent replacement rate, which would yield total
Assuming the same rate of household formation needs for replacement as shown in Table 4.5.
continues into the future, it is possible to project the Using the figures derived from tables 4.3 and 4.4
new annual household formation as shown in Table it is possible to estimate total annual housing unit
4.2. Such figures seem reasonable, given that in all needs. However, first a question must be asked:
Tunisia marriage rates have been averaging at some Are there vacant units in the existing housing stock
76,000 marriages annually, as shown in Table 4.3. which could be used either to accommodate newly

Table 4.3: Registered Marriages and Divorces for All Tunisia, 2004-2008
Year Number of Marriages Number of Divorces

2004 68,976 10,062
2005 73,971 11,576
2006 81,340 11,711
2007 76,809 12,557
2008 78,748 12,035
Source: Institut National des Statistiques, Annuaire Statistique de la Tunisie, 2008, pp 47 and 51.
36
CHAPTER FOUR
Table 4.4: Estimated New Housing Units Needed to Accommodate Newly Forming Families for Selected Years
Year Estimated additional urban Estimated additional rural Estimated additional total
housing units needed housing units needed housing units needed
2009 48.2 7.8 56.0
2012 52.8 8.2 61.0
2015 57.9 8.4 66.3
2018 63.5 8.8 72.3
forming families or for replacement? According to • 53,000 units to replace deteriorated units
the INS, in 2010 there were 2.50 million housing
units for 2.19 million families in Tunisia, implying • 17,000 units to be rehabilitated in popular
a surplus of 310,000 units or 14.4 per cent of quarters
the total.2 However, some of these units were for In fact, over the 2002-2006 new housing units were
secondary homes, as described in Chapter 5, and, in created nationwide, at a rate of 51,000 units per year,
any event, any housing stock will exhibit a certain a shortfall of about 6 per cent compared to production
amount of vacancies due to market imperfections targets.
and market speculation. Considering these factors,
for this analysis it is assumed that none of the vacant In the 11th Plan (2007-2011) it is estimated that there
housing units in Tunisia can be use to meet housing is a need for 300,320 new housing units (or 60,060
unit needs. Thus the estimated total housing needs in per year), of which:
Tunisia can be calculated for selected years as shown
in Table 4.6. • 260,000 units to meet the need for newly forming
families (or 52,000 per year)
Comparisons with government housing needs
• 10,000 units to overcome current overcrowding
figures3
in existing units (or 2,000 per year)
In the 10th Plan (2002-2006) the aim was to produce
272,000 new housing units at a rhythm of 54,400 • 30,000 units to replace deteriorated units in the
units per year. These were to be distributed as follows: existing housing stock (or 6,000 per year)
• 202,000 units to meet the need for newly As can be seen by comparing these figures with those
forming families in Tables 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 that 2007-2011 Plan
Table 4.5: Estimated need for replacement of the housing stock for selected years
Year Estimated urban housing Estimated rural housing Estimated total housing
units needing replacement units needing replacement units needing replacement
2009 20,600 8,100 28,700
2012 22,900 8,300 31,200
2015 25,400 8,550 33,950
2018 28,300 8,750 37,050
Table 4.6: Estimated Total Housing Units Needed in Tunisia Each Year for Selected Years
Year Estimated total urban Estimated total rural Estimated housing units
housing units needed housing units needed needed for all Tunisia
2009 68,800 15,900 84,700
2012 75,700 16,500 92,200
2015 83,300 16,950 100,200
2018 91,800 17,550 109,350


Table: 4.7: Derivation of Estimated 2010 Urban Household Expenditures by Income Decile (in Tunisian Dinars)
Decile INS 2005 INS 2005 INS 2005 Estimated 2010 Estimated 2010
annual monthly monthly total monthly urban monthly
per capita per capita household household household
expenditures expenditures expenditures expenditures expenditures
First 416.2 34.7 156.4 211.2 241.4
Second 651.5 54.3 244.9 330.6 377.8
Third 843.4 70.3 317.0 427.9 489.1
Fourth 1,025.7 85.5 385.5 520.4 594.8
Fifth 1,216.9 101.4 457.4 617.4 705.7
Sixth 1,454.3 121.2 546.6 737.9 843.4
Seventh 1,721.7 143.5 647.1 873.5 998.5
Eighth 2,134.4 177.9 802.2 1,082.9 1,237.8
Ninth 2,852.8 237.7 1,072.2 1,447.4 1,654.4
Tenth 5,887.7 490.6 2,212.8 2,987.3 3,414.5
National Average 1,820.6 151.7 684.2 923.7 1,055.8
estimates for newly forming families at 52,000 units 4.2 CURRENT HOUSING DEMAND AND
per year is very close to that calculated here (56,000 AFFORDABILITY
in 2009). However, the 2007-2011 Plan estimates
for replacement needs, at 8,000 units per year, is Household income (expenditure) distribution and
much smaller than replacement needs calculated here household size
(28,000 in 2009, using conservative estimates). It is The latest data on household income distribution
difficult to resolve this discrepancy. can be inferred from the INS Survey of Household
Expenditures and Consumption, a large representative
Conclusion on housing needs sample survey carried out over a year in 2005.4 Overall
The calculations made here concerning gross housing national average expenditures were TD 8,211 per
unit needs involved a number of assumptions and thus household per year or TD 1,820 per capita average
may be questioned. But even if different assumptions expenditures per year. Urban averages per year were
are used (e.g. that the replacement rate is less than 1 TD 9,367 per household and TD 2,171 per capita.
per cent of the existing housing stock annually), it is Rural averages per year were TD 5,728 per household
clear that government calculations somewhat under- and TD 1,161 per capita.5
estimate needs. And these under-estimates become
more acute as projections into the future are made. The INS Survey of 2005 also gives average total per
capita annual expenditures for each decile of the
national population, as shown in Table 4.7. Note
that the INS Survey does not break down decile
IT IS CLEAR THAT GOVERNMENT expenditures by urban and rural. Also, only per capita
CALCULATIONS SOMEWHAT expenditures were given, not household expenditures.
UNDER-ESTIMATE GROSS To reach urban household expenditures in 2010 the
following were assumed:
HOUSING NEEDS. AND THESE
• The total expenditures per household decile in
UNDER-ESTIMATES BECOME 2005 are expanded by 6.5 per cent per year to
MORE ACUTE AS PROJECTIONS reach year 2010 (the observed rate of increase in
average household expenditures over the 2000-
INTO THE FUTURE ARE MADE. 2005 period).
• The national household size of 4.51 at the time of
the 2005 INS Survey is applied to all per capita
expenditure deciles.
38
CHAPTER FOUR
• The household expenditures in each decile are 57,945 at a size of 134 m2, or TD 432 per m2. Also,
inflated by 9,367/8,211 (the average household in 2010 the average price for an apartment was TD
expenditures in urban areas versus the national 47,000 and TD 39,000 for a small house.7
average) to arrive at an approximation of urban
household expenditure distribution. To be conservative, it is best to postulate three
different basic housing types to be used in the
Note that these are household expenditures, not affordability analysis, as follows:
incomes. The difference is household savings, which
in most similar countries is negative or zero in the Type One: 90 m2 unit costing TD 61,600 (2010
lower income deciles including the median. Thus prices) including land (roughly as in FOPROLOS 3
for affordability analysis in these deciles household program), at a rate of TD 733/m2.
expenditures are assumed to equal household income.
Type Two: 65 m2 unit costing TD 36,400 (2010
Also note that household expenditures (as a proxy for prices) including land (roughly as in FOPROLOS 1
incomes) derived from the INS 2005 Survey include housing program), at a rate of TD 560/m2.
all sources of income, including salaried, secondary,
Type Three: 75 m2 unit costing TD 22,500 (2010
self-employed, and real and imputed returns on
prices) including land, built progressively by owner-
capital. Thus these urban household expenditure
builders on peri-urban land, at a rate of TD 300/m2
(income) levels by decile are optimistic and may
exaggerate the ability to pay for housing. It should be pointed out that housing prices are
increasing rapidly in Tunisia, with increases in the
Housing costs and rental values country averaging 8 per cent per year according to
What does a modest housing unit currently cost in Tunisia Today, and even at higher rates in the Tunis
Tunisia? Although general information about average region.8 In addition, most urban areas of Tunisia
housing prices is available, it is much more difficult are experiencing very high increases in market prices
to arrive at a reasonable cost for small, modest units for land. Thus the price of these housing units
at the lower end of the housing market, and there constructed here can be considered very conservative.
is no information about housing costs for informal
auto-constuction. For example, under government For rental housing, there is some data on rents
FOPROLOS programs the cost per square meter collected by the MEHAT’s Housing Observatory for
ranged from TD 350 to TD 733, including land. 2010. In Tunis, housing unit rents are said to range
Recent reports state that in the lower end of the from TD 288 to TD 4,490 per month. The lowest
urban housing market, for which there is considerable rents are found in Ben Arous district, ranging from
unmet demand, housing prices range from Euro 159 TD 190 to TD 1,250 per month. Presumably rents
to 425 (TD 318 to TD 850) per m2 including land.6 in other low-income areas outside the Tunis region
According to the MEHAT’s Housing Observatory, are less, say in the TD 110 to 160 per month range.9
in 2010 the average price of a housing unit was TD
Table 4.8: Estimated Price-to-Income Ratios for Three Housing Types, by Income Decile (Urban Tunisia)
Urban Income Decile Per capita Income Household Income Type One Type Two Type Three
per year (TD) per year (TD) units units units
First 416.2 1,877.1 32.8 19.4 12.0
Second 651.5 2,938.3 21.0 12.4 7.7
Third 843.4 3,803.7 16.2 9.6 5.9
Fourth 1,025.7 4,625.9 13.3 7.9 4.9
Fifth 1,216.9 5,488.2 11.2 6.6 4.1
Sixth 1,454.3 6,558.9 9.4 5.5 3.4
Seventh 1,721.7 7,764.9 7.9 4.7 2.9
Eighth 2,134.4 9,626.1 6.4 3.8 2.3
Ninth 2,852.8 12,866.1 4.8 2.8 1.7
Tenth 5,887.7 26,553.5 2.3 1.4 0.8
National Average 1,820.6 8,210.9 7.5 4.4 2.7


Table 4.9: Percentage of Monthly Household Income Required to Pay Modest Monthly Rents by Decile
Decile Urban Household Monthly Monthly Rent at TD Monthly Rent at TD 160

Income in 2010 110
First 241.4 45.6% 66.3%
Second 377.8 29.1% 42.3%
Third 489.1 22.5% 32.7%
Fourth 594.8 18.5% 26.9%
Fifth 705.7 15.6% 22.7%
Sixth 843.4 13% 19%
Seventh 998.5 11% 16%
Eighth 1,237.8 8.9% 12.9%
Ninth 1,654.4 6.6% 9.7%
Tenth 3,414.5 3.2% 4.7%
National Average 1,055.8 10.4% 15.2%
Household price-to-income ratios for house Housing affordability for house purchase under
purchase different housing finance programs
Income-to-price ratios only give a rough idea of
Using the housing types derived above, it is possible
ability to pay for new housing. For more precise
to calculate income-to-price ratios for home purchase
calculations of what housing implies in terms
as shown in Table 4.8.
of monthly income, it is first necessary to make
As can be seen, price-to-income ratios are very high assumptions of what percentage of monthly income
for the lower household income deciles for all three can be devoted to housing, either in rents or in loan
types of housing. In other countries similar to Tunisia instalment payments. For this analysis, 25 per cent
a ratio of 5 is considered reasonable.10 On this basis, of income devoted to housing is assumed the base
only for the very modest “informal” Type Three units case, a percentage that is quite common in country
are price-to-income ratios at or below 5 for the Fourth housing affordability analysis. This is then varied to
Decile (i.e. encompassing some 60 per cent of urban 15 per cent and 35 per cent of income, as shown in
households). For Type Two units this ratio is reached Table 4.10.
only for the Seventh Decile, and for Type Three units
Although it may be reasonable to expect that most
this ratio is reached only for the Ninth Decile. Under
households can mobilize 25 per cent or more of
these assumptions even Type Three units are beyond
monthly incomes to pay for housing, it should be
the theoretic means of almost 40 per cent of Tunisian
remembered that households face other recurrent
households.
costs associated with housing (such as water and
Affordability of rental housing power consumption as well as maintenance). Also, for
For rental housing, it is possible to estimate the lowest household income deciles such basics as
affordability by urban expenditure (income) decile, food and clothing consume a large portion of income,
as shown in Table 4.8. Two low monthly rental and thus these families may struggle to mobilize even
levels are posited, TD 110 per unit and TD 160 per 25 per cent of income.
unit, as discussed above. It is assumed that an urban Secondly, it is necessary to consider what might be the
household can devote 25 per cent of monthly income financing systems/mortgages that would be available
on housing rents. Table 4.9 shows that the lower rent to each household expenditure (income) level. This
is quite affordable, reaching down to the Third Decile means determining the interest rate of the mortgage,
of the urban income distribution, meaning that only the term of the loan, and the required down payment.
roughly 20 per cent of households cannot afford such In Tunisia, the benchmark annual interest rate set by
rents. The higher rent level is affordable down to the the Central Bank is currently 4.5 per cent, changed
Fifth Decile, meaning that 50 per cent of households down from 5.25 per cent in January 2009 (Tunisia has
cannot afford such rents, even though these rents are no prime bank rate or free capital market, rather the
still quite modest. cost of capital is managed by decrees of the Central
40
CHAPTER FOUR
Table 4.10: Estimates of Amount of Urban Household Monthly Income Available for Housing Payments
Decile Urban Household At 15% of Income At 25% of Income At 35% of Income

Monthly Income 2010 (in TD) (in TD) (in TD)
First 241.4 36.2 60.3 84.5
Second 377.8 56.7 94.5 132.2
Third 489.1 73.4 122.3 171.2
Fourth 594.8 89.2 148.7 208.2
Fifth 705.7 105.9 176.4 247.0
Sixth 843.4 126.5 210.8 295.2
Seventh 998.5 149.8 249.6 349.5
Eighth 1,237.8 185.7 309.5 433.2
Ninth 1,654.4 248.2 413.6 579.0
Tenth 3,414.5 512.2 853.6 1,195.1
National Average 1,055.8 158.4 264.0 369.5
Bank). Currently the best return on deposits is 4.15 Housing Unit Type One is only affordable, at 25 per
to 4.25 per cent, and the loan rate for mortgages cent of income, down to the Ninth Decile, meaning
under some Banque de l’Habitat programs varies from that 80 per cent of urban households cannot afford
3.5 per cent (for FOPROLOS 1) to 5.75 per cent this unit. Even if it is assumed that the household
(for FOPROLOS 3) to 7 per cent (for New HB 1 to can mobilize 35 per cent of income for housing
3). Obviously these lower rates imply heavy subsidies payments, this unit is only affordable down to the
compared to the cost of capital. It is prudent to select Eighth Decile, meaning that under this assumption
a rate which has no subsidy element, and for this 70 per cent of urban households cannot afford the
reason the analysis here will employ 7 per cent as a unit.
reasonable annual interest rate, one which allows a
2.5 per cent spread for administrative costs, risk, and Housing Unit Type Two is only affordable, at 25 per
overheads. The term for the mortgage finance will be cent of income, down to the Seventh Decile, meaning
taken at 20 years and the down payment at 15 per that 60 per cent of urban households cannot afford
cent of house cost, following the most common of this unit. Even if it is assumed that the household can
BH programs.11 mobilize 35 per cent of income for housing payments,
this unit is only affordable down to the Fifth Decile,
Under these assumptions, the monthly loan meaning that under this assumption 40 per cent of
instalment payment can be calculated for each of the urban households cannot afford the unit.
three types of housing unit, as shown in Table 4.11.
Housing Unit Type Three is affordable, at 25 per
By comparing these results with the amount of cent of income, down to the Fourth Decile, meaning
monthly urban household income available for that only 30 per cent of urban households cannot
housing payments by decile derived in Table 4.10 afford this unit. Assuming that the household can
above, it is possible to make the following conclusions: mobilize 35 per cent of income for housing payments,
Table 4.11: Calculation of Monthly Mortgage Payments by Type of Housing Unit
Housing Type Housing Unit Down payment Total Annual Monthly

Cost (TD) @ 15% (TD) Housing Mortgage Mortgage
Loan (TD) Payment Payment
(TD)
Type One Housing Unit 61,600 9,240 52,360 TD 4,942 TD 411
Type Two Housing Unit 36,400 5,460 30,940 TD 2,920 TD 243
Type Three Housing Unit 22,500 3,375 19,125 TD 1,805 TD 150

4.3 URBAN HOUSEHOLD HOUSING

AFFORDABILITY: GENERAL
ALMOST A MAJORITY OF URBAN CONCLUSIONS
HOUSEHOLDS CANNOT AFFORD
The analysis undertaken here shows that, both in
TO PURCHASE A MODEST UNIT, terms of cost-to-price ratios and in terms of standard
EVEN ASSUMING THAT THEY housing loan programmes, urban households in the
lower income deciles will find it extremely difficult
CAN QUALIFY AND OBTAIN to afford even modest housing units. The calculations
HOUSING LOANS. AND SINCE made here involve a number of assumptions, but
even if more optimistic assumptions are used, the
MANY HOUSEHOLDS CANNOT conclusion stands that almost a majority of urban
QUALIFY FOR HOUSING households cannot afford to purchase a modest
unit, even assuming that they can qualify and obtain
LOANS…THERE ARE MANY housing loans. The only housing type that is affordable
OTHER FAMILIES THAT CANNOT to urban households under the median income is that
which is self-built in peri-urban areas and may be
EVEN BEGIN TO PURCHASE/ deemed illegal. And since many households cannot
BUILD A NEW UNIT... qualify for housing loans for various reasons, there
are many other families that cannot even begin
to purchase/build a new unit. In sum, it can be
this unit is very affordable down to the Third Decile, concluded that there is a huge housing affordability
meaning that only 20 per cent of urban households challenge in urban Tunisia, and one that, owing to
cannot afford the unit. rapidly rising housing values, is bound to get worse.
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
AUGT 2008(a), p. 4, also Institut National des Statistiques 2008, pp. 8-12.
2
3
MEHAT 2011.
4
Institut National des Statistiques 2007.
5
Ibid., p 17.
6
Oxford Business Group 2010, p. 127.
7
8
Tunisia Today 2010.
9
10
An article appearing in 2003 estimated that the housing price-to-income ratio for the median Tunisian
household was 6.3. For comparison, it also mentioned that in developing countries the housing price-to-
income ratio averaged 7.8, whereas for developed countries the ratio averaged 3.9. See Management &
Nouvelles Technologies – Magazine Online, 2003.
11
Tradingeconomics website 2011.
42
CHAPTER FOUR
05
CURRENT HOUSING STOCK
This chapter summarizes the current housing stock’s

size, urban/rural and geographic breakdown, main
typologies, physical conditions, occupancy and size …IN URBAN AREAS THE ARAB/
conditions. Also summarized are the forms of tenure COURTYARD HOUSE IS EQUALLY
governing the housing stock. This is followed with
a description of the main housing typologies, who
POPULAR AS THE VILLA,
produces them, and their geographic predominance. AND THAT TOGETHER THEY
In this discussion the temporal aspect of the housing ACCOUNT FOR 90 PER CENT
stock is included, i.e. its growth and changing
composition over time. As far as possible, data on OF URBAN HOUSING UNITS.
housing costs are included. SURPRISINGLY, APARTMENTS
UNITS MAKE UP ONLY 10 PER
5.1 HOUSING STOCK SIZE AND
GROWTH CENT OF THE URBAN HOUSING
The Census gives reasonably good statistics on the
STOCK.
housing stock. It recorded a total of 2.5 million
housing units in both urban and rural areas in 2004. recorded in the 1994-2004 period. The higher growth
The number of housing units has been increasing of the urban housing stock is confirmed in Table 5.2.
steadily since 1975, as shown in Table 5.1: The highest In 1994-2004 the urban housing stock was growing
rate of growth was in the 1984-1994 period when the at 3.6 per cent/year, more than twice the rural rate
housing stock increased by 3.6 per cent annually. of 1.7 per cent per year. By 2004 the urban housing
stock was well over twice that of the rural housing
Table 5.1 suggests that growth of the housing stock stock. Although figures are not available for later
was greater in urban areas such as Greater Tunis, years, it can be assumed that the urban housing stock
where an annual growth of 4 per cent per year was continues to grow much faster than that of rural
Table 5.1 Increases in Housing Units in Tunisia and Greater Tunis 1975-2004
Year All Tunisia Greater Tunis

Number of housing Annual rate of Number of housing Annual rate of
units increase units increase
1975 1,021 thousand 168 thousand
1984 1,313 thousand 2.8% 264 thousand 4.6%
1994 1,868 thousand 3.6% 400 thousand 4.3%
2004 2,500 thousand 3% 593 thousand 4%
Source: AUGT, 2008(c), p. 4.


Table 5.2 Rates of Growth of the Housing Stock 1994-2004 in Rural and Urban Areas
1994 2004
Urban housing units 1,211,267 1,725,979
Rural housing units 657,255 774,851
Total housing units 1,868,522 2,500,830
Rate of growth of urban units 1994/2004 3.6%
Rate of growth of rural units 1994/2004 1.7%
Rate of growth of total units 1994/2004 3.9%
Source:AUGT, 2008 (c), p. 4.
areas, and that by 2010 there were probably three almost 90 per cent of housing units found in Tunisia,
times the number of housing units found in urban included both rural and urban areas.
areas over rural areas.
The urban/rural breakdown of the housing stock by
typology in 2004, presented in Table 5.4, shows that
5.2 HOUSING TYPES in urban areas the Arab/courtyard house is equally
popular as the villa, and that together they account
The INS has developed a typology of housing for
Tunisia, as follows: for 90 per cent of urban housing units. Surprisingly,
apartments units make up only 10 per cent of the
• Arab house or courtyard house (Maison Arabe or urban housing stock. For the rural housing stock, it is
Houch) also called the “patio” house almost completely dominated by the Arab/courtyard
house.
• Villa or floor of villa (Villa ou Etage de Villa)
The relative growth in housing typology numbers is
• Studio unit or small unit attached to a villa given in Table 5.5 over the period 1994-2004. It is
(Studio or Issue d’une Villa) obvious that in both all Tunisia and in Greater Tunis
• Apartment (Appartement) (which can be used as a rough proxy for urban Tunisia)
most growth has been in the villa typology. For the
• Crude or precarious unit (Rudimentaire) country as a whole villa-type units were produced at
a rhythm of over 40,000 units per year, by far the
• Undeclared (Non-déclaré)
highest additions to the housing stock nationwide.
In 2004 the distribution of the housing stock Apartment units were also popular, growing at 5.5
according to this typology is shown in Table 5.3. The per cent per year, but from a much lower base (at
Arab or courtyard house predominates at just over 7,700 units per year). Arab/courtyard houses grew at
half the housing stock, followed by villas or floors a very reduced rate of 0.9 per cent, but in numeric
of villas. Together these two typologies represent terms their growth was still substantial, at a rhythm

Table 5.3: Distribution of the housing stock by typology for all Tunisia 2004
Housing typology Number of Housing Units Percentage of Total Housing

Stock
Arab house or courtyard house 1,286,850 51.5%
Villa or floor of villa 927,132 37.1%
Studio unit or small unit attached to a villa 48,401 1.9%
Apartment 186,209 7.4%
Crude or precarious unit 20,899 0.8%
Undeclared 11,515 0.5%
Total 2,500,830 100 %
Source: AUGT 2008(c) p 14.
44
CHAPTER Five
Table 5.4 Distribution of urban and rural housing units by typology in 2004
Housing typology Urban Areas Rural Areas Total Tunisia

Arab house, courtyard house, or 42.3% 80.9% 54.3%
“bourj-studio”
Villa or floor of villa 47.2% 17.7% 38%
Apartment 10% 0.1% 6.9%
Crude or precarious 0.6% 1.3% 0.8%
Total* 100% 100% 100%
* “Non-declared” and typology not included in totals
Table 5.5 Increase of housing units by typology 1994 – 2004, Tunisia and Greater Tunis
Housing typology All Tunisia annual percentage increase Greater Tunis annual percentage
of units 1994-2004 increase of units 1994-2004
Arab house or courtyard house 0.9% 1.2%
Villa or floor of villa 6.1% 5.3%
Apartment 5.5% 5.7%
Other* 3.5% 9.8%
Undeclared 2.3% 2.4%
Total 3% 4%
* Combines typologies “crude or precarious unit” and “studio unit” or “small unit attached to a villa”
of over 11,000 per year, greater than the growth of 5.3 HOUSING UNIT SIZES
apartments. It is interesting to note that in Greater
Tunis the Arab/courtyard housing type grew at 1.2 The Census presents housing unit sizes in terms of the
per cent, higher than the national average, adding number of livable rooms. Normally this means that
over 2,000 such units annually to the housing stock all rooms in a unit are counted as livable except those
of Greater Tunis. Evidently the Arab/courtyard house used for kitchen, bath, circulation and storage.
is still popular even in urban areas.
Figure 5.1 Tunis City private “villa type” neighborhood Figure 5.2 Example of rural housing, outside Sidi Bu Said
CURRENT HOUSING STOCK 45


Table 5.6 Distribution of housing units by size, 1994 and 2004
Greater Tunis All Tunisia

1994 2004 1994 2004
One Room 7% 3.5% 14.0% 6.9%
Two Rooms 23% 21.7% 29.5% 26.6%
Three Rooms 36% 40.1% 30.4% 37%
Four Rooms 22% 24.3% 17.7% 21%
Five Rooms 12% 10.4% 8.4% 8.5%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%
In 2004, for the whole country the average unit size 5.4 OCCUPANCY OF HOUSING UNITS
was 2.98 livable rooms. This normally means a unit
of two bedrooms plus living room. This average was The Census classifies housing units as either being
only slightly higher for Greater Tunis at 3.16 livable occupied, used as a second home, or vacant. Table
rooms. For the country as a whole the average size 5.7 shows the distribution of housing units according
has been increasing significantly over time, from to these three categories for urban and rural areas in
2.24 rooms in 1984, to 2.77 rooms in 1994, to 2.98 2004. To give an idea of trends, for the country as a
in 2004. Similar increases in average unit size are whole the rate of increase of non-occupied housing
observable for Greater Tunis. units increased by 3.5 Build-Operate-Transfer
annually over the 1994-2004 period, compared to
The distribution of housing units by size in 1994 and a rate of 2.9 per cent. Similarly, in Greater Tunis
2004, shown in Table 5.6, is revealing. First, it is clear unoccupied housing increased more than occupied
that there is a consistent improvement in housing housing, at 4.2 per cent per year versus 4 per cent
units as expressed by size. In both all Tunisia as well per year.
as Greater Tunis the percentage of one room units
was reduced by half. The percentage of two room The relatively high rate of vacant units in Tunisia, and
units (small units, normally one bed plus living) also the trend for the number of vacant units to increase
decreased. On the other hand, larger units of three at rates higher than that of occupied housing, is
and four livable rooms increased their percentages probably an indicator of considerable speculation in
significantly both in Greater Tunis and in the country the housing market, with owners preferring to hold
as a whole. The percentage of five room units also their units off the market (see also Chapter 10).
increased in the country, but these largest units lost
ground in Greater Tunis, probably because of higher 5.5 TENURE OF HOUSING UNITS
land and housing prices.
The Census of Tunisia has three categories of tenure:
Census figures do not include estimates of housing owned, rented, and shared. Home ownership is very
stock size expressed in terms of usable surface area. dominant in Tunisia. In 1994 over 70 per cent of
Tunisian families owned the housing they lived in. By
2009 this portion had risen to 2.29 million households,

Table 5.7 Distribution of housing units by occupancy status in 2004
Occupied Units Secondary Units Vacant Units Total Units

Urban areas 83.7% 5.3% 11% 100%
Rural areas 86.7% 4.3% 9% 100%
Total Tunisia 84.6% 5% 10.4% 100%
46
CHAPTER Five
above, some 6.9 per cent of units in 2004 had only

one livable room. However, the proportion of these
IN 1994 OVER 70 PER CENT OF units to the total housing stock has been decreasing.
TUNISIAN FAMILIES OWNED THE
In terms of water, power, and sanitation services
HOUSING THEY LIVED IN. BY coverage, housing in Tunisia scores extremely high,
2009 THIS PORTION HAD RISEN with near universal coverage in urban areas, as
discussed in Chapter 8.
TO 2.29 MILLION HOUSEHOLDS,
OR 79.2 PER CENT OF ALL 5.7 AVERAGE HOUSING AND HOUSING
HOUSEHOLDS. THE PERCENTAGE LAND PRICES
OF HOUSEHOLDS RENTING Data on housing costs in Tunisia is sparse, and
THEIR ACCOMMODATION depends on what market segment and what locale
one is investigating. One report states that in 2010
WAS 16.3 PER CENT IN 2004, the average price of a housing unit of 135 m2 was
DROPPING TO AN ESTIMATED 15 TD 57,950, or TD 429 per m2 (it is not clear if land
costs are included).4 Government-financed housing
PER CENT IN 2009. under the FOPROLOS programs are currently priced
at between TD 660 to TD 810 per square meter
including land.5
or 79.2 per cent of all households. The percentage of
households renting their accommodation was 16.3 Whatever the accurate figures for housing unit prices
per cent in 2004, dropping to an estimated 15 per on the market are, it is clear that these prices have
cent in 2009. Families sharing the same housing unit been increasing rapidly, partly due to input inflation
decreased from 6.1 per cent in 2004 to 5 per cent (especially for urban land and building materials) but
in 2009.1 However, the number of families sharing also due to speculation in the real estate market itself.
housing units in urban areas was estimated at 12 per For example, it is reported that the average price of
cent of all families.2 a single-family house increased from TD 23,845
in 2006 to TD 39,000 in 2010, with an increase
It is national government policy since 1988 that of over 60 per cent in four years or 13 per cent per
at least 80 per cent of all families should own their year. Average apartment unit prices were even higher,
dwellings. This goal appears to have been achieved. increasing from TD 32,710 in 2006 to TD 47,027
in 2010, with an increase of 44 per cent in four
5.6 HOUSING CONDITIONS AND years. Overall, it is said that housing prices have been
ESTIMATES OF PRECARIOUS, increasing by at least 8 per cent per year since the
DETERIORATED, OR OTHER early 1990s.6
MARGINAL HOUSING As one moves up the housing market, anecdotal
The Census has one category of housing unit, information on housing prices is more accessible. For
“rudimentary,” which includes substandard, example, one magazine article mentions that average
precarious, and deteriorated units. It is reported prices in 2010 for high-standing housing in Carthage
that the number of such units nationally has fallen averaged between TD 2,500 to TD 3,000 per m2
dramatically, from 44 per cent of the housing stock and TD 1450 to TD 3,000 in Berges du Lac. In
in 1996, to 8.8 per cent in 1984, to a miniscule Hammamet and Sousse similar property prices were
0.9 per cent in 2009 (representing only 8,660 units between TD 1,200 and 2,500 per m2, and in Sfax
nationally).3 they reached TD 800 per m2.7
Tunisian housing authorities are justifiably proud Data on housing land costs are extremely hard to come
of these statistics, and the precipitous drop in by and of course depend greatly on the specific locale,
rudimentary housing units is mainly due to the the level of services, and the permissible exploitation
government’s very active programs of urban upgrading (FAR). Land in Greater Tunis developable for
and associated housing rehabilitation starting in the housing purposes is said to average TD 665 per m2,
late 1970s and continuing up today (see Chapter 2). but variations are great. In one low-income area
(Sidi Hussain) the price starts at TD 167. In Nabeul
Tunisia may have almost eliminated rudimentary the average price is TD 242 per m2, and the lowest
housing, but some units remain very small. As shown starting price is TD 125 in Al-Hawareiah District.8

5.8 HOUSING TYPOLOGIES DESCRIBED

The statistics given in the above sections give a fair
idea of Tunisia’s housing stock, but they do not give
a tangible idea of the types of buildings in which
Tunisians live. In this section an attempt is made to
describe the physical and architectural characteristics
of the main housing typologies.
The Arab, courtyard or Houch house type is, as its
name implies, built around a central court which
normally provides light and ventilation to the whole
dwelling and also provides circulation. In traditional
urban areas this house would normally be built over
one or two floors, although higher structures were
possible, as shown in Figure 5.3.
In traditional town centers the Arab/courtyard house
imparts a unique urban fabric, as can be seen from
Figure 5.4. and Figure 5.5. But even in informal
quarters started in the 1970s and 1980s one can see
the popularity of the Arab/courtyard house, as shown
in Figures 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, and 5.10.
Figure 5.3 Old multi-story courtyard house in El Hajja Quarter, Tunis. Villa housing is now the fastest growing type of
Source: Miramar Magazine (1984) housing in Tunisia. It can be both formal and informal
and usually found on fringe and peri-urban locations.
Of course land prices in more desirable areas are Formal villa housing has lot sizes that normally vary
much higher. For example, square meter land prices from 300 to 900 m2, although in peri-urban locations
for serviced residential land in the better quarters lot sizes can be much bigger. Heights are generally
of Tunis can easily fetch TD 1,300, TD 800 in La two to four floors, with some villas having housing
Manouba, and TD 500 in Sfax. units on each floor. Examples of various types of villa
development can be seen in Figures 5.11, 5.12, 5.16,
There is no information readily available for the
5.18, and 5.19.
prices of informal housing units exchanged through
informal markets, nor for the prices of land being Apartment housing units can be found in older
exchanged for informal building purposes. areas of towns as well as in fringe subdivisions.
Figure 5.4 Courtyard house urban fabric, Baja old town Figure 5.5 Sfax inner city courtyard housing
Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, , accessed 30 March 2011. Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011.
48
CHAPTER Five
Figure 5.6 Cité El Zohour informal house neighbourhood Figure 5.7 Informal neighbourhood mainly of one-story Arab/
Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa traditional housing on fringe of Manuba.
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011. Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011.
Figure 5.8 Recent informal fringe housing subdivision in Hay el igure 5.9 Fouchana rehabilitated informal area, south of El Arous
Rafaha, west of Tunis Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa
Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011.
Figure 5.10 Sayeda Al Manoubia older informal area of single Figure 5.11 Up-scale villa housing development, peri-urban Nabeul
story houses in process of densification Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa

Figure 5.12 Lower class villa development in peri-urban area of Figure 5.13 Baja, new area zoned for 4-6 story apartment
Manzel Tamim, Cap Bon buildings
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011. Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011.
Figure 5.14 Social housing project: apartment buildings and single Figure 5.15 Oued El Leil, low-rise duplex social housing
story row housing Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa
Apartment buildings are usually from four to nine

floors with two to four units per floor. They may be
built by private developers, both those operating on a
small-scale (one or two apartment blocks at a time) or
those undertaking huge real estate projects, for which
apartment units are an integral part. Apartment blocks
are also built by State enterprises. Currently the main
government producers, SNIT and SPROLS, both
concentrate almost exclusively on housing estates
composed mainly of apartment blocks. Examples of
apartment areas are shown in Figures 5.13 and 5.20.
Figure 5.16 West Ariana new villa subdivision, average lot size
600m2
Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa
50
CHAPTER Five
Figure 5.17 Sfax, new row house and duplex social housing Figure 5.18 Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl at Sakiet ed Dieir
Figure 5.19 Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl Figure 5.20 Sfax apartment buildings
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
2
Magazine on Line, 2003, p.3.
3
El-Sheikh 2010, pp. 11 and 13.
4
Ibid., p. 17.
5
Ibid., p. 17.
6
Khefifi 2010.
7
Ibid.
8

06
URBAN LAND SUPPLY
In this chapter we examine how land for housing is les terrains non bâtis) is levied by local (municipal)
created and used. The official land administration authorities. The rate is either 0.3 per cent of the
registration system is covered, including the cadastre, real land value or is based on a progressive tariff
charges for development, security of tenure, and the according to the urban zone in which it is located. It
key players in the land sector. Government policies is understood that this tax applies only to lands for
towards urban and rural land are also investigated. which there is an approved local urban plan.1 Once
Finally, this report will look at the processes of vacant land is developed, it and the associated real
informal conversion of rural land for housing property are taxed under the property tax regime,
purposes in peri-urban areas. described in Chapter 10 on housing markets.
Such a tax on vacant developable urban land is a
6.1 URBAN LAND ADMINISTRATION, rarity in countries of the MENA region. Although
POLICIES, LEGAL FRAMEWORK, the actual tax rate is very low, it should have some
AND TAXATION affect dampening speculation of vacant urban land,
at least discouraging the “freezing” of land parcels
Traditionally, lots of agricultural land and urban for years and years in hope of a purely speculative
property was held as collective property, either windfall gain.
through undivided inheritances or endowed land.
From the mid-nineteenth century this system has It should be mentioned that the general principles
given way to the predominance of individual land of the country’s land management strategy (Schéma
and property ownership. Today the bulk of land Directeur d’Amenagement du Territoire) were set out
useable for urban development is under private in 1997. This strategy was influenced by Agenda 21
ownership. The government remains a significant and had as an objective the effective, sustainable and
land owner, though mainly of remote State domain equitable development of Tunisia’s cities and regions
lands. Municipalities also own some lands. over a time horizon of 20 years. Also, a master plan
for Greater Tunis (Schéma Directeur d’Amenagement
Under French occupation an extensive land cadastre du Territoire du Grand Tunis), was prepared in 2007
and property registration system was set up in Tunisia and sets out development parameters until 2021.2
and remains in place today. The cadastre is operated
by the OTC (Office de la Topographie et du Cadastre,
6.2 KEY PLAYERS IN THE URBAN LAND
see below), and its Property Tribunal (le Tribunal
SECTOR
Immobilier) is where actual land registration and title
transfers take place. Property records are preserved There are a number of players in the urban land
at the Directorate of Conservation of Real Property sector. The following is a list of those with the most
(DCPF, La Direction de la Conservation de la Propriété important roles. However, it must be noted that
Foncière) of the Ministry of Justice. urban land markets and exchange in Tunisia is mostly
an individualistic affair, with most lands bought and
Most land administration and taxation relates to sold by private individuals.
land under agricultural use in Tunisia. However,
urban land is also subject to taxation. An annual First, in terms of land use planning, urban land in
tax on vacant urban (communal) parcels (la taxe sur Tunisia is quite well planned and managed.
52
CHAPTER six
Since the 1960s the Direction Generale de l’urbanisme

(DGU) has prepared and revised hundreds of urban
development plans (PAUs) throughout the country.
As of March 2011 the DGU’s website lists 264
urban areas (communes) for which PAUs have been
prepared. Most of these have legal status, having been
approved by décret or arrêté. A few, mainly relating
to smaller municipalities, are still under preparation
or awaiting approval. These plans are prepared by the
Direction des Lotissements of DGU, either directly or
are commissioned by the DGU to Tunisian consulting
firms. In addition, the DGU, through its Direction
de la Coordination, makes efforts to ensure that these
plans are coordinated with the relevant municipalities,
with other central agencies such as AFH and ARRU, Figure 6.1 Example of a clandestine informal subdivision
and with the central infrastructure authorities. Finally, Source: L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine
the standards and norms of subdivision for different (ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al
fowdaoui » (The Tunisian Experience in Limiting Random
categories of residential areas are prepared by the Housing), power point presentation, June 2010
Direction des Lotissements of the DGU.
enterprises, influence land markets by their decisions
The responsibility for land surveying and maintaining
whether and when to serve a particular area. Finally, the
the national land cadastre lies with the Office de la
government’s considerable urban upgrading programs,
Topographie et du Cadastre (OTC), a public enterprise
led by the Agency for Urban Rehabilitation (ARRU),
which since 2010 is under the tutelage MEHAT. The
have had impacts on many towns and have restructured
OTC was founded under French colonial rule in 1886.
urban land uses (see Box 2.2 in Chapter 2).
Its current legal status was confirmed by Law 100 of
1974. Its main offices are in Tunis but it maintains
branches in Bizerte, Sfax, and Sousse. Its activities 6.3 SOURCES OF LAND FOR HOUSING:
include: CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL
• Maintain a complete topographical and geodesic
LAND
system for all of Tunisia Over the last 50 years Tunisia has seen its cities, towns,
• Undertake all technical works concerning and even villages expand several-fold over vast areas.
registration of real estate properties and the Almost all of this land had been held privately, usually
cadastre. by farmers, orchard-owners, and large landowners.
Thus the main mechanism supplying land for urban
• Define all public domain lands use, and in particular for housing, involves the
conversion of this privately-held agricultural land
• Carry out land subdivision and property surveys into serviced urban land parcels.
and works
Overseeing and guiding this conversion are the urban
The Housing Land Agency (AFH, Agence Foncière
development plans (PAUs) prepared by the DGU.
d’Habitation) was created in 1973 with the powers
The DGU, with the relevant municipality, then
to expropriate land for the public good as well as the
prepare detailed neighborhood and land subdivision
pre-emptive right to purchase urban land for housing
plans (with average plot sizes in the 250 to 600m2
purposes. AFH was created to supply land for the
range). Private land owners then are free to subdivide
construction of affordable social housing, to enter
and sell their lands according to these plans. Most
into land markets to control prices and to reduce
purchasers are individuals seeking a single plot to
land speculation, and to assist municipalities in land
build housing. However, large-lot purchases are also
management.
made by private developers seeking to create housing
In addition, municipalities are sometimes important estates, and these purchases may be on fringe areas
players in urban land markets, either as owners of that have not yet been covered by approved urban
land reserves (in rare cases) or as enforcers of building plans. Also, the AFH can also be a large-lot purchaser
control edits. Private developers are important actors in order to assemble land necessary for social housing
on the demand side of the land market. Infrastructure projects.
authorities, all of which are centralized public
URBAN LAND SUPPLY 53

of land assignments for various projects have virtually

exhausted this resource.
WITH LAND FOR URBAN
DEVELOPMENT BECOMING 6.4 LAND MARKETS, LAND VALUES,
MORE SCARCE AND, AND URBAN SPRAWL
ESPECIALLY, MORE AND MORE The sale, purchase and subdivision of land parcels is
EXPENSIVE, IT IS INEVITABLE governed through well-articulated land markets. On
the more formal, larger scale raw as well as serviced
THAT COMPETITION FOR land is exchanged with the help of real estate agents,
LAND ON THIS PERI-URBAN land development companies and land brokers.
On the more informal, smaller neighborhood scale
FRONTIER BECOMES MORE transactions are generally person-to-person, with
AND MORE ACUTE. market knowledge through word-of-mouth. However,
even in these informal markets a land broker (usually
a part-time land agent with good local contacts) may
The progressive provision of roads and utilities to play an important role.
an area completes the land conversion process. In
Tunisia it is rare that municipalities or other State In the last 10 years urban land prices have increased
authorities undertake to plan, subdivide, and service dramatically in almost all cities and towns, especially
a new neighborhood with land under multiple private in and around the major agglomerations in the
owners before any development takes place. Usually northeast and coastal belt. It is the increasing price
infrastructure development is progressive and in of buildable land that many observers percieve as the
parallel with take-up and building-out on individual main reason for rising real estate values, including
plots of land. This process may take years or even what is perceived as increasingly unaffordable housing
decades to complete. prices.4 And rising land market values attract many
investors who see land as guaranteeing the best return
Not all land for housing comes through conversion of on capital. Pure speculation on land is inevitable.
privately held agricultural land. In the past some city
expansion occurred on State domain land found on One consequence of rapidly rising land values is
town fringes. Obviously this land was highly sought urban sprawl, which has become a serious problem
after since State enterprises could acquire this land in Tunisia. Those seeking land whose price is not
at nominal cost to be used for a variety of purposes, exorbitant will look further and further away from
including the construction of social housing estates. town centres and major urban corridors. And those
However, this source of land for urban expansion has who are car mobile (according to the INS at some
almost completely dried up. Already in the 1980s the 25 per cent of households in Tunisia have use of an
most attractive of State lands had been urbanized, automobile) will not mind an eventual commute
mainly for SNIT social housing.3 Subsequent decades of an hour or so, which would put them 50 to 80
Figure 6.2 Gabes western fringe: informal subdivision and Figure 6.3 Gabes, south of Sanani al Nahal: semi-formal land
marginal land conversion subdivision
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe
54
CHAPTER six
Figure 6.4 Sfax peri-urban villa sprawl into olive orchards Figure 6.5 Kasserine east fringe: Formal land subdivision
kilometres away from their place of employment or authorities has not been perfect, and there is now a
schooling. This sprawl, much of which is unchecked policy of more concerted coordination, involving also
and illegal, has begun to challenge assumption that municipal authorities.
orderly urban growth can be implemented through
land use plans and pure police power. As mentioned in the previous section, urban sprawl
has become a worry for planners and is seen as one of
For illustrations of urban sprawl around Tunisian the most pressing challenges facing urban Tunisia. It
cities, see the satellite imagery presented in Chapter 5. makes infrastructure provision much more expensive
and compromises any attempt to implement any kind
6.5 EVOLUTION OF URBAN LAND of energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable
POLICIES AND THE ISSUE OF policies.
RESIDENTIAL DENSITIES Belatedly, planning authorities have realized that
As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Tunisian authorities Tunisian cities are not dense enough. In PAUs the
have for years recognized that there is imbalance in normative planning density for residential areas is
regional and urban development, with the north and now set at 40 families per hectare, or roughly 190
eastern coastal areas, especially the agglomerations persons per hectare. Such densities for residential
of Greater Tunis, Nabeul/Hammamet, Sfax, and areas are still extremely low. Currently discussions
Sousse, being the main drivers of urbanization and are underway to raise these normative densities, and
the economy. The government has been trying planning regulations are said to be in the process
to correct these regional imbalances through of modification so that higher building heights
regional investment plans. However, the scale and smaller plots can be allowed. For example, a
and agglomeration advantages of the increasingly residential area where G+2 was the maximum allowed
urbanized north and east are such that there is height now is being relaxed to allow G+4. It is not
little if any impact of these policies on the ground. clear how far this policy shift has advanced in local
Various commentators have observed the continuing plans and how much of an effect it will have. It is
deterioration of urban centres in the interior and the a laudable policy change, but in a sense the damage
growth of peripheral settlements around the major has already been done. After decades of planning
cities. for low residential densities, enormous and very
scattered peripheral and suburban areas surround all
At the city scale, Tunisian urban development policy Tunisian cities. These rely on mainly the private car
has been remarkably unchanged for decades, with the for mobility, which in Tunisia continues to increase
production of urban plans (PAU), now covering some rapidly in usage.
295 urban centres, as the main means to articulate
urban land policies and to guide development. In 2009 an ad hoc governmental commission
Other urban development actors, such as ARRU, convened to determine, with the support of the
AUGT, AFH, and the infrastructure agencies follow OTC, the reasons why the delivery of land titles
these plans. Coordination among these different was frequently delayed. The issue of conversion of

individual who is by far the dominant housing

producer in urban (and of course rural) Tunisia,
and the most popular type of housing is the villa
(including separate units on each floor of a villa).
Those seeking land for villas would of course prefer
a fully serviced parcel in a planned neighbourhood
with all amenities, but for most the land costs, even
for small parcels, are prohibitive. The alternative,
and one which allows the acquisition of a much
larger parcel, is to buy land informally, either
directly from a farmer or through a land assembler.
This latter case usually involves purchase of one or
more farms in their entirety and then selling off
individual building lots. Of course there may be
Figure 6.6 Medenine informal sprawl cluster on arid land no utilities and the access road may be poor, but
Source: Google Earth ©2011 Google Image, ©2011 Europa these will be upgraded over time. And car mobility
Technologies ©2011 Digital Globe, accessed 30 March 2011. means that one is not bound to a locale where all
services are within walking distance.
agricultural land into building land came up, and it
was agreed that such conversion, in order to conform • Poor families, seeking a modest affordable plot of
to stipulations of the law, was not at all straightforward. land upon which to build progressively, will also
A number of government agencies must be involved, target peri-urban areas. And it is possible to find
including specialized agencies of MEHAT and the such tiny plots of land in many areas, particularly
ministries of the environment, of agriculture, and the those in and on the immediate periphery of
National Commission for Agricultural land, in order existing villages (where services of some kind
for a specific agricultural area to be integrated or not are bound to exist). The very cheapest land will
into an existing PAU. Delays and even no decision are be inaccessible and marginal, perhaps subject to
common.5 flooding or other hazards. In some cases informal
land subdividers (lotisseurs clandestins) will buy up
a sizable area, somehow obtain at least neutrality
6.6 INFORMALITY AND TENSIONS ON from communal or village authorities, and
THE PERI-URBAN FRONTIER subdivide the land into very small plots with only
Most developable land around Tunisian cities and narrow access roads.
towns can be called peri-urban. This “peri-urban
frontier” is where agricultural land is converted to
urban use and where rural settlements grow and slowly THIS PROCESS BY MULTIPLE
metamorphose into urban neighbourhoods. With land ACTORS TO FIND SUITABLE
for urban development becoming more scarce and,
especially, more and more expensive, it is inevitable
CHEAP LAND MAKES FOR A
that competition for land on this peri-urban frontier VERY COMPETITIVE SCRAMBLE
becomes more and more acute. There are three types
of peri-urban land conversion:
FOR LAND. YEARS AND
YEARS OF GOVERNMENT
• Formal land and real estate developers seek to
assemble large tracts for projects (if not also for PROGRAMMES TO CREATE
speculative investment) and pressurize planning FORMAL ALTERNATIVES TO
authorities to expand communal boundaries and
to designate more and more land for development INFORMAL AND UNREGULATED
purposes, even though much of this land has been LAND CONVERSION ON THE
declared green belts and natural land reserves, a
prominent feature of almost all Tunisian urban
PERI-URBAN FRONTIER HAVE
plans. NOT BEEN ABLE TO STOP OR
• Middle class and well off urban families will seek EVEN APPRECIABLY SLOW THE
peri-urban land for the construction of individual PHENOMENON.
villas. As shown in Chapters 3 and 5, it is the private
56
CHAPTER six
This process by multiple actors to find suitable cheap

Box 6.1: Periurban Land Dynamics: Case land makes for a very competitive scramble for land.
of Menzel Bouzelfa, Cap Bon Years and years of government programs to create
formal alternatives to informal and unregulated
The Cap Bon peninsula, which roughly land conversion on the peri-urban frontier have
corresponds to the governorate of Nabeul, not been able to stop or even appreciably slow the
contains some 600,000 inhabitants and is one phenomenon. Although not a desirable situation, it is
hour plus by car from the capital Tunis. It is one of a fact that only on the peri-urban fringe can a lower
the most densely inhabited areas of the country,
income family (who is not lucky enough to acquire
mainly due to its high-value agriculture and
horticulture (it produces almost 15 per cent of land in one of the few government projects) ever
national agricultural production), but also because hope to secure its little plot of land and embark on
of its good network of towns and, especially the process of building and owning its own home.
since the 1980s, its seaside tourist potential. (Cap
Bon boasts 25 per cent of the hotel capacity in
Tunisia.) Demographic growth, mainly fed by
migration from other rural areas of the country,
has been a constant in Cap Bon.
Menzel Bouzelfa is a small town in Cap Bon
and is typical of similar towns in the region.
The settlement, originally a small market town
serving the agricultural hinterland, was compact
in form and centred on a traditional medina core.
Expansion started at a slow rate in the 1980s, but
recently the rate and nature of this expansion has
accelerated. Urban additions onto the town fringe
continue, but now new “clusters” of housing are
springing up on much of the agricultural land.
There is also linear sprawl along main roads.
Urban expansion now menaces the very survival
of the important agricultural sector. Speculation
in land prices is also common, and some formerly
cultivated fields are now left fallow. In addition,
most of the new housing in the area is not
served by any wastewater networks, and sewage
overflow from septic tanks poses a serious health
hazard.
Owners of agricultural lands are under pressure
to sell plots, and as the prices offered increase, so
does the pressure. Younger family members are
more ready to sell than their parents, but some
claim that they prefer to maintain their rural way
of life.
The communal (municipal) council members
are elected, and almost all of them come from
families who have been in agriculture for decades.
Thus most of them are landowners elected by
landowners, and they tend to see things from that
perspective. Thus the communal council is quick
to agitate for extensions to the urban plan (PAU),
which usually results in immediate rises in the
price of lands newly included in the urban zone.
At the same time it is reluctant to enforce the ban
on illegal construction, since much of the demand
for land is coming from informal housing builders.
(Source: Khessairi, 2009.)

SECTION ENDNOTES
1
Profiscal.Com 2011.
2
Horwood 2010 p.9.
3
Lippe 1997, p. 11.
4
Khefifi 2010.
5
OTC Website 2011
58
CHAPTER seven
07
HOUSING FINANCE
Housing finance systems are quite well developed mid-2007 it had a total property loan portfolio of TD
in Tunisia, as is the banking system in general. 1.22 billion.
This chapter examines the housing financial sector,
including its institutional, legal and regulatory Other institutions and funds that operate in the
frameworks. We concentrate on finance available housing credit sector in Tunisia include
for households, and include an assessment of • Roughly 20 private commercial banks in
accessibility to credit and targeting mechanisms. We Tunisia that have housing loan programmes for
also look at finance for housing providers, including individuals, mainly targeting middle and upper
the developers as well as State enterprises. The role income families.
of savings groups and micro-finance for low income
households are also examined. • The Housing Promotion Fund for Salaried
Persons (FOPROLOS, Fonds de Promotion des
Logements pour les Salariés) was created in 1977
7.1 THE LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL
to assist lower income groups to acquire housing.
FRAMEWORK FOR HOUSING This fund is managed by BH.
FINANCE IN TUNISIA
• The National Fund for House Improvement
Organization of both the banking sector and the and Rehabilitation (FNAH, Fond National pour
housing finance system in Tunisia dates back to l’Amélioration de l’Habitat) was established in
legislation promulgated in French colonial times. 2004 as a means to support low income families
For example, the first legislation that set up the living in urban upgrading areas. Loans are
legal nature of buildings and their ownership was disbursed for home improvement to those whose
promulgated in 1871, and included a system for salaries are below a set minimum.
mortgage loans, including pledges and repossession.1
Obviously this legislation has been modified many • The National Solidarity Fund 26-26 (Fonds
times, most recently by Law 46 of 1996. In effect, de Solidarité Nationale 26-26) was established
mortgage financing using real property as collateral in 1992 with the objective of supporting the
that can be repossessed is firmly entrenched in the poorest of the poor to attain decent living
Tunisian judiciary system as well as in society.
Institutionally, the apex actor in housing finance A HUGE NUMBER OF TUNISIAN
in Tunisia is the Housing Bank (BH, Banque de
l’Habitat) which was founded in 1989 and replaced FAMILIES SIMPLY CANNOT
the National Fund for Housing Savings (CNEL, NOW AFFORD TO MEET THE
Caisse Nationale d’Eparne Logement), a fund for
financing social housing which itself had been in
INSTALMENT PAYMENTS
existence only since 1974. BH manages the main REQUIRED BY THESE HOUSING
government housing loan programmes. It is a full
investment bank, which has a number of affiliates.
LOAN SCHEMES, AND THE
Although its core business is housing finance, it FUTURE LOOKS EVEN BLEAKER.
carries out a number of other banking activities. In
HOUSING FINANCE 59
standards, mainly through the funding of housing Even with these and other measures taken to strengthen
improvements of the very poor living in upgrading and expand the saving/loan regime for housing, it
and rehabilitation areas both in Greater Tunis and appears that it has yet to take the large role in housing
other large towns. finance envisioned. For example, the BH issued only
TD 53.7 million in savings/loan credits for housing in
2009, down from TD 66.1 million the previous year.
7.2 FINANCING TO INDIVIDUALS FOR
This may be due to the recent introduction by BH
NEW HOUSING UNIT ACQUISITION
of the AL Jadid Savings scheme, which also required
Over the years a number of schemes have been prior savings. The Al Jadid Savings scheme is described
developed to provide financing to individuals to below.
purchase or construct their own homes. These stretch
FOPROLOS
back to the 1950s, when classic highly subsidized
government housing loans were provided to low The Housing Fund for Salaried Employees
income beneficiaries. No equity contribution was (FOPROLOS, Fonds de Promotion des Logements pour
required and loans for up to 30 years bore no interest. les Salariés) was started in 1977, has gone through a
These programmes were modified in the late 1960s, number of modifications, and is managed by the BH.
and loans were made available which had terms of 20 It is a direct loan system to individuals or families.
years, annual interest at 5 per cent, and 20 per cent Curiously, loan terms and sizes are based on what the
of equity as down payment. Still later terms were government has determined as the industrial minimum
reduced to 15 years and 30 per cent down payments (monthly) wage (SMIG, salaire minimum industriel
were required. It is obvious that at that time the garanti). This base wage is currently set at TD 280 and
government was becoming more concerned at the is only rarely adjusted upward, never enough to keep
huge cost of highly subsidized schemes.2 up with consumer inflation. There are currently three
FOPROLOS loan categories and these are presented
Currently the main housing loan programmes in in Table 7.1
Tunisia for new housing unit acquisition are as follows:
The three categories of FOPROLOS aim at very low
Savings/loan regime for housing purchase income to moderate income individuals and families.
This system was started in the late 1970s by CNEL FOPROLOS 1, which is very much subsidized,
(the precursor to BH) as a means to instil a tradition is affordable down to the second decile of current
of family savings in Tunisia. Since 1989 and under the urban household income distribution and even below
BH, the government has adopted a number of efforts that. (See Chapter 4 for derivation of affordability.)
to strengthen the savings/loan system and to make it FOPROLOS 2, which is somewhat subsidized, can be
more attractive. Improvements were, for example: affordable by the fourth to the sixth decile of urban
household distribution. FOPROLOS 3 which is still
• Supplemental credit for unit acquisition allowed somewhat subsidized, is only affordable by those
equal to the amount saved whose incomes put them in the seventh decile of urban
• Interest rates for loans reduced from 8.25 per cent household distribution or above.
to 6.75 per cent (at the same time saving rates
In 2009, to make FOPROLOS loans even more
were reduced from 6.75 per cent to 5.25 per
attractive, subsidy rates have increased and annual
cent). The spread, at 1.5 per cent, remained the
interest rates have been reduced for FOPROLOS 1
same.
from 3.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent, for FOPROLOS 2
• Increase in the loan amount to 2.5 times the from 5 per cent to 4 per cent, and for FOPROLOS 3
amount saved over 5 years and 3.0 times for the from 6.75 per cent to 5.75 per cent.
amount saved over 6 years.
Al Jadid Savings
• Introducing a loan repayment grace period for The BH has recently added a range of three
some clients “supplemental” loan schemes, which are based on
prior family savings, called Al Jadid 1 Al Jadid 2, and
• Creation of a new category which, for a savings
Al Jadid 3. Conditions for these schemes are shown in
of TD 20,000, allows a base credit of TD 60,000
Table 7.1. They are all aimed at families whose incomes
plus a supplementary credit of TD 40,000.
are higher than those of the FOPROLOS schemes,
• Increasing the loan term from 13 and 20 years to and all interest rates are fixed at 7 per cent per year for
25 years. a maximum loan term of 15 years. They vary in the
number of years of prior savings (from 4 to 6 years)
60
CHAPTER seven
Table 7.1: Main Individual Housing Loan Schemes Managed by the BH
Loan Scheme FOPROLOS 1 FOPROLOS 2 FOPROLOS 3 Al Jadid Al Jadid Al Jadid

(HP1) (HP2) (HP3)
Income 1 to 2 times 2 to 3 times 3 to 4.5 times variable variable variable
SMIG SMIG SMIB
Unit Area Individual 50m2; 75m2 80-100m2 variable variable variable
Family 65m2
Nominal Cost of TD 39,000 TD 50,000 TD 54,000 to TD variable variable variable
Unit 67,500
Downpayment 10% of cost 10% of cost 15% of cost 4 years 5 years 6 years prior
prior saving prior saving
saving
Term 25 years plus 3 25 years plus 3 20 years plus 1 15 15 years 15 years
year grace year grace year grace
years
Interest Rate 3.5% 5% 5.75% 7% 7% 7%
Maximum loan 90% of cost to 90% of cost to 90% of cost to TD 53,000 TD TD 83,000
amount maximum of 130 maximum of 170 maximum of 210
67,000
times SMIG times SMIG times SMIG
Source: El-Sheikh 2010, p. 23.
and in the maximum credit amount (ranging from TD soft loans to build houses. Finally, it is said that some
53,000 to TD 83,000. These loan conditions put Al 20 commercial banks now offer housing mortgages
Jadid Savings schemes at or near money market rates, under market terms that make them profitable for the
which means there is little or no subsidy inherent in banks.
either the interest rates or in the term of the loan. Also,
they do not have maximum income requirements to
qualify, nor is the amount of the downpayment set 7.3 FINANCE TO HOUSING PROVIDERS
(presumably to encourage larger equity contributions There is an extensive State programme of pre-finance
by beneficiaries). Thus Al Jadid Savings can be for residential property developers, which is managed
considered a “liberal” housing loan system, one much by the BH. As described in Chapter 3, this financing
more in tune with market realities. The downside is
system was part of the national housing strategy (1988)
the fact that, based on the maximum credit amounts
that saw the private sector as an important housing
allowed, Al Jadid Savings are aimed only at the upper
producer. The necessary enabling legislation for private
middle classes and above. For example, Al Jadid 1,
developers was adopted in 1990.
the lowest scheme that allows a credit amount of TD
53,000, will only be affordable (at a price-to-income Registered private developers can access loans under
ratio of 5) by the ninth and tenth deciles of the urban these programmes for the purchase of land, for servicing
household income distribution. land, and/or for the construction of housing units. The
According to the BH Annual Report for 2009, direct BH can finance up to 80 per cent of the total cost of a
housing loans released under FOPROLOS schemes project if the housing units are “social” units, and up to
amounted to TD 173.4 million in 2009, substantially 70 per cent if they are “economic” or “high-standing”
up from TD 147.7 million in 2008. units. The annual interest rates charged for these loans
vary as to the category of housing:
Other housing loan schemes for new housing
Social housing units:
It is understood, in addition to the main government
loan schemes described above, that there are a number Base Rate (currently 4.5%) plus 2%
of other housing loan programmes. For example,
Economic housing units:
various “social funds” such as CNRPS and CNSS have
advanced members’ loans of TD 12,000 to build or Base Rate (currently 4.5%) plus 2.5%
purchase houses with interest rates of 8.25 per cent per
High Standing housing units:
year over 15 years. Also, government authorities and
companies are known to provide their employees with Base Rate (currently 4.5%) plus 3.5%
HOUSING FINANCE 61
During the 2003-2006 period the BH financed established in Tunisia, it does not appear that any
a total of 17,817 housing units for a total cost of existing programmes are available that specifically
TD 683 million (at TD 38,000 per unit). Of this offer micro-loans for house improvement.
financing, public developers (e.g. SNIT, SPORLOS)
were able to build 4,748 units and private developers Micro-credit began in Tunisia in 1990 with the
13,069 units. Also, there was a high concentration Association ENDA Inter-Arab. The main primary
of financing of high standing housing units at 67 financer of micro credit systems is the Banque
per cent of total financing. This would hardly seem Tunisienne de Solidarité, founded in 1999. This
to be a pro-poor way to manage limited financing bank disburses loan funds to specialized local
resources! NGOs (associations de micro-crédit). Individual loans
normally do not exceed TD 1,000 with a maturity
It is understood that since 2006 the BH has of one to three years. Interest on these loans are
continued to make advantageous loans available to very advantageous at below-market rates of 5 per
private housing developers to finance construction. cent per year, plus administrative charges. Micro
According to the BH 2009 Annual Report, loans loans are mainly aimed at setting up or expanding a
amounting to TD 119.7 million were disbursed to micro enterprise, although they can also be used for
private property developers. “improving living conditions,” which would seem to
It should be pointed out that standard housing loans include home improvements.3
to individuals, as described in Section 7.2 above,
are available to finance house construction by these 7.5 OVERALL ASSESSMENT
individuals as well as to purchase completed units.
However, it is not known how extensive or popular The mortgage-based housing finance system that
this individual house construction finance is, nor Tunisia has built up over four decades is impressive
what are the special terms and conditions. in terms of its coverage and maturity, diversity of its
products, and ability to innovate. It is probably one
of the best of such systems among MENA countries.
7.4 HOUSING IMPROVEMENTS AND According to one article, which cites a report of
MICRO-FINANCE the Tunisian Central Bank (BCT), currently an
astounding 93 per cent of housing unit acquisition
National Fund for Home Improvement (FNAH,
in Tunisia is financed through the country’s banking
Fonds National pour l’Amélioration de l’Habitat) was
system.4 However, there are still certain outstanding
created in 2004 to allow those in urban neighborhoods
undergoing upgrading to have recourse to cheap issues, especially concerning pro-poor policies and
loans for house maintenance and improvement. inclusion. Here, some of these are briefly discussed.
Only those living in these designated upgrading areas Funding sources
(usually under ARRU programmes) are eligible for
There are multiple sources of funds for housing
such loans. Conditions and the amounts available
finance in Tunisia. As seen above, some resources
vary as to beneficiary household incomes, as shown
are mobilized through savings/loan schemes for
in Table 7.2. In all FNAH schemes, the repayment
housing finance. Also, the BH can issue stock and
period is five years.
bonds to raise funds on capital markets. In addition,
Besides such geographic-specific programmes for the housing loan funds for low-income housing are
housing improvements, are there any other systems augmented by payments from the Solidarity Fund
in Tunisia? Even though micro-finance is well 26-26. However, it is understood that the largest

Table 7.2: FNAH schemes for housing maintenance and improvement
Beneficiary Income level Loan Amount Annual Interest

Charged
Less than the lowest industrial minimum (monthly) wage (TD 280) TD 1,000 to TD 2,000 0%
One to two times the lowest industrial minimum (monthly) wage TD 2,000 to TD 3,000 2%
Two to three times the lowest industrial minimum (monthly) wage TD 3,000 to TD 4,000 3.5%
Three to five times the lowest industrial minimum (monthly) wage TD 5,000 5%
Source: El-Sheikh 2010, p. 25.
62
CHAPTER seven
contribution to funding the various housing loan

schemes is through annual central government THE MORTGAGE-BASED
budgetary allocations. Given the subsidy element
inherent in most of the loan schemes for low HOUSING FINANCE SYSTEM
income housing, it is inevitable that the State must THAT TUNISIA HAS BUILT
replenish the various funds and in some cases directly
finance loan schemes. Although information is not UP OVER FOUR DECADES IS
available about the annual burden of housing loan IMPRESSIVE IN TERMS OF ITS
programmes on the central government’s budget, it
must be considerable.
COVERAGE AND MATURITY,
DIVERSITY OF ITS PRODUCTS,
Interest rates and subsidies
In most of Tunisia’s housing loan programmes that aim
AND ABILITY TO INNOVATE.
at lower income families, advantageous conditions are HOWEVER, THERE ARE STILL
mainly provided through setting the loan repayment
interest rates lower than is prevalent on the market.
CERTAIN OUTSTANDING ISSUES,
Today market interest rates for secured loans are at ESPECIALLY CONCERNING
least 7 per cent and in many cases exceed 8 per cent PRO-POOR POLICIES AND
or even 9 per cent. Compare this to the FOPROLOS
1 loan interest rates at 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent INCLUSION.”
and the FOPROLOS 2 loans at 4.5 per cent, and it
is obvious that considerable subsidized financing is
But if it is possible to use this credit to seek land that
latent in the advantageous interest rates. However, it
a family could otherwise not afford, then there is a
is difficult to calculate the real subsidy element on
danger of further aggravating the already serious land
these loan packages, which makes budgeting subsidies
scarcity issue.
difficult. In many countries a system of up-front
cash subsidies earmarked for each unit or borrower Indebtedness
operates. Under such a system budgeting subsidies In 2007, according to the INS, 19 per cent of
are clear, as is the amount of subsidy inherent in Tunisia’s active population, rural as well as urban, is
different loan programmes. indebted to banks and other financial institutions. Of
Targeting all credit extended by banks, some 25 per cent is for
consumer credit and the rest is for real estate, mainly
Targeting by all government-supported housing loan
for housing. In 2007 outstanding housing credit was
funds is based on individual or family income, i.e.
TD 3.5 billion. According to an article in Tunisia
through means testing. Applicants must state their
Today, real estate credits absorb an astounding 40 per
total incomes and provide supporting documentation.
cent of the income of the active population.6 This
Since many of the loan products have subsidy
figure seems to be an exaggeration, but it underscores
elements, the BH and other agents spend considerable
how indebtedness, mainly for housing, extends
efforts to verify and vet these applicants. It seems
throughout Tunisian society. Given this fact, can the
that vetting is successful in ensuring that clients can
almost total reliance on mortgage-based financing
meet their instalment repayments, since overall BH’s
continue to dominate the housing sector in Tunisia?
default rate is only 7 per cent of outstanding loans.5
Exclusion of some groups
For the lowest FOPROLOS scheme, self-targeting
would seem to operate, although it is not known Virtually the whole housing finance system in Tunisia
whether this is intentional. FOPROLOS 1 finances a rests on the ability of clients to meet regular monthly
family housing unit of 65m2 (50m2 for individuals), instalment payments over many years. And many
which many families might find too small and thus programmes are directly linked to employment and
only those of very low income who are desperate for regular, guaranteed salaries. The system does not fit
housing might apply. with the unemployed, the part-time employed, the
self-employed, the petty merchant, or the casually-
It is understood that families seeking to buy land employed, which together constitute the majority of
for house construction can obtain credit from the urban labour force. Also, if someone has personal
government loan programmes as long as they qualify. or religious aversions to incurring huge debts, he
If land plus building are combined together in the or she is automatically outside the system. And of
loan, credit for land purchase would seem reasonable. course the illiterate and poorly educated may find
HOUSING FINANCE 63
themselves uncomfortable dealing with housing lower-income families, than what is its purpose?
finance requirements. Could not the private developer sector combined
Equity considerations with private banks relieve government systems from
financing housing for the middle classes?
Looking at the array of housing loan products
available through government programs in Tunisia, Another equity issue relates to the government policy
it seems that, with one exception (FOPROLOS 1), of supporting the private developer sector. There are
the targets are for the most part the urban middle a number of funding, tax, and land incentives given
and upper middle classes. As shown in Chapter 4,
to private developers, but this has not resulted in
a huge number of Tunisian families simply cannot
much, if any, affordable housing. Why not give the
now afford to meet the instalment payments required
by housing loan schemes, and the future looks even same kind of incentives to the private individual who
bleaker. If a government-operated housing finance is, after all, by far the main producer of housing in
system cannot respond primarily to the needs of Tunisia?
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
Decree 1281 of 1871, le droit aux francais d’avoir des proprietes immobiliers, titre VI and especially Titre XI
on mortgages. See Bompard 1988.
2
3
International Organisation for Migration 2008
4
Khefifi 2010.
5
Francophonie Org 2006
6
Ghediri 2008
64
CHAPTER eight
08
INFRASTRUCTURE AND BASIC
URBAN SERVICES
This chapter presents a basic review of the provision Infrastructure Authority Responsible
of infrastructure in the housing and residential Sector
neighbourhood context. It is limited to water, Potable water SONEDE Société Nationale
sanitation, solid waste, roads, surface drainage, and d’Exploitation et de
electricity. The nature of infrastructure supply and Distribution des Eaux
improvements in coverage of infrastructure networks Wastewater and ONAS Office National de
over time form a major part of this section. We also sanitation l’Assainissement
examine the institutional and regulatory frameworks
Electricity STEG Société Tunisienne de
governing infrastructure provision, the main actors l’Electricité et le Gaz
and service providers, and infrastructure finance and
Roads DGPC La Direction Generale
cost-recovery issues.
des Ponts et Chaussées
Storm drainage Local municipalities
8.1 BASIC URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE and ONAS
PROVISION IN A NUTSHELL
It should be pointed out that, with very few
Indicators of coverage and percentages of the
exceptions, the Tunisian government has not tried
population serviced by potable water, wastewater,
to privatise aspects of its infrastructure services so
and electricity networks show very impressive
achievements in the last three decades, to the point far. Each of the State authorities is monolithic in
that coverage in urban areas (milieu communal) is management and financing, and each has its own
now nearly universal, and that coverage in rural areas corporate and human resource development plans.
(milieu non-communal) is already high and increasing Also, each carries out research and energy-efficiency
at very rapid rates. These achievements are remarkable programs and studies. There have been some recent
by any measure, and the coverage levels of these pilot attempts to outsource infrastructure elements
services exceed those of almost all other countries in (e.g. water treatment and power plants through BOT,
the Middle East and North Africa Region. Build-Operate-Transfer, arrangements), but these
remain few and far between.
The drive for improved infrastructure in Tunisia has
come mainly from the central government. There
8.2 POTABLE WATER
are centralized public authorities responsible for
each main utility system throughout the country. Expansion of coverage of potable water systems
These authorities cover both rural and urban areas Expansion of coverage of potable water systems has
(except for ONAS, which covers only communes been dramatic since the 1960s, and as a result Tunisia
(municipalities). Each utility authority has branch has now achieved near-universal coverage in potable
offices in each governorate/region, but investment
water. By 2006 a full 98.5 per cent of households in
planning and programming remain centralized.
the country were served by public water systems, and
Relations between utilities agencies and local
in urban areas this coverage was 99.4 per cent. Almost
authorities (collectivités locales) vary depending on
all of this was piped water to the domicile, but for the
the type of utility. The main infrastructure authorities
whole of Tunisia there were also a small fraction that
are as follows:
INFRASTRUCTURE AND BASIC URBAN SERVICES 65

As can be seen, the coverage is presently very good in

every region, mainly due to improvements in system
INDICATORS OF COVERAGE extensions in the North West and the Central West
AND PERCENTAGES OF THE Regions since 1994. The North West Region is still
lagging somewhat, at “only” 93 per cent coverage in
POPULATION SERVICED BY 2010.
POTABLE WATER, WASTEWATER, Institutional set-up
AND ELECTRICITY NETWORKS Responsibility for water supply systems in urban
SHOW VERY IMPRESSIVE areas and large rural centres is assigned to the
National Water Supply Authority (SONEDE, Société
ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE LAST Nationale d’Exploitation et de Distribution des Eaux), a
THREE DECADES, TO THE central water supply authority that is an autonomous
public enterprise under the Ministry of Agriculture,
POINT THAT COVERAGE Environment, and Hydraulic Resources (MAERH).
IN URBAN AREAS IS NOW Planning, design, and supervision of small and
NEARLY UNIVERSAL, AND THAT medium water supplies and irrigation works in the
remaining rural areas are the responsibility of the
COVERAGE IN RURAL AREAS IS General Directorate for Rural Engineering (DGGR,
ALREADY HIGH AND INCREASING Direction Générale du Génie Rural). Management
of investment planning and implementation of
AT VERY RAPID RATES. projects are conducted by the Regional Agricultural
Development Commissions (CRDAs, Commissariats
Régionaux au Développement Agricole).
relied on public standpipes (roughly 8 per cent) or
private providers (roughly 6 per cent).1 The water sector in Tunisia has so far only seen
very limited private participation. Despite a 1999
Even though these average national figures shown study on contracting and outsourcing, very few
above are very impressive, the geographical extent activities have been contracted out (security and
of water services coverage in Tunisia is slightly cleaning, for example). However, the government
unbalanced. The following table shows the percentages envisages financing a desalination plant planned
of households connected to SONADE and DGGR for Jerba through a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer)
water systems over 1994-2010. arrangement.

Table 8.1: Percentages of Households Connected to Drinking Water Systems by Geographic Region for
Selected Years, both Urban and Rural Areas
Region 1994 2004 2010

(provisional
results)
Capital Region (governorates of Tunis, Ariana, Ben Arous, and 98.1% 99.7% 99.9%
Manouba)
North East Region (governorates of Nabeul, Zaghouan, and Bizerte) 86.1% 95.5% 97.6%
North West Region (governorates of Beja, Jendouba, Le Kef, and 64.9% 84.4% 93.1%
Siliana)
Central East Region 87.6% 98.3% 99.2%
(governorates of Sousse, Monastir, Mahdia, and Sfax)

Central West Region (governorates of Kairouan, Kasserine, Sidi 74.8% 90.3% 97.3%
Bouzid)
South East Region (governorates of Gabes, Medenine, and Tataouine) 85.2% 99.2% 99.8
South West Region (governorates of Gafsa, Tozeur, and Kebili) 93.9% 98.5% 99.9%
National Total 84.7% 95.6% 98.3%
Source: Institut National de la Statistique, 2009, Rapport annual sur les indicateurs d’infrastructure, p. 5.
66
CHAPTER eight
Figure 8.1 Old and new water purification plants Figure 8.2 Tunis in Ottoman times, old water standpipe system
Source: SONEDE facebook page, 2009 Source: SONEDE facebook page, 2009 http://www.facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=216936249223#!/ com/group.php?gid=216936249223#!/photo.php?fbid=1324
photo.php?fbid=1324348107824&set=o.216936249223&type=1& 348107824&set=o.216936249223&type=1&theater, accessed
theater, accessed 30 March 2011. 30 March 2011.
Water Conservation and drinking water quality demands from all urban and rural inhabitants, plus
Tunisia has evolved national water conservation and tourism and industrial needs. Through management
consumption strategies. As a semi-arid to arid country, and resource development, Tunisia’s available water
it has had to deal with a relatively small amount of resources increased by 80 per cent between 1990
surface and groundwater, and in addition has had and 2010. This was mainly done by improving
to cope with increasing drought in the last decade. water saving measures, rationalizing water use, and
Tunisia has developed and adopted numerous laws developing unconventional resources, including the
and plans regarding its water resources, starting with use of treated sewage water.
drawing up Water Master Plans in the 1970s and
early 1980s. SONADE has a very low rate of water losses. Non-
revenue water represented only 18.2 per cent of total
Urban Tunisia enjoys good drinking water quality water production in 2004.
throughout the year in all locales. The quality of
the water supplied by SONEDE and others in rural Tariffs and Cost Recovery
areas varies according to local conditions. SONEDE Tariff changes are proposed by SONEDE and are
and the Ministry of Health monitor drinking water ultimately approved by the government (Ministry of
quality for its bacteriological and chemical quality, Agriculture, Environment and Hydraulic Resources,
from production to distribution. and the Ministry of Finance), which has on occasions
refused requests for tariff adjustments.
In 1996, a full 86 per cent of water withdrawals were
allocated to the agricultural sector. In addition, the Pricing for drinking water in Tunisia is similar to
water sector also must meet the increasing water other countries in MENA region. There is a fixed fee
Table 8.2: Drinking Water Consumption Tariffs for 2001
Consumption level in m3 for a three month period Tariff in TD per m3 of water consumed per three
months
0-20 m3 0.135
21-40 m 3
0.215
41-70 m 3
0.43
71-150 m 3
0.65
Over 150 m 3
0.79
Source: Wikipedia, 2011.


Table 8.3: ONAS Service Indicators, 1975-2009
Indicator 1975 1981 1991 2001 2009

Linear extent of wastewater network 900 km 1,450 km 4,683 km 10,206 km 14,503 km
Number of wastewater treatment plants 5 18 26 61 99
Number of communes (municipalities) served 23 30 70 144 160
Number of subscribers (connections) 122,000 159,000 456,000 993,000 1,502,000
The rate of connection to sewerage networks 45% 49% 73% 82% 89%
(percentage of urban population)
Source: ONAS Webpage 2011.

Table 8.4: Evolution of ONAS Services and Coverage 1997-2009
Indicator 1997 2003 2005 2006 2008 2009

Number of communes 117 146 155 155 157 160
covered
No. of inhabitants in 4.7 million 5.5 million 5.8 million 5.9 million 6.1 million 6.2 million
communes covered
No. of inhabitants 3.7 million 4.6 million 5 million 5.1 million 5.3 million 5.5 million
connected to network
Coverage rate in 78% 84% 86% 86.6% 87.6% 88.7%
communes covered
Number of subscribers 0.7 million 1.1 million 1.3 million 1.3 million 1.4 million 1.5 million
Linear length of networks 7,700 11,415 12,711 13,514 14,147 14,503
(km)
Number of treatment 52 70 83 95 100 106
plants
Volume of water 152 193 219 227 250 256
consumed by subscribers
(million m3)
Volume of water treated 123 188 201 216 230 238
(million m3)
Source: ONAS Webpage 2011.
and a proportional fee depending on household water 8.3 WASTEWATER

consumption. In 2001 proportional water tariffs were
as shown in Table 8.2. In Tunisia the National Office for Sanitary Drainage
(ONAS) is responsible for sanitation in cities,
SONEDE covers its operation and maintenance industrial, and tourist zones. It has achieved impressive
costs (and a small fraction of the investment costs) success in extending coverage, both in terms of house
with its tariffs. The price of drinking water in connections, networks, and treatment plants over the
Tunisia is uniform throughout the country, but the last two decades. This section looks at the wastewater
tariffs are progressive according to consumption, sector in Tunisia in terms of population coverage,
both to encourage water conservation and also to wastewater treatment, institutional setup, cost
reduce the payment burden on very poor, low water recovery and tariffs, and programmed investments.
consumption families.
Expansion of Coverage of Wastewater Systems
The success of ONAS in extending wastewater
collection services throughout urban areas of Tunisia
68
CHAPTER eight
is quite impressive since 1975, as the figures in Table per month. The largest wastewater treatment plant
8.3 show. is situated in Choutrana, with a daily capacity
of 120,000 m3. More treatment plants are under
These statistics speak for themselves, telling a story construction, under expansion, or planned.
of dramatic expansion of wastewater services to
urban areas, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. The In addition to its wastewater collection and treatment,
following table shows the evolution of wastewater ONAS has begun to study and implement the re-use
services in Tunisia between 1997 and 2009 in greater of treated effluent. Currently, over 7,000 hectares
detail: planted primarily with orchards and livestock feed
use treated water for irrigation, in consistency with
Even though average national figures, as shown national law.
above, are quite impressive, the geographical extent of
wastewater services coverage in Tunisia is somewhat ONAS has also begun a new initiative called its
unbalanced. Table 8.5 shows the percentages of “spinoff program” (programme d'essaimage), which
households connected to ONAS sanitation systems aims to encourage ONAS professional cadres and
by geographic region for selected years. As can be unemployed young diploma holders to create small
seen, whereas improved coverage in wastewater and medium size enterprises associated with the
services was impressive in all urban areas of Tunisia sanitation sector. So far some 46 enterprises have
over the 1994-2010 period, some regions continued been set up providing jobs for 279 persons.
to lag behind others. As of 2010 it could be said
that the country was divided into three levels; the Institutional Set Up
highest, with over 90 per cent coverage, was found ONAS was established in 1974. Its main mandate is
in the Capital, Northeast and Northwest regions, the as follows:
middle level was found in the Central East, Central
• Combating water pollution;
West, and Southwest regions with 69 per cent to 80
per cent coverage, and the lowest level was found in • Planning and implementing sanitation sector
the Southeast Region with only 52 per cent coverage. programs and integrated wastewater treatment
& storm water disposal projects;
Wastewater Networks and Treatment
As of 2006 there were 83 wastewater treatment plants • Construction, operation and maintenance of
in full operation with 9,650 linear km of networks facilities intended for the sanitation of towns
collecting 178 million cubic metres of wastewater (communes) assigned to ONAS by decree;
Table 8.5: Percentages of Households Connected to ONAS Sanitation Systems by Geographic Region
for Selected Years
Region 1994 2004 2010

(provisional
results)
Capital Region 76.2% 91.7% 94.7%
(governorates of Tunis, Ariana, Ben Arous, and Manouba)
North East Region 71.9% 85% 92.6%
(governorates of Nabeul, Zaghouan, and Bizerte)
North West Region 76.4% 88.6% 92.8%
(governorates of Beja, Jendouba, Le Kef, and Siliana)
Central East Region 48.5% 72.7% 80.7%
(governorates of Sousse, Monastir, Mahdia, and Sfax)
Central West Region 52.2% 71.3% 78.9%
(governorates of Kairouan, Kasserine, Sidi Bouzid)
South East Region 21.2% 41.9% 51.9%
(governorates of Gabes, Medenine, and Tataouine)
South West Region 33.5% 59.1% 69.3%
(governorates of Gafsa, Tozeur, and Kebili)
National Total 59.9% 78.3% 84.6%
Source: Institut National des Statistiques 2009, p. 19.

50 m3 per month TD 15.15 (TD 0.303 per m3)

WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS, 100 m3 per month TD 37.8 (TD 0.378 per m3)
THE TUNISIAN GOVERNMENT
200 m3 per month TD 85.12 (TD 0.426 per m3)
HAS NOT TRIED TO
(Source: ONAS Website 2011.)
PRIVATISE ASPECTS OF ITS
As can be seen, rates for low domestic water
INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES consumption are quite reasonable and affordable (a
SO FAR. EACH OF THE STATE family of four consuming an average 100 litres/day/
AUTHORITIES IS MONOLITHIC IN person would consume 12 m3 per month). Rates per
m3 rise rapidly for larger consumers.
MANAGEMENT AND FINANCING,
Financing, Cost Recovery, and Investments
AND EACH HAS ITS OWN
The financing of capital investments for the
CORPORATE AND HUMAN wastewater sector relies on the State budget and on
RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT loans and grants. For example, in 2009, of a total
investment package of TD 108 million by ONAS, 35
PLANS. per cent came from the State budget and 65 per cent
came from grants and loans.
• Sale and distribution of sub-products such as
Financing of ONAS’s recurrent or operating costs
treated wastewater and sludge.
comes from a combination of tariff charges, revenues
It should be noted that the Directorate of Rural from other services, and State subsidies. For example,
Engineering is responsible for sanitation in rural in 2009 ONAS’s total operating budget was TD
zones not covered by ONAS. 197.3 million, of which 54 per cent came from tariff
charges, 36 per cent came from State subsidies, and
The mandate of ONAS also includes protection of 10 per cent came from revenues for other services.
the environment. Since 1993 ONAS’s mandate was
expanded to include acting as the main protector of It is clear from these figures that cost recovery for
water bodies and combating their pollution. wastewater services remains an issue. Only some 65
per cent of operating costs are recovered and almost
In 2002, ONAS had 5,500 employees, 4,000 none of the investment costs are recovered.
permanent staff and 1,500 temporary or seasonal.
The volume of annual investments in the wastewater
The performance of ONAS has been very good when sector rose steadily from TD 54 million in 1997 to a
compared to other countries in the region, but its peak of TD 120 million in 2004. In the 2005-2008
effectiveness could be improved given the high ratio
period annual investments averaged TD 90 million.
of employees per connection. Another issue is cost
recovery (explained below) that does not cover all The XXIInd National Economic and Social
operating costs and almost no investment costs. Development Strategy (2010-2014) calls for total
investments in the wastewater sector to be TD 815
Tariffs
million (or TD 163 million per year). These will
ONAS applies nationwide tariffs for its wastewater finance further system expansion and new treatment
services based on the amount of water a subscriber plants as well as the following projects (some of which
consumes. These sanitation fees are invoiced and are ongoing):
collected by the national water company SONEDE
along with water consumption charges, then handed- • Small and medium town sanitation projects (6
over to ONAS. towns)
The tariff structure of ONAS is progressive, depending • Fourth low-income neighborhoods sanitation
on the amount of water a residential subscriber projects (128 neighborhoods completed and 4
consumes. As of March 2011 monthly charges were neighborhoods ongoing)
as follows:
• El Attar 1 Wastewater Treatment Plant
10 m3 per month TD 1.48 (TD 0.148 per m3) Construction
25 m3 per month TD 2.72 (TD 0.109 per m3) • Sousse, Kairouan, and Nefsa Sanitation projects
70
CHAPTER eight
Figure 8.3 New sewerage main under construction Figure 8.4 Installation of collector sewers
Source: ONAS “akhbar el tathir” No. 14, page 5. December 2010. Source: ONAS “akhbar el tathir” No. 14, page 8. December 2010.
• Rural sanitation project in electrical power in both urban and rural areas.
As of 2009 the percentage of Tunisian households
• Programme of rehabilitation and extension connected to the electrical grid stood at 95.5 per cent.
of wastewater networks and ONAS capacity This includes urban and rural areas and means that in
building 2009 only about 110,000 households were not served
• Study of Updating the Greater Tunis Sanitation by the electrical grid in the whole country, and these
Master Plan households were found almost exclusively in remote
rural areas. In 2009 STEG had a total of 3.04 million
clients served by its low-tension network (mostly
8.4 ROADS AND SURFACE DRAINAGE residential).
Main roads and highways in Tunisia are the Earlier achievements were concentrated in urban areas
responsibility of the Direction Générale des Ponts et (milieu communal), and by 1994 practically all urban
Chaussées (DGPC), under the Ministère du Transport households were connected (98.3 per cent). This
et de l’Equipement. It constructs, improves, and figure rose to 99.7 per cent for urban areas by 2009.
maintains a hierarchy of roads throughout the country.
The lowest roads for which it is responsible are sub- On the other hand, in 1994 coverage in rural areas
regional roads that may pass through urban areas. of the country (milieu non-communal) was only 66.3
per cent of households, with some areas seriously
Below this, at the level of urban distributor and local under-served. For example, in 1994 rural areas of the
access roads, communal councils (municipalities) are Governorate of Kasserine registered only 37.9 per cent
responsible for paving and maintenance of road and
sidewalk surfaces. They are also responsible for the
surface/storm-drainage of these roads.
The capacity of a particular municipality to cover all
of its road and drainage responsibilities varies from
one municipality to another, depending on financial
and technical resources. Often the DGPC branch in a
particular governorate is called in to execute these local
road improvements. Similarly, ONAS may be called
in to support surface water system improvements.
There are no mechanisms for cost recovery from users
of urban roads.
8.5 ELECTRICITY AND NATURAL GAS

Figure 8.5 Back alley in older informal area of Hay Sidi Mansour, Sfax
Over the last twenty-five years the public sector Source: L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine
utility company, Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et (ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al
fowdaoui » (The Tunisian Experience in Limiting Random Housing),
du Gaz (STEG), has achieved near-universal coverage power point presentation, June 2010.

coverage, and rural Kairouan registered only 45.8 per from 332,900 clients in 2007, representing an annual
cent coverage. Improvements to electricity services increase of almost 20 per cent.3
in all rural areas were impressive in the 1994-2009
period, and now 98.8 per cent of all rural households STEG is a government enterprise wholly owned
are connected. In all governorates the rate is above by the State. Its responsibility includes all aspects
96 per cent. The evolution of the rate of household of electrical power (production, transmission,
coverage (both urban and rural) in the 1994-2010 and distribution) and all aspects of natural gas
period by region is depicted in Table 8.6. (production, transmission, export, and distribution).
It is overseen by a board of directors and managed by a
The reliability of electrical power is very good in Direction Générale, under which exist 13 directorates.
Tunisia, and electrical capacities are sufficient to Six technical units directly support the Direction
cover peak loads. For example, in 2009 STEG Générale. In 2009 STEG had a total of 9,313 active
had a total installed generation capacity of 2,975 employees, of which 2,366 were at management
megawatts (independent producers added another (cadre) level.
480 megawatts). This compares favourably with
average peak daily demand (2,660 megawatts at Financially, STEG is a growing concern, with revenues
14:00 hours). usually equal to expenditures. According to page 60
of STEG’s 2009 Annual Report, total revenues were
STEG also supplies natural gas to households TD 2,160 million versus expenditures of TD 2,604
through an extensive distribution network of 9,558 (including financing charges). The shortfall was made
kilometres in 2009. However, the coverage rates are up from a State subsidy of TD 560 million, which
considerably lower than that for electricity. In 2004 allowed a net operating profit of TD 17.9 million out
it was reported that nationally only 11.9 per cent of of which TD 9 million were paid in taxes.
households were served with piped natural gas, with
the highest coverage rates in the governorates of the 8.6 INTEGRATED INFRASTRUCTURE
capital region (e.g 34.7 per cent coverage in Ben Arous PROVISION IN PARTICULAR AREAS
Governorate, 30.6 per cent in Tunis Governorate,
and 27.9 per cent in Manouba Governorate).2 STEG Although each national utility enterprise operates
has recently been making great efforts to expand the strictly sectorally, there have been a number of
natural gas network. For example, in 2009 there were government programs that target specific urban
467,100 low pressure clients (mainly households), up areas with upgrading and rehabilitation projects,

Table 8.6: Percentages of Households Connected to STEG Electrical Network by Geographic Region
for Selected Years
Region 1994 2004 2010 (provisional

results)
Capital Region (governorates of Tunis, Ariana, Ben Arous, and 98.1% 99.6% 99.77%
Manouba)
North East Region (governorates of Nabeul, Zaghouan, and 87% 98.8% 99.4%
Bizerte)
North West Region (governorates of Beja, Jendouba, Le Kef, and 77.9% 97.7% 99.1%
Siliana)
Central East Region (governorates of Sousse, Monastir, Mahdia, 93.3% 99.5% 99.7%
and Sfax)
Central West Region (governorates of Kairouan, Kasserine, Sidi 61.3% 98.4% 99.2%
Bouzid)
South East Region (governorates of Gabes, Medenine, and 90.4% 98.4% 99.4
Tataouine)
South West Region (governorates of Gafsa, Tozeur, and Kebili) 92.7% 99% 99.5%
National Total 86.8% 99% 99.5%
Source: Institut National des Statistiques 2009, p. 25.
72
CHAPTER eight
Urbaine (ARRU), under a system whereby local

authorities (collectivités locales) delegate to or
share responsibilities with ARRU. The package
of improvements generally include water, power,
wastewater, and road infrastructure (in partnership
with SONEDE, STEG, ONAS and municipalities),
but also house rehabilitation, new social housing
where necessary, and the provision of lacking health,
education, youth, and cultural services.
8.7 EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE IN URBAN

INFRASTRUCTURE IN TUNISIA
Foreign multilateral and bilateral donors have
Figure 8.6 Overhead medium and low tension power distribution in
informal area
been involved extensively in supporting urban
infrastructure in Tunisia for decades. The World Bank,
KfW, the African Development Bank, the European
including basic infrastructure. These efforts, most Investment Bank, and AFD have all been financers
of which could be called slum-upgrading projects, or co-financers of water and wastewater improvement
are briefly described in Box 2.2. Since 1981 such and rehabilitation projects in the last decade. For an
urban development projects have been managed by overview of donor involvement in Tunisia’s housing
the national Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation and urban development sectors, see Chapter 2.
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
AUGT 2008(c), p. 25.
2
El-Sheikh 2010, p. 26
3
STEG 2009, p. 36.

09
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND
BUILDING MATERIALS
Building materials and the construction industry are
obviously crucial components of any housing sector. THE BUILDING MATERIALS
This chapter investigates the state of these components
in Tunisia and assesses whether they represent INDUSTRY IS QUITE MODERN
constraints to affordable housing production and AND CAPITAL-INTENSIVE, AND
whether improvements could be made. In particular,
focus will be put on the basic building materials DUE TO TUNISIA’S LOCATION
used in housing construction and the main actors AND HISTORY THERE ARE CLOSE
in housing construction, following the discussion of
housing typologies developed in Chapter 5.
TRADING AND INVESTMENT
RELATIONS WITH EUROPEAN
9.1 THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN A COUNTRIES… AND THEIR
NUTSHELL BUILDING MATERIALS INDUSTRIES.
Tunisia has a well-developed construction industry,
which represents about 7 per cent of national Gross The construction and building materials industries
Domestic Product and generates about 300,000 job in Tunisia have developed consistently since the
opportunities (some 13.5 per cent of the country’s 1960s, registering an impressive increase in building
labour force). The country produces almost all of the materials production and in the production of
basic building materials used in housing construction housing. Housing construction has grown out of a
and even has export capacities. The building materials well-established traditional base, in terms of skills,
industry is quite modern and capital-intensive, and use of local materials, and styles and aesthetics.
due to Tunisia’s location and history there are close
trading and investment relations with European In addition to housing, the Tunisian construction
countries (in particular France and Italy) and their industry also has significant capacities to carry out
building materials industries. It should be noted that institutional, commercial, and industrial projects. In
overall there are currently some 700 firms producing particular, it has a growing market in the important
building materials in Tunisia. Of these 19 are 100 per tourism industry.
cent foreign-owned and another 60 include foreign In the last decade Tunisia has begun a love affair with
capital.1 large, integrated real estate projects funded mainly
Housing construction is almost exclusively carried with foreign capital, most of which are aimed at the
out by Tunisian contractors and Tunisian expertise high-end residential and leisure property markets.
and labour. There are hundreds of small and medium- These projects are demanding levels of sophistication
in building materials, construction techniques, and
sized licensed contractors, and the activities of foreign
management that are not always found within the
construction firms in Tunisia are mainly limited to
country.
large and sophisticated construction projects. There
are also an unknown but large number of informal Costs of basic materials as well as costs of construction
builders and others self-employed in building trades, have been rising significantly in the first decade of
none of which are licensed. the 21st century. However, these rising costs are not
74
CHAPTER nine
as dramatic as other cost increases, in particular the authority, the construction license is automatically
prices of serviced urban land. granted. However municipal services reserve the right
of demolition if the construction takes place without
authorization. Following a Ministry of Housing and
9.2 INSTITUTIONAL AND REGULATORY
Equipment decree issued in April 2007, it is required
FRAMEWORKS GOVERNING THE that the architect responsible for the building works
CONSTRUCTION SECTOR must be present to submit the application, and also
The production of building materials and their that a fiche technique signed and stamped by an
performance standards are regulated by licenses issued architect registered with the Ordre des Architectes de
to manufacturing firms by the Ministry of Industry, as Tunisie accompany all building permit applications.
well as by environmental codes. It is understood that Such a building permit process is lengthy and costly.
this licensing covers all major producers of building It would seem difficult for owner-builders, which
materials but that small scale informal producers represent Tunisia’s main mode of housing production
(especially for cement block and concrete elements) as explained in Chapter 3, to comply with all of the
are not covered. provisions of this process. This is particularly true of
Tunisia has a well developed building permit owner-builders of modest means. And due to two
regime, based on a series of laws and decrees, and of the stipulations of the process –proof of land title
it is frequently up-dated.2 This building permit and compliance with local building codes and land
regime is enforced in all urban (communal) areas development regulations– it appears that informal
and is quite bureaucratic. In each municipality a housing construction in peri-urban areas is de facto
Construction Licensing Commission is responsible illegal.
for reviewing and approving all building permit
The regulatory framework for real estate developers
requests. This commission includes the head of the
and entrepreneurs is quite evolved. Law no. 90-17 is
buildings department, deputy head of the buildings
the basic legislation governing real estate developers,
department, chief engineer, representative of the
modified by Law 91-76, Law 91-98, and 00-94.
Ministry of Housing and Equipment, representative
Decree 91-1330 deals with the approval of cahier des
from the Ministry of development, and representatives
charges of developers, and Decree 90-2165 governs
from each of the main utility companies (STEG,
the operations of the consultative commission dealing
ONAS, and SONEDE). If the building commission
with real estate developers.
finds minor issues with the designs, it will correct the
plans accordingly and issue the building permit on a There are a host of other laws and decrees regulating
conditional basis. The permit applicant will be granted building activities, building contractors, and
the building permit as long as the suggested changes engineering/architectural professions.
to the plans are accepted and carried out. The building
permit is valid for three years and can be renewed
upon payment of a fee. The construction license 9.3 CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY ACTORS
file must include the following: (1) an application, There are an estimated 800 registered construction
(2) architectural plans approved by an architect and firms in the country, most of which are small to
consistent with local building code requirements and medium sized and concentrate on smaller housing
land development regulations, (3) a file on safety projects or act as sub-contractors in large projects. Only
concerns approved by an engineer registered with a handful of construction firms offer sophisticated
the Tunisian Association of Engineers, (4) proof of services in all aspects of construction and their clients
property rights, (5) a tax discharge document, (6) tend to be private developers or large institutions,
a topographical survey prepared by the qualified including government agencies. Construction firms
topographic services or an approved topographer, (7) are mainly general building contractors, although
work design documents (dossier de coffrage). Once there are also firms that specialize in particular services
license documents are approved by the Construction such as concrete, infrastructure, foundations, etc. In
Licensing Commission, the applicant must submit addition, there are an unknown number of informal
structural design documents signed by an engineer builders who provide services to the country’s huge
registered with the Tunisian Association of Engineers, housing owner-builder sector.
and a decree of alignment delivered by the Ministry
of Housing and Equipment if the building is located All construction contractors must be licensed
on a classified road or an urban avenue. After 21 days, through the Ministry of Transport and Equipment,
and in the absence of a response from the municipal General Directorate for Civilian Builders, Directorate
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND BUILDING MATERIALS 75

Figure 9.1 Example of construction in SNIT housing project, Sidi Figure 9.2 Example of very narrow frontage informal housing
Hussain, Tunis under construction
Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh Source: L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine
(ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al
of Programmes and Licenses. These licenses are fowdaoui » (The Tunisian Experience in Limiting Random
Housing), power point presentation, June 2010.
normally valid for five years and must be renewed. As
of February 2011 there were 48 different categories of There are a number of active associations and unions
contractor listed by the Ministry. Categories included in Tunisia for professionals and technical firms
general contractors, building contractors, specialist associated with the construction industry. These
building contractors, roads contractors, topographical include:
survey contractors, etc. Some contracting companies
were listed under more than one category.3 • Ordre des Ingénieurs Tunisiens (Tunisian
Association of Engineers)
In addition to construction firms, the industry is
supported by a considerable number of engineering • Ordre des Architectes de Tunisie (Tunisian
and architectural firms as well as firms that offer Association of Architects).
construction management services.
• Association Nationale des Bureaux d’Etude et
Ingénieurs Conseils (National Association of
Engineering Consulting Firms)
Box 9.1: The Tunisian Association of
Urban Planners • Féderation Nationale des Entrepreneurs de Bâtiment
et des Travaux Publics (National Federation of
The Tunisian Association of Urban Planners Developers)
(ATU, Association Tunisienne des Urbanistes)
was created in 1981. The Association aims to • Chambre Nationale des Bureaux de Contrôle
promote urbanism and urban studies, fostering Technique pour le Batiment et Travaux Publics
urban research, mobilizing urban stakeholders to (National Chambre of Technical Bureaux for
improve the urban environment, and contributing Construction and Public Works)
to the training of urban planners. Its mission is to
support urban planners who work in the public • Association Nationale des Ingénieurs Géomètres
arena (compared to architects, who mostly work Experts Tunisiens (National Association of
for private interests). Another objective is to Topographical Engineers and Tunisian Experts)
enhance links between Tunisian urban planners
and urban planners in foreign countries. The • Association Tunisienne des Urbanistes (ATU, the
Association has participated in creating a training Tunisian Association of Urban Planners)
institute dedicated to environmental, urban,
and building technologies. The ATU supports This last association includes a training institute
the certification process that is specific to the dedicated to urban and building technologies. (See
profession. The ATU organizes workshops and Box 9.1)
participated in drawing up the Development
Strategy for the city of Tunis. It also organized an
international symposium on Tunisian cities.
Source: CMI Marseilles Website 2010.
76
CHAPTER nine
9.4 BUILDING MATERIALS: over the 2004-2008 period cement production

TRADITIONAL AND increased from 6.36 million tonnes to 7.24 million
INDUSTRIALIZED PRODUCTION tonnes, representing an annual increase of 3.5 per
AND COSTS cent. Over the same period cement exports jumped
from 978,000 tonnes in 2004 to 1.67 million tonnes
Traditional building materials in Tunisia, used up to in 2008, an increase of 70 per cent. The 11th Plan calls
the Twentieth Century, were fired-brick, lime, sand, for national production to increase to 12.8 million
stone (in some areas) for masonry walls, and wood tonnes by 2012, including new clinker production.
beams and tile for roofing. Mud brick was used for
walls in rural areas, although mainly in remote and Ordinary Portland Cement is produced in six large-
poorer settlements. In urban areas stone or brick walls capacity factories, the first of which was built in 1936.
and shallow tile vaults were used for the first floor The government privatized four of its six cement
of substantial buildings, with upper floors roofed plants in 1998, and from 2004 to 2006 it sold its
with wood beams. Tunisia has had a long tradition main gypsum plaster plant (Les Plâtres Tunisiens) and
of decorative ceramic tiles for wall cladding, most its main lime plant (Societé Tunisienne de Chaux) to
famously in the Cap Bon area. foreign interests.4
Today the array of building materials used in basic White cement is produced by SOTACIB, a
housing construction can be summarized as follows: joint venture between the Algerian and Tunisian
governments. The national production of white
Rural areas (normally for single-storey cement exceeds consumption and a significant
construction): amount is exported. The same can be said for gypsum
• Foundations: rubble stone and lime or cement plaster.
mortar The cement market is evolving, and a number of new
• Walls: fired-brick or stone with cement mortar, firms have started to produce ready-to-use concrete.
and lime or cement plaster Also, Tunisian firms produce cement and steel
elements for the construction industry, mainly in the
• Roofing: wood beams, wood slats and mud or form of pre-cast and pre-stressed beams and fixtures.
shallow tile vaults (special extruded tiles being
used)
Urban and peri-urban areas (normally for ground
plus one or two floor construction):
• Foundations: rubble stone and lime or cement
mortar, or concrete footing and reinforced
concrete (RC) ground beams
• Walls: RC frame with fired-brick infill using
cement mortar, and lime or cement or gypsum
plaster or ceramic tiles
• Floors and Roofing: concrete slabs or shallow tile
vaults (with special extruded tiles)
As illustrated, there is a very broad dependence on
cement, fired-brick, and steel reinforcing bar (and,
of course, on sand, aggregate, lime, ceramics, glass,
and gypsum). The production of these three main
materials is described in the following paragraphs.
It should be noted that energy consumption in the
production of all three of these materials is high.
Cement
Tunisia is currently more than self-sufficient in
Ordinary Portland Cement production, and over the
Figure 9.3 Detail of typical informal construction materials,
last two decades its production capacity has increased Al Zohor Area
steadily to keep up with rising demand. For example, Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh

Figure 9.4 Detail of use of extruded brick and RC-frame in informal Figure 9.5 Example of RC concrete frame and extruded brick infill
housing in social housing construction
Source: L’Agence de Réhabilitation et de Rénovation Urbaine Photo © Tarek El-Sheikh
(ARRU), « al tajruba al tunisia fi majal al had min al iskan al
fowdaoui » (The Tunisian Experience in Limiting Random Housing),
power point presentation, June 2010.
Prices of Ordinary Portland Cement have been Steel reinforcing bar

increasing faster than general internal inflation in As with cement, the production of steel reinforcing
Tunisia. In 2004 the average factory-gate price for a bar in Tunisia is capital and energy intensive and
tonne of Ordinary Portland Cement was TD 54.08, is carried out in a limited number of factories. But
and this had risen to TD 76.71 in 2008, an increase unlike cement, local production of re-bar does not
of 42 per cent in just four years. The price index for meet internal demand.
cement, lime, and plaster increased by 50.3 per cent
between 2000 and 2008, compared to a nation-wide The State-owned Société Tunisienne de Sidérurgie – El
price index increase of only 28.8 per cent.5 This is Fouladh is the country’s main steel producing plant.
cause for alarm, since Ordinary Portland Cement is Its production of steel billets doubled in 2009, and
such an important component of Tunisian housing it now has a capacity of 200,000 tonnes annually. In
production, especially for low-cost housing. 2009 El Fouladh produced 98,000 tonnes of re-bar,
and in addition it imported a similar amount of re-bar
Fired-brick for local distribution. Besides El Fouladh, there are a
Today in Tunisia fired-brick is extensively used in number of smaller privately owned mills in Tunisia
housing construction at all levels, from modest self- which manufacture re-bar from imported billets.8
built house extensions to infill walls in sophisticated
According to the Annuaire Statistique de la Tunisie
reinforced concrete frame construction. The most
2008, the factory-gate price of a tonne of reinforcing
popular type of fired brick is the hollow extruded
bar increased from TD 586 in 2004 to TD 1,179 in
brick block, which weighs little, is relatively cheap,
2008, which represents a doubling in just four years.
and maintains fair insulating properties. Producing
Although longer term price trend data is not available
this type of brick requires relatively capital-intensive
for re-bar, the huge jump in price from 2004 to
equipment and large-volume production. It is not
2008 should be a cause for worry as it suggests stiffly
amenable to low-volume, labour-intensive backyard
rising costs of an essential component in even modest
firing. As of 2010 there were reported to be 56 brick
housing production (the overall average price of steel
factories in Tunisia. The brick industry in Tunisia
products in Tunisia increased by 217 per cent from
is said to be expanding in step with demand. For
2000 to 2008, representing an annual increase of 8
example, production increased from 2,430 thousand
per cent).9
bricks in 1990 to 3,770 thousand bricks in 1996, an
increase of 55 per cent in six years.6
9.5 CONSTRUCTION SKILLS AND
According to the Annuaire Statistique de la Tunisie CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT
2008, the average sales price of “brick and tile”
increased by 212 per cent from 2000 to 2008. Such Construction skills in the formal construction
a rate of increase was very high, much greater than industry are said to be good and evolving due to the
the general price index over the same period (which relative sophistication of the industry and a partial
increased by only 28.8 per cent).7 integration with European markets. Basic skills
78
CHAPTER nine
development takes place largely within firms, mainly able to supply part of its own petroleum needs for the
through on-the-job training. Training and capacity next decade, but any significant production thereafter
building services are also offered by the various will be contingent upon new discoveries.
building trades and professional associations.
For this reason Tunisia is increasingly turning to natural
It is understood that the traditional system of gas to meet domestic energy demand. According to
apprenticeship still operates among the small and Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gaz (STEG,
informal builder sub-sector. the state-owned natural gas and electricity company)
natural gas represented 44 per cent of the total initial
Although the skill level within Tunisia’s formal energy consumption in Tunisia in 2005, compared to
construction sector is adequate, the recent appearance just 14 per cent in 2003. It is estimated that in January
of large, trans-national real estate projects has created 2006 Tunisia had 2.75 trillion cubic feet of proven
demand for highly-specialized construction expertise natural gas reserves. Around two-thirds of the reserves
and management, which cannot be easily met are located offshore. In 2003, Tunisia produced 76
from the domestic labour market. However, these billion cubic feet of natural gas, while consuming 136
constraints are only felt in luxury housing schemes billion cubic feet of natural gas during that same year.
and do not affect affordable housing markets. Since then there have been additional discoveries
and increased domestic production, but even so
9.6 ENERGY COSTS AND EFFICIENCY IN Tunisia remains a deficit country in terms of natural
HOUSING CONSTRUCTION gas. Imported natural gas comes mostly through the
Algerian-Tunisian pipeline, but also from European
As has been described above, the main building sources.10
materials used in construction in Tunisia, and in
particular those used for basic housing production It should be pointed out that Tunisia has very
(cement, reinforcing bar, and brick), all have high limited renewable energy resources. For example,
energy inputs. The costs of these materials have the vast majority of Tunisian electricity is generated
also been rising in the last decade at rates that are by fossil fuel plants. In 2003, Tunisian overall power
two to three times that of general price inflation. In generation capacity was 2,900 megawatts (MW).
addition, construction processes themselves can be Of that capacity, 97 per cent came from thermal
energy consuming, and building design in Tunisia power plants, with the remainder accounted for by
has, until now, put little value on thermal insulation, hydroelectric plants and wind farms. Several efforts
orientation, and other energy-efficient measures. It in the last five years have been made to develop
is estimated that building construction in Tunisia renewable energy resources, in particular wind power,
accounts for 26 per cent of the country’s total energy with support from the Global Environment Facility
bill, slightly less than industry (36 per cent) and (GEF) and German Technical Cooperation, but the
transport (31 per cent), and that its share is increasing. prospects of any significant shift away from almost
Thus it could be said that energy-efficiency and total reliance on hydrocarbons are poor. And it is
sustainability in the Tunisian construction industry almost certain that the costs of energy derived from
is a crucial issue, and that it is worthwhile to look hydrocarbons will continue to increase at steep rates.
at Tunisia’s energy profile and to review what efforts
are being launched to make the housing sector more
“sustainable.” TUNISIA HAS A WELL DEVELOPED
Tunisia has few means of producing energy BUILDING PERMIT REGIME,
domestically, and thus the issue of “sustainability” is BASED ON A SERIES OF LAWS
also one of national economic security. As of 2006
the country had modest proven oil reserves of 308 AND DECREES, AND IT IS
million barrels, the majority of which are located in FREQUENTLY UP-DATED. THIS
the Gulf of Gabes and the Ghadames Basin. In 2005
Tunisia produced around 75,000 barrels per day of BUILDING PERMIT REGIME
crude oil. This represents almost a 40 per cent decline IS ENFORCED IN ALL URBAN
from Tunisia’s peak output of 120,000 barrels per
day between 1982 and 1984. In 2007 the country’s (Communal) AREAS AND IS
domestic consumption demand was estimated at QUITE BUREAUCRATIC.
94,000 barrels per day, showing a large and growing
shortfall in domestic production. Tunisia should be

• At the end of 2010 the European Commission

IN TUNISIA THERE IS A VERY was preparing an institutional support project in
Tunisia in the domain of eco-construction.12
BROAD DEPENDENCE ON
Energy conservation in the housing sector has also
CEMENT, FIRED-BRICK, AND been given emphasis in the policies of the MEHAT.
STEEL REINFORCING BAR. By 2014 it envisions the construction of 70,000
IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT buildings in Tunisia, which conform to criteria of
energy efficiency, and 5,000 housing units utilizing
ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN THE solar energy.13
PRODUCTION OF ALL THREE OF
THESE MATERIALS IS HIGH. 9.7 ISSUES RELATING TO BUILDING
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION
Is Tunisia beginning to face the challenge of energy- AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
efficiency and sustainability in the building industry? Costs of basic materials are high and increasing at
It appears that there are a number of recent initiatives rates that are very much higher than increases in
that at least begin to tackle the problem. The following wages and incomes and even higher than general
are worth mentioning: inflation. This is making the production of all types
• The National Agency for Energy Rationalization of housing units more and more expensive in Tunisia,
(ANME, Agence Nationale pour la Maîtrise further complicating the already difficult housing
de l’Energie ) has developed a project called affordability equation, particularly for lower-income
“Energy Efficiency in New Buildings in Tunisia.” families (as described in Chapter 4). Rising building
Since 2009 all new buildings are to be subject materials costs hit the individual builder (owner-
to energy audits, in particular in terms of builder) particularly hard, especially those who must
thermal performance, and minimum technical struggle over years and even decades to amass the
specifications for different types of new building necessary finances.
and their extensions are in place. These concern
Thus it would seem that efforts at developing
architectural design and modes of construction.
alternative materials and at minimizing the use of
Studies by ANME have shown that efforts to
expensive, energy-intensive materials in construction
improve thermal insulation, including insulation
of roofing and walls and double glazing of would be a welcome initiative.
windows and other openings, add 3 per cent, in The construction sector itself is very bureaucratic and
general, to up-scale housing construction costs, regulated. In this sense, to many Tunisia appears to
and 6 per cent to economic housing costs. be little different from European countries. Not only
• In 2010 the Agence Francaise du Developpement does this control/regulation add to overall costs of
(AFP) concluded a feasibility study to establish a construction (and increases time lost), it makes the
line of credit for local banks to finance the extra activities of the individual housing producers very
costs of construction due to adopting energy- difficult, thus frequently forcing them into illegality.
efficient methods. This financing will be accessible This is a crucial issue since so much of housing,
to developers, investors, and individuals. It is particularly affordable housing, is produced by
expected that this financing programme will be individuals. In turn, this suggests that there should be
in place by 2011. very straightforward and simplified regulations and
standards for small footprint buildings.
• It is understood that there is an ongoing
collaborative effort between UNDP, GEF,
and the Tunisian Government to implement
an optimal-efficiency code for residential and
commercial buildings. This is part of an overall
objective to assist Tunisia in reducing the growth
of greenhouse gas emissions.11
80
CHAPTER nine
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
Oxford Business Group 2010.
2
Legislation regulating building permits is based on Law no. 76-34 of 1976, modified by Law no. 90-18 of
1990 and at least eight regulations (arrêtées) issued by the Ministry of Housing.
3
MEHAT Website 2011.
4
Agence de Promotion de l’Industrie 2009, p. 139
5
Institut National de la Statistique 2008(b), pp. 210, 211, and 224.
6
Oxford Business Group 2010.
7
Annuaire Statistique de la Tunisie 2008, p. 211.
8
Arab Steel Website 2011.
9
Institut National de la Statistique 200, pp. 210 and 211.
10
STEG 2009.
11
UNDP Tunisia Country Office 2011.
12
EC projects website 2011.
13
MEHAT website 2011

10
DYNAMICS OF THE HOUSING
MARKET
This chapter briefly examines the structure and
functioning of formal and informal housing markets
(and associated land markets) and the actors within ACCORDING TO MOST BUSINESS
them. New housing, secondary markets, and OBSERVERS, THE FORMAL
rehabilitation markets, including geographic spread,
are all addressed. HOUSING MARKET IN TUNISIA
FUNCTIONS VERY WELL. IN FACT,
10.1 THE STRUCTURE AND MOST COMMENTARY USES VERY
PERFORMANCE OF THE HOUSING
MARKET IN TUNISIA GLOWING TERMS TO DESCRIBE
According to most business observers, the formal
THE HOUSING MARKET, ITS
housing market in Tunisia functions very well. In EXPANSION, AND ITS FUTURE
fact, most commentary uses very glowing terms
to describe the housing market, its expansion, and
PROSPECTS.
its future prospects. The following are some of the
features of the housing market in Tunisia which are
most talked about:1 • Price increases are also found at the lower end
of the market. Social housing units are being
• The market has known a continuous rhythm sold and resold at as much as TD 800 per square
of expansion over the last few years. To some, meter, compared to TD 300 only 15 years ago.
large parts of the country appear to be immense
construction sites, with new projects and even • Even though there is an abundant supply and
new towns springing up out of the ground. diversified supply of units on the market, the
market continues to be overheated, due to a
• Housing prices have also been rising, up to 80 demand that seems insatiable. Whereas real estate
per cent in ten years (due to inflation in building developers and bankers can rub their hands with
materials, high land servicing costs, speculative glee, the average Tunisian finds it more and more
bubbles, etc.). High prices have recently led difficult to acquire even a modest unit.
to housing units of “high-standing” to be left
unsold. The market is said to be subject to “an • Demand for housing units is such that some private
inflationary spiral.” developers are able to start construction with 60
per cent of the units already commercialized and
• The average price per square meter for an paid for, especially for high standing housing
apartment of high standing has more than units in the Tunis area.
doubled between 1994 and 2007, reaching over
TD 1,400 per square meter in Tunis and the • According to the vice president of Amen Bank,
main coastal towns. In certain upscale quarters property finance is the least risky of all bank
(quartiers huppés) like La Marsa, former price loans. He also added that Tunisians see holding
records have been completely smashed, with property as a symbol of social success, which
increases of 15 per cent per year. pushes demand.
82
CHAPTER ten
• In 2007 the Tunisian banking system disbursed government agencies such as the OFC (for the
about TD 5 billion of which 40 per cent came registration of property and its cadastre) that provide
from the Housing Bank (BH) alone. facilitating roles. These agents and institutions have
already been described, particularly in Chapters 2, 6,
• Tunisia, like Egypt, was able to weather the and 7.
global financial crisis of 2008, and real estate
prices, although falling somewhat, were able to One category of actor deserving special mention is the
bounce back relatively quickly. property agent. These individuals and firms, working
on a commission, help individuals find housing
• The number of housing developers is rising at on the market. They concentrate on housing unit
a grand rate. Although 30 years there was only purchases, but most can also assist in the urban rental
SNIT, now they now number 1470, according to market. In 1981 Law 81-55 was passed establishing
the Chamber of Property Developers (la Chambre the National Chamber of Property Agents (CSNAI,
Syndicale des Promoteurs Immobiliers de Tunisie). Chambre Syndicale Nationale des Agents Immobiliers),
Such is how housing and property markets in Tunisia which supports and regulates the profession. This
have been seen since 2007 and continue to be seen by chamber was sponsored by UTICA (Union Tunisienne
those in the business of housing. Of course, similar de l’Industrie, du Commerce et de l’Artisanat).
enthusiasm is common in other countries, since it It is understood that membership in this Chamber
is in practically everyone’s interest to promote the is required to carry out some kinds of real estate
sector. brokering, but not all (it is required to open a
As with other countries in the MENA region in commercial real estate office). It is certain that there
the last few years, a prime characteristic of Tunisia’s are a host of un-registered informal real estate brokers
housing sector is its emphasis on the upper end of who operate in informal housing markets. These
the market. This is where it is perceived that the most tend to be based in one or two neighbourhoods or
money can be made, even though to some it would districts and operate largely by word-of-mouth. They
appear that there is a glut of expensive and luxurious may also work on a part time basis.
units on the market. Yet as explained in Chapters 3 In Tunisia exchange of information about properties
and 7, private developers seem reluctant to aim more for sale (and rent) is carried out through multiple
at the lower ends of the market. And why should channels and media. Newspapers, specialized
they, if they can continue to generate profits from publications, advertising flyers and hoardings are
their current market segments? common, and the internet (particularly blogs) is alive
Of course, what one hears from housing market with housing market offerings.
commentators, finance experts, bankers, property
developers and MEHAT is not the whole story. First,
they tend to see the market as limited to the selling EVEN THOUGH THERE IS AN
and buying of completed housing units. Since the
majority of housing in Tunisia continues to be built ABUNDANT SUPPLY AND
by the eventual occupier (who is sometimes called DIVERSIFIED SUPPLY OF UNITS
the owner-builder), there is a vast amount of housing
which never enters the market, except eventually
ON THE MARKET, THE MARKET
perhaps in the secondary market. And on top of CONTINUES TO BE OVERHEATED,
this there also exists an informal housing market,
whose size and characteristics are unknown, precisely
DUE TO A DEMAND THAT
because it is extra-legal. Both of these markets really SEEMS INSATIABLE. WHEREAS
reflect the underlying land markets, since in both REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS AND
cases the majority of housing produced through self-
help construction. BANKERS CAN RUB THEIR HANDS
WITH GLEE, THE AVERAGE
10.2 ACTORS IN HOUSING MARKETS TUNISIAN FINDS IT MORE AND
There are a number of actors who make up MORE DIFFICULT TO ACQUIRE
housing markets in Tunisia. These are mostly the
obvious: housing producers such as private and
EVEN A MODEST UNIT.
State developers, housing finance institutions, and
DYNAMICS OF THE HOUSING MARKET 83

as their main preoccupation has been to encourage

Box 10.1: Legislation in Tunisia Governing house ownership. As far as is known, there are no
Housing Unit Rentals programs of assisted rents or rent vouchers for the
poor, and the State does not produce housing units
Law 35 of 1976 is the legislation governing for rent.
rental arrangements between landlord and
tenant. This legislation allows a contractual rental
arrangement between the two parties. The rent 10.4 IMPEDIMENTS TO MARKET
and period of rent can be freely agreed upon FLUIDITY: REGISTRATION,
between the landlord and tenant in all market
TITLING, FEES AND TAXES
segments. There is no legal maximum annual
rent increase for free market tenancies, but any In Tunisia’s housing and associated land markets there
increase must be stipulated in the contract (the are few impediments to the exchange of properties,
usual level of annual increase in practice is 5 per
including housing. In fact, Tunisia’s comprehensive
cent). A security deposit or advance rent can be
specified. In certain cases, if the tenant is a non-
property registration, cadastre, and titling systems
Tunisian individual a tenancy contract will require greatly facilitate housing market operations. The
preliminary authorization. property transfer fee, however, is definitely an obstacle.
During the contract term, the tenant can rarely The following paragraphs show how housing markets
be evicted. Non-payment of rent by the tenant are supported or influenced by government systems
after a reasonable notice (commonly two months) of registration and titling, property transfer fees, and
is one case for eviction through a summary court property taxes.
order. Eviction is also possible if the structure is
liable to collapse or if an immediate member of Registration and Titling
the family intends to live in the premises. At term, In 1885 the occupying French established a national
the lease may be renewed by tacit agreement for property register in Tunisia. This quickly grew into
the same period. an extensive cadastre and property registration
If a tenant were in occupation before March 3, system, which remains in place today. The cadastre
1978, or if the construction of the premises was and registration is operated by the OTC (Office de
completed before January 1, 1954, the tenant la Topographie et du Cadastre), and its Property
has automatic security of tenure. This is because
Tribunal (TI, Tribunal Immobilier) is where actual
laws in effect before Law 35 of 1976 had been
extremely “pro-tenant,” guaranteeing a secure
land registration and title transfers take place.
and perpetual right of occupancy upon tenants. Land records are stored with The Directorate of
In contrast, it has been said that the 1976 law is Conservation of Real Property (CPF, La Direction
“pro-landlord,” although its stipulations are similar de la Conservation de la Propriété Foncière) of the
to many rental laws in effect in the MENA region Ministry of Justice. There is a voluntary registration
as well as in some countries in Europe. system (immatriculation foncière facultative) that
In 1993 Law 35 was amended by Law 122 of starts with an application from the property owner
1993 to grant permanent occupancy rights for and entails property surveying and preparation of a
certain social categories of long term renters. property dossier for a small fee. The cadastre itself, an
Source: Skyscraper City Website 2011. object-oriented system, is obligatory for all properties
and entails no cost.2
10.3 RENTAL MARKETS Property transfer fees3

Tunisia has a rather onerous property transfer system,
Tunisia has a long history of legislation governing one that adds significantly to the cost of any property
housing rentals. Currently, housing unit rentals are transaction and thus impedes the smooth functioning
governed by Law 35 of 1976, a liberal contractual law of housing markets. Currently both the buyer and
described in Box 10.1. seller of a property must pay a transfer fee (imposed
by the OTC) with the following rates on the declared
As mentioned in Chapter 5, currently only 15 per
value of the property:
cent of housing units in Tunisia are under rental
tenure, and this percentage has been decreasing over • 6 per cent for individuals
time (a trend also found in Morocco). But even this
small portion of the housing stock under rental tenure • 1 per cent for private developers
represents a large number in absolute terms, housing
• 3 per cent for resale (secondary market)
some 1.6 million people. Yet it appears that housing
policy makers have largely ignored the rental sector, • 0 per cent for non-residents (tourists)
84
CHAPTER ten
Property taxes4
SINCE THE MAJORITY OF Municipalities have the right to levy an annual
property tax on residential properties at up to 2
HOUSING IN TUNISIA CONTINUES per cent of the unit’s assessed value. Assessments
TO BE BUILT BY THE EVENTUAL of property values are supposed to take place every
OCCUPIER, THERE IS A VAST three years. An alternative formula can apply to
rental properties. Actual enforcement/collection
AMOUNT OF HOUSING WHICH of this annual property tax varies enormously from
NEVER ENTERS THE MARKET, municipality to municipality and even from tax
zone to tax zone. Normally rates are much lower
EXCEPT EVENTUALLY PERHAPS IN in suburban zones, and of course they do not apply
THE SECONDARY MARKET. outside municipal boundaries. Also, it is said that
sometimes a property’s assessed value can be reduced
by payment of a bribe.
In addition, the seller pays a transfer fee at 1.5 per
cent of the value of the property. This transfer fee Annual property taxes do not impede housing
must be paid each time a property is transferred. markets directly, although since their application
Curiously, the rate for private developers is much varies considerably from locale to locale, they can
lower than that for individuals. have a distorting effect on property prices.
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
See for example Businessnews Website 2009 or Tunisie-valeurs Website 2008.
2
Immosaique Website 2011
3
Scottrade Global Property Guide 2011
4
Ibid.
DYNAMICS OF THE HOUSING MARKET 85

TUNISIA URBAN Housing SEctor Profile
11
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
This chapter presents the main conclusions and
findings of this housing sector profile. Tunisia’s
very positive record in the sector is recognised, as is
TUNISIA CAN EXHIBIT ALL THE
the enabling strategy for housing developed by the OUTWARD HALLMARKS OF
Tunisian government. The most prominent issues AN ENABLING STRATEGY FOR
relating to the housing sector and government policies
are identified and, finally, policy implications are HOUSING YET STILL FALL SHORT
explored. IN TERMS OF DESIRABLE HOUSING
OUTCOMES. MEETING THE
11.1
TUNISIA’S HOUSING SECTOR: AN
IMPRESSIVE RECORD HOUSING REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL
There is no doubt that over the last thirty to forty years
OF A COUNTRY’S POPULATION
Tunisia’s housing sector has recorded impressive gains. IS A CONSTANT AND DIFFICULT
There has been considerable progress in advancing STRUGGLE.
access to shelter of adequate quality for a very large
segment of the Tunisian population. Mostly through
the efforts of individual builders, the country has been wide range of clients, including low-income families.
producing housing faster than families are forming. Savings-for-housing schemes have been important
State enterprises have also added significantly to the housing finance mechanisms since the 1970s and
housing stock, building over 300,000 units of varying are very strong today. There are State institutions
types and sizes since 1960. And in recent years, with dedicated to assembling and providing land for
considerable government support, the corporate housing projects. Other State schemes provide small
private sector has become an important producer of loans for house improvement and maintenance.
housing. Infrastructure for housing has also advanced Small-lot subdivisions and core housing have been
impressively; household coverage rates for treated piloted. And Tunisia has one of the best records of
piped water and electricity have reached almost 100 any country in the MENA region in terms of urban
per cent, and coverage for wastewater in urban areas upgrading institutions and programmes that primarily
exceeds 85 per cent. In parallel, government social target poor informal neighbourhoods.
programmes have led to a dramatic fall in poverty
rates, tumbling from 22 per cent of the population in
1975 to a mere 3.7 per cent today. 11.2 AN ENGAGED ENABLING STRATEGY
FOR HOUSING
Achievements in Tunisia’s housing sector are
perhaps most impressive in terms of the institutions, Looked at as a whole, Tunisia’s housing approach can
regulations, and financing to support housing be considered a shining example of the “Enabling
production and improvement. Shelter Strategy,” UN-HABITAT’s conceptual policy
framework for housing. This policy framework
The banking sector has created housing finance sees housing as a multi-faceted process. Production
institutions through which a sophisticated range of housing itself should be dominated by a host of
of housing loan products are channeled to target a private sector actors, with the State’s role being one
86
CHAPTER ELEVEN
of “enabling” this process so that it is responsive to

the shelter needs of all. The State thus concentrates
on (1) ensuring suitable and affordable land is
today a near-majority of
available for housing, (2) nurturing a set of housing urban households cannot
finance schemes to suit all income-groups, in which
subsidized lending targets the poor, (3) concentrating
afford to purchase a
on access to infrastructure in residential areas, and modest housing unit... The
(4) making sure that construction techniques, skills, only housing type that
and building materials technologies evolve to meet
changing housing needs.1 is affordable to urban
Although Tunisia scores very high in its “enabling” households under the
housing strategy, there are indications that all is not median income is one that is
perfect and that many challenges remain. This is not a
Tunisian problem alone. A country can exhibit all the
self-built in peri-urban areas
outward hallmarks of an enabling strategy for housing and may be deemed illegal
– in terms of institutions and policies and programmes
– yet still fall far short in terms of desirable housing
outcomes. Even the most sophisticated housing
11.4 OUTSTANDING ISSUES IN HOUSING
policies and programmes do not in themselves
FINANCE
somehow guarantee success. Rather, meeting the
housing requirements for all of a country’s population The mortgage-based housing finance system that
is a constant and difficult struggle, one that requires Tunisia has built up over four decades is impressive
deep analysis of processes, their impacts, and, one in terms of its coverage and maturity, diversity of its
might add, an eternal critical eye. products, and ability to innovate. According to one
article, which cites a report of the Tunisian Central
The challenges that Tunisia’s housing sector currently
Bank (BCT), currently 93 per cent of housing unit
faces need to be identified and analysed as a first step
acquisition in Tunisia is financed at least partly
towards any housing policy deliberations. This is
through the country’s banking system. However,
briefly done in the following paragraphs.
there are still certain outstanding issues, especially
concerning pro-poor policies and inclusion, as
11.3 OUTSTANDING ISSUE OF HOUSING discussed below.
AFFORDABILITY
Funding sources: There are multiple sources of
This report shows that, both in terms of cost- funds for housing finance in Tunisia. However, it is
to-price ratios and in terms of standard housing understood that annual central government budgetary
loan programmes, urban households in the lower allocations provide the largest contribution to funding
income deciles currently find it extremely difficult various housing loan schemes. Given the subsidy
to afford purchasing even modest housing units. The element inherent in most of the loan schemes for low-
calculations used involve a number of assumptions, income housing, it is inevitable that the State must
but even if more optimistic assumptions are replenish its various funds and in some cases directly
employed, the conclusion would stand that today a finance loan schemes. Although information is not
near-majority of urban households cannot afford to available about the annual burden of housing loan
purchase a modest housing unit, even assuming that programmes on the central government’s budget, it
they can qualify and obtain housing loans. The only must be considerable. One central question is whether
housing type that is affordable to urban households it is possible to assume that large budgetary support
under the median income is one that is self-built in for housing will continue in Tunisia, especially in light
peri-urban areas and may be deemed illegal. And since of the many competing interests seeking government
many households cannot qualify for housing loans for financial support?
various reasons, there are many additional families that
cannot begin to purchase/build a new unit. In sum, it Interest rates and subsidies: In most of Tunisia’s
can be concluded that there remains a huge housing housing loan programmes aiming to lower income
affordability challenge in urban Tunisia, and one that, families, advantageous conditions are provided mainly
due to rapidly rising housing costs and increasing land by setting loan repayment interest rates below the
scarcity, is bound to get worse. prevalent market rate. Compare market interest rates
for secured loans with government schemes, and it is
CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 87

11.5 OUTSTANDING ISSUES IN URBAN

THE GOVERNMENT, IN LAND SCARCITY AND THE PERI-
CONJUNCTION WITH EXPERTS, URBAN CONFLICT
ACADEMICS, AND TUNISIA’S Most developable land around Tunisian cities and
towns can be called peri-urban. This “peri-urban
YOUTH, NEEDS TO TAKE A HARD frontier” is where agricultural land is converted to
LOOK AT WHO ENJOYS WHAT urban use and where rural settlements grow and
slowly metamorphose into urban neighbourhoods.
HOUSING SUBSIDIES, INCLUDING With land for urban development becoming more
INDIRECT SUBSIDIES THROUGH scarce and, especially, more and more expensive, it
is inevitable that competition for land on this peri-
TAXES, LAND CONCESSIONS, urban frontier becomes more and more acute. Today
AND PREFERENCES. in Tunisia there are three main groups competing for
this peri-urban land:
obvious that considerable levels of subsidized financing • Formal land and real estate developers seek to
are latent in the advantageous interest rates. However, assemble large tracts for projects (if not also for
it is hard to calculate the real subsidy element in these speculative investment) and pressurize planning
loan packages, which makes budgeting subsidies authorities to expand communal boundaries and
difficult. In many countries a system of up-front to designate more and more land for development
cash subsidies earmarked for each unit or borrower purposes, even though much of this land has been
operates. Under such a system budgeting subsidies is declared green belts and natural land reserves, a
a clear process, as is the amount of subsidy inherent in prominent feature of almost all Tunisian urban
different loan programmes. plans.
Targeting: Targeting in all government-supported • Middle class and well off urban families will seek
housing loan schemes is based on individual or family peri-urban land for the construction of individual
income, i.e. through means testing. Applicants must villas. Those seeking land for villas would prefer a
state their total incomes and provide supporting fully serviced parcel in a planned neighbourhood,
documentation. Since many of the loan products but for most the land costs, even for small parcels,
have subsidised elements, the BH and other agencies have become prohibitive. The alternative, and
spend considerable efforts verifying and vetting these one which allows the acquisition of a much larger
applicants. Yet is strict means-testing the best and only parcel, is to buy land informally outside planned
system of targeting? Is it not open to abuse? And most areas. This is becoming extremely common
importantly, does it a priori exclude large segments of around Tunisian cities.
the population?
• Poor families, seeking a modest affordable plot of
Indebtedness: Figures show that indebtedness, mainly land upon which to build progressively, will also
for housing, extends throughout Tunisian society. target peri-urban areas. It is possible to find such
Given this fact, can near total reliance on mortgage- tiny plots of land in many areas. The very cheapest
based financing continue to dominate the housing land will be inaccessible and marginal, perhaps
sector in Tunisia? subject to flooding or other hazards. In some cases
informal land subdividers (lotisseurs clandestins)
Exclusion of some groups: Virtually the whole
will subdivide the land into very small plots.
housing finance system in Tunisia rests on the ability of
clients to meet regular monthly instalment payments This process by multiple actors to find suitable and
over many years. Such a system is nearly irrelevant cheap land makes for a very competitive scramble for
for the unemployed, the part-time employed, the land. Years and years of government programmes to
casually employed, the self-employed, the independent create formal alternatives to informal and unregulated
entrepreneur, or the petty merchant. These groups land conversion on the peri-urban frontier have
together constitute the majority of Tunisia’s urban not been able to stop or even appreciably slow the
labour force. Also, if a person has personal or religious phenomenon. Although not a desirable situation, it
aversions to incurring huge debts, he or she is is a fact that only on the peri-urban fringe can a lower
automatically outside the system. And of course the income family ever hope to secure a little plot of land
illiterate and poorly educated may find it uncomfortable and embark on the process of building and owning its
dealing with housing finance requirements. own home.
88
CHAPTER ELEVEN
11.6 THE ISSUE OF HOME OWNERSHIP 11.8 THE ISSUE OF EQUITY

VERSUS RENTAL AND EXCLUSION IN HOUSING
PROGRAMMES
Tunisia has a very high rate of home ownership, both
of the existing housing stock and of new additions Looking at the array of housing loan products
to it. Rental tenure is low and even decreasing, with available through government programs in Tunisia,
only 15 per cent of total households living as tenants it seems that, with few exceptions, the targets are
as of 2009. The government sees home ownership the urban middle and upper middle classes. A huge
as something inherent in Tunisian culture and has number of Tunisian families simply cannot afford to
adopted an 80 per cent ownership rate as an essential meet the instalment payments required by housing
element of its national housing strategy. In most loan schemes, and the future looks even bleaker.
countries rental housing markets are much more If a government-operated housing finance system
extensive, and most housing experts see rental tenure cannot respond primarily to the needs of lower-
as playing an important part in ensuring a good mix income families, than what is it for? Could the private
of housing alternatives. Rental systems, presented developer sector combined with private banks relieve
alongside home ownership, contribute to maximizing government systems from financing housing for the
choice and mobility and thus allow housing markets middle classes?
to perform more efficiently. Also, rental housing can
Another equity issue relates to the government policy
generate considerable revenues for families of limited
of supporting the private developer sector. There are
income which, in many instances, has been shown to
numerous funding, tax, and land incentives given
provide money for further housing construction by
to private developers, but this has not resulted in
individuals. Tunisia could benefit from more rental
much, if any, affordable housing. Why not give the
housing.2
same kind of incentives to the private individual who
is, after all, by far the main producer of housing in
11.7 ISSUES RELATING TO BUILDING Tunisia?
MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION,
AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING 11.9 URBAN UPGRADING ISSUES
Costs of basic materials are high and increasing at Tunisia’s extensive experiment with urban upgrading
rates that are very much higher than increases in wage and neighbourhood rehabilitation justifiably deserves
and income, and even higher than general inflation. praise. But until now these programmes have had little
This is making the production of all types of housing or no involvement with the communities affected. It
units more and more expensive in Tunisia, and also is generally recognized that community participation
further complicates the already difficult housing in upgrading ensures more effective results, and
affordability equation. Rising building material costs mobilizing community initiatives can lower the
hit the individual builder (owner-builder) particularly overall financial burden of upgrading projects.
hard, especially those who must struggle over years, or
even decades, to amass the necessary finances. Thus
it would seem that efforts at developing alternative 11.10 POLICY IMPLICATIONS:
materials and at minimizing the use of expensive, PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS
energy-intensive materials in construction would be
It is difficult to leap from analysis to policy
a welcome initiative.
recommendations. This housing sector profile has
The construction sector itself is very bureaucratic and been a rapid exercise based on less-than-complete
regulated. In this sense, to many Tunisia appears to information and without exposure to policy dialogue
be little different from European countries. Not only among housing actors and stakeholders in Tunisia. On
does this control/regulation add to overall costs of top of this, since January 2011 the political landscape
construction, it makes the activities of the individual in Tunisia has completely changed, and new political
housing producer difficult, frequently forcing the dynamics and forces are being unleashed which
producer into illegality. This is a crucial issue since cannot but affect the way policies and programmes
so much housing, particularly affordable housing, is are developed in the housing sector.
produced by individuals. This in turn suggests that
Even so, now is an opportune time to suggest
there should be very straightforward and simplified
certain housing policy adjustments. Along with
regulations and standards for small footprint
other revolutionary changes, Tunisians now expect
buildings.
a government which is much more transparent

with its policies, programmes, and actions and

much more responsive to the needs of the poor and
disadvantaged. Tunisians also expect a government
FOLLOWING THE DEMOCRATIC
that is less beholden to special interests. There are new AWAKENING, TUNISIA NOW
democratic forces coming into play, and thus there HAS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO
is a great opportunity to seize the historic moment
and begin to reconsider national housing policies and ENGAGE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
priorities. The following are some suggestions that AS PARTNERS IN URBAN
will hopefully stimulate debate.
UPGRADING SCHEMES. CIVIL
Equity, subsidies, and reaching those most in need
SOCIETY IS WEAK IN TUNISIA,
At the highest policy levels, the government, in
conjunction with experts, academics, and Tunisia’s BUT WITH PROPER SUPPORT
youth, needs to take a hard look at who enjoys NEIGHBOURHOOD ASSOCIATIONS
what housing subsidies, including indirect subsidies
through taxes, land concessions, and preferences. This COULD QUICKLY EVOLVE.
would be a kind of critical inventory to assess how well
subsidies are reaching those in need. And to better Market efficiency and market choice
define “those in need” a much more refined analysis
of household affordability needs to be undertaken, There are a number of measures that could be
as well as an identification of excluded social and considered to make housing markets more fluid and
economic groups. efficient. The property transfer fee, which in Tunisia
is quite large, should be reduced or eliminated all
Supporting the modest owner-builder together because it distorts market exchange. Instead,
Popular among all classes, auto-construction (self-help the annual property tax, which exists in Tunisia and is
housing building) is by far the most dominant mode imposed by local authorities, needs strengthening and
of housing production in Tunisia. It would seem that more equitable application.
the government should first and foremost be directing To improve market flexibility and market choice,
its enabling strategy towards this mode. This however, Tunisia needs to reconsider its bias towards home
is not presently the case, and it is the corporate housing ownership. Ways to make rental housing systems work
developer that garners the most support. It would better and more efficiently in urban housing markets
seem logical to consider what measures are needed in need to be investigated.
terms of land, finance, infrastructure, and building
standards to better stimulate those of modest means to Community participation in urban upgrading
house themselves. A key fact should not be forgotten: Following the democratic awakening, Tunisia now
the owner-builder housing process generates housing has a great opportunity to engage local communities
which is much cheaper, more suitable, and, usually, as partners in urban upgrading schemes. Civil
of better quality than corporate/contractor housing. society is weak in Tunisia, but with proper support
Adopting more flexible finance packages would be neighbourhood associations could quickly evolve. A
one measure that would particularly assist the modest number of community participation mechanisms can
owner-builder and, in fact, anyone who does not have be grafted onto upgrading programmes, including
steady wage employment. monitoring and evaluation of projects and even
participatory budgeting.
Promoting a variety of housing options
Land and the peri-urban frontier
Other types of housing options such as rental units,
housing cooperatives and condominiumsin the for Tomorrow’s urban areas are being formed today,
of apartment buildings should be considered to partly through “anarchistic” informal development on
reduce demand on land and environmental impacts. the peri-urban frontier. Rather than wait until these
Such models would need awareness building to areas mature and are deemed targets for upgrading,
encourage their acceptability and might also be i.e. development after the fact, is there no way to get
encouragd through appropriate economic incentives, ahead of the game? Are there no measures to be taken
as appropriate, given the positive environmental to combat sprawl and vacant land speculation? Are
attribures. there no ways to encourage rational land subdivisions
and compact, dense neighbourhoods? Must peri-urban
developments be dependent on the private automobile?
90
CHAPTER ELEVEN
One measure to be considered is to raise the corporate private sector has the means to handle the
vacant land tax and better enforce it. Such a tax is current bureaucratic framework, but the individual
already on the books, and with technical support to builder, especially the modest household who is
municipalities it could become an important weapon struggling to build his home, does not.
in the fight against land speculation, an evil that
both raises land costs dramatically and contributes to Appropriate building technologies
urban sprawl. Tunisia needs to explore alternatives to its current
dependency on building materials with high-energy
In anticipation of demand for urban growth and inputs, mainly cement, steel re-enforcing bar, and
the need for urban housing, UN-HABITAT has extruded clay brick. This will not be easy, but without
identified planning of urban extensions to scale local alternatives it is difficult to see how housing
and in anticipation of demand for the coming 20- production will ever outrun its spiralling inflation
30 years, as a policy priority. This approach would and increasing non-affordability. Stabilised soil block
address many of the questions raised here includind would seem to be one sustainable candidate, as would
the ability to provide rental housing units and a revival of the shallow brick vault for roofing.
other housing options, potentially in multi storey
structures, to reduce urban sprawl and consequently The same can be said for construction technologies.
the urban footprint of cities, eliminate unplanned There is a trend in Tunisia for more sophisticated and
extensions an better plan for basic service deliveries. “corporate” construction techniques, which in turn
require more imported technologies and expertise.
Simplified Regulations and Control Such a trend is inevitable, but it need not become
To support the owner-builder process, the building exclusive. Less high-energy and more labour-intensive
code and the building permit regime should be housing construction processes (more befitting the
revisited. Costs and hassles resulting from these owner-builder) can exist side by side with modern
bureaucratic processes could be greatly reduced if construction methods (which befit large mega-
clear, simplified regulations and control measures were projects).
introduced for simple, small footprint buildings. The
SECTION ENDNOTES
1
For a description of the housing enabling strategy, see UN-HABITAT 1997 and UN-HABITAT 2006.
2
For arguments in favor of rental housing for the poor, see UN-HABITAT 2003.

APPENDICES
1. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE CONSTRAINTS MATRIX
1. Land 2. Infrastructure 3. Housing 4. Building 5. Labour and

Finance Materials & Employment
Construction
A.Institutional & A1. No A2. No known A3. No major A4. No critical A5. No critical
organisational institutional or institutional or institutional or constraint(s) to constraints affecting
Framework organisational organisational organizational private sector development of
constraints, constraints. constraints cooperation with skilled labour in
but lack of Coordination affecting access government in construction.
coordination between central to housing building materials
thus delays in infrastructure finance. Tunisia and construction
designating land authorities and has excellent sector.
for residential municipalities record in loan
subdivision. could be better. product extent
and mix.
B. Regulatory & B1. There is B2. Tariffs are set B3. No laws or B4. No known B5. Not applicable.
Legal Framework a vacant land nationally, not regulations or discriminatory
tax, but it is allowing variation over-regulation regulations,
not applied to reflect local that prevent laws, norms or
effectively. efficiencies (dense loans for housing standards that
areas subsidise to go to scale. adversely affect
The property
sprawl). production
transfer fee is
costs of building
distortionary
materials & thus
and applies to
housing prices.
land as well as
buildings.
Overly low
density and wide
street standards.
92
APPENDICES

Construction
C. Supply C1. Past low- C2. No C3. No C4. No critical C5. No constraints
density use of current supply constraints supply constraints affecting supply of
urban land and constraints, but constraining in production and skilled labour for
sprawl have may be in the supply of distribution which construction, except
reduced to crisis future: mortgage affect prices & that educated
point availability loans & credit generate artificial young men see
Water sources
of raw land. for housing. shortages/ construction
are challenged by
However, speculation with employment as
Stepped up drought/global
subsidized loans pervasive impacts non-prestigious.
designation of warming, and
require topping on housing costs.
new residential electricity must
up and thus
land for depend mostly However, most
raising money on
development on expensive important
capital markets
has not been hydrocarbons. building materials
not easy.
effective. for affordable
housing are
capital intensive
and high-energy
consuming.
Their prices are
increasing rapidly,
more than double
general inflation.
D. Demand D1. Land D2. No critical D3. Generally, D4. Auto- D5. Contractors
speculation is constraint on only those with construction and developers
widespread effective demand steady, verifiable households may lean toward
and drives up for infrastructure. incomes can may have capital-intensive
all land prices, Water, power, acquire loans for poor access to construction
making access and wastewater housing, leaving building materials techniques to avoid
to land very fees are a huge segment compared to labour problems
expensive and affordable without access. oligopolistic large (and to fit with
unaffordable for (as long as contractors and image of modern
Also, due
most individuals. household developers (price building styles).
to high and
consumption is and quantities).
Also, allowing growing cost,
low).
banks to loan for housing units
land purchase are becoming
seems counter- unaffordable
productive in for a very large
long term. minority of
households
even with
advantageous
mortgage
financing.
1. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE CONSTRAINTS MATRIX 93


Construction
E. Policy E1. Higher E2. A critical E3. No E4. Government E5. No known
residential constraint to all bottlenecks in has begun a causes which hinder
density and infrastructure policy making & policy of energy- the creation of a
higher land services is that implementation efficient building skilled, properly-
exploitation is a revenues do not that adversely materials and paid, and protected
policy but is hard cover capital affect suppliers sustainable construction labour
to apply. investment and consumers construction force, other than
costs and thus of housing technologies. the very high rates
expansion must finance of unemployment
But few attempts
rely on State in the economy
to discover
budgetary (i.e. extreme
alternative, low-
allocations. And competition for
energy and locally
other means jobs).
produced building
to recoup
materials, or
investment (e.g.
to stimulate
through serviced
labour-intensive
land sales) are
traditional
rarely applied.
building
techniques.
Especially those
which fit the
small-scale,
progressive
owner-builder.
F. Implementation F1. Special F2. (see E2.) F3. No F4. Not applicable F5. Not applicable
arrangements & interests and agreements
instruments promoters between
of luxury real governments,
estate projects financial
constrain institutions,
the supply banks that
of affordable hinder housing
residential land. finance to gain
scale.
G. Institutional G1. G2. No critical G3. Capacities G4. Not G5. No known
capacity institutional and in the financial applicable constraints to
Municipalities
human resources sector & vocational training
are weak in
constraints with particularly and capacity
application of
the public utility housing building in the
vacant land tax
companies. finance do not building trades.
and property
hinder supply
tax.
or operation
of financial
institutions.
H. Affordability & H1. High and H2. Ability to pay H3. (see D3) H4. Most crucial H5. Labour costs
price-to-income increasing for water and building materials represent less than
issues land prices electricity are for affordable 20% of housing
are making not an issue for housing are costs and are not
affordable land low-consumption capital intensive, rising rapidly. Thus
inaccessible. households. high-energy labour costs are
Continual consuming, and not a crucial issue
land price closely linked to affecting housing
increases further foreign markets. affordability.
stimulates land Their prices are (Building materials
price inflation. increasing very and land, however,
rapidly, making are elements which
housing costs very much affect
higher and housing prices and
housing less thus affordability.)
affordable.
94
APPENDICES
2. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE PRIORITY ACTION PLAN

Construction
Sector
I. Institutional & I1. Compact I2. Better I3. None I4. See M4. I5. See M5.
organisational land coordination
Framework development between
needs infrastructure
organized authorities and
promotion by municipalities and
infrastructure AFH are needed
authorities, for new land
municipalities development
and AFH. schemes. (see
also I1.)
So too does
the concept of
internal-cross
subsidies in
land projects.
J. Regulatory & J1. Changes J2. In new land J3. Subsidies J4. See M4. J5. See M5.
Legal Framework of norms to development, need to be
allow compact lower standards targeted only
subdivisions need to be to low income
with high applied (see also households (stop
portion of small K1). government loan
plots. programmes for
the middle class).
Legislation for
land pooling or Abandon
land assembly. practice of
See M1. applying
subsidies
through interest
rates on loans.
Only market
interest rates
should be used,
and subsidies
should be
up-front cash
allocations.
K. Supply K1. City-by-city, K2. In newly K3. As in J3 K4. To support K5. Vocational
revise Urban coalescing peri- above. M4, small scale, training
Development urban areas, local production programmes in
Plans (PAUs) infrastructure of key building using alternative,
to ensure authorities need materials (earth labour intensive
designation better response and cement materials in
and release of to provide block, pre-cast construction
residential land minimal services components
for compact to growing etc.) should
subdivisions populations, be part of the
with high even if these are policy. Special
portion of small deemed illegal. incentives
plots, aimed at for small
owner-builders. entrepreneurs.
(smaller plots,
higher FARs
and less
generous public
spaces)
2. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE PRIORITY ACTION PLAN 95


Construction
Sector
L. Demand L1. Consider L2. Same as K2. L3. More L4. See M4. L5. See M5.
loans (or easy flexibility on loan
payment) for eligibility and
purchases of creditworthiness
small plots of households,
by qualifying including
owner- aiming at the
builders. self-employed
and informal
business
sector. Variable
instalments,
third party and
peer group
guarantees,
micro-finance,
insurance
systems etc.
are needed to
expand the
eligibility base.
96
APPENDICES

Construction
Sector
M. Policy M1. Adopt M2. Policies need M3. Adopt M4. Most M5. Interventions
national to be developed national crucial building which would
policy to (1) (1) to provide policies to (1) materials for improve
revise Urban better, more rapid dramatically affordable construction
Development infrastructure expand housing housing are labour skills and
Plans as provision in credit eligibility modern, capital performance are
recommended growing peri- as in L3, (2) use intensive, few and would
in K1, (2) urban areas and upfront cash high-energy not necessarily
increase vacant (2) to recover subsidies rather consuming, and have any major
land charge infrastructure than interest closely linked to impact on
and greatly capital costs rate subsidies, foreign markets. housing costs,
strengthen its from land (3) target A general especially housing
application, development. subsidies only policy is needed for poor families.
and (3) to low income to discover
consider households alternative, However,
adopting a for modest low-energy and there is scope
regime of land housing, thus locally produced for vocational
pooling/land giving absolute building training
assembly where preferential materials programmes in
the State can treatment to suitable for the using alternative
take up to them, (stop small owner- labour intensive
50%. government builder, and materials in
housing support to stimulate construction
for the middle labour-intensive (including
classes), and traditional revival of some
(4) expand loan building traditional
products geared techniques. techniques). This
specifically at the has direct links to
individual owner- Government M4.
builder. has begun a
policy of energy-
Government efficient building
should not be materials and
in the business sustainable
of financing any construction
but strictly low- technologies.
income housing. These however
add to overall
housing costs,
and should not
be applied to
low-income
housing without
temporary
subsidies.
2. TUNISIA HOUSING SECTOR PERFORMANCE PRIORITY ACTION PLAN 97


Construction
Sector
N. Implementation N1. Consider N2. See M2. N3. N4. See M4. N5. See M5.
arrangements & adopting a Implementation
instruments regime of land arrangements
pooling/land and instruments
assembly. need to be in
line with policy
Re-orient AFH shifts as in M3.
to become One instrument
primarily a land would be
assembler for public private
compact urban partnerships
subdivisions in support
aimed primarily to individual
at owner- owner-builder.
builder. (AFH & preferential
should not treatment to
provide land particular income
for developer segments.
housing
projects.)
O. Institutional O1. MEHAT O2. Not O3. MEHAT O4. To O5. To support
capacity sponsors applicable and Housing support M4, M5, research is
orientation Bank sponsor research and needed to see
seminars orientation development what specific
and training seminars and of alternative skills are needed
on creating policy dialogues low-energy, for construction
compact on main policy labour intensive labour and
neighborhoods shifts regarding building management
through housing finance. materials and to adopt low-
appropriate construction energy, labour-
land policies. techniques intensive, even
suitable for the traditional,
small owner- building materials
builder is needed and construction
in MEHAT and technology.
in the private
sector.
P. Affordability & P1. Same as in P2. Same as in K2 P3. Same as in P4. Same as in P5. See M5 and
price-to-income K1, M1, and and M2. J3, L3, and M3 M4. M4.
issues N1.
98
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TUNISIA

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)

Layout: Gideon Mureithi/UNON

Housing Profile Core Team

Supervisors: Claudio Acioly and Mohamed El Sioufi

Task Manager: Jean D’Aragon

Principal Author: David Sims

Editors: Tom Osanjo, Jean D’Aragon and Nicholas Simcik-Arese

Programme Management and Assistance: Christina Power and Helen Musoke

Financial Support: International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada

Logistical Support: UN-HABITAT Kuwait Office

Under-Secretary General of the United Nations

This report is published by UN-HABITAT as one of a • Land supply mechanisms

4. HOUSING NEEDS AND DEMAND 35

9. CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND BUILDING MATERIALS 74

Table of Contents vii

Table 7.2: FNAH Schemes for Housing Maintenance and Improvement 62

Figure 1.1: Tunis Medina after rehabilitation 7

Figure 5.20: Sfax apartment buildings 51

AFH AGENCE FONCIÈRE D’HABITATION HOUSING LAND AGENCY

ANME AGENCE NATIONALE POUR LA NATIONAL AGENCY FOR ENERGY

BCT BANQUE CENTRALE DE TUNISIE TUNISIAN CENTRAL BANK

BOT CONSTRUCTION –EXPLOITATION BUILD-OPERATE-TRANSFER

FNAH FONDS NATIONAL POUR NATIONAL FUND FOR

ACRONYM NAME IN FRENCH NAME IN ENGLISH

OIF L’OBSERVATOIRE DE L’IMMOBILIER HOUSING AND PROPERTY

PAU PLAN D’AMENAGEMENT URBAIN URBAN DEVELOPMENT PLAN

PNAQP PROJET NATIONAL NATIONAL SANITATION

TI TRIBUNAL IMMOBILIER PROPERTY TRIBUNAL

OURGT OBSERVATOIRE URBAIN URBAN AND REGIONAL

Community participation in urban upgrading: Appropriate building technologies: Tunisia needs

Year Total population Associated Annual Growth Rate

Figure 1.1 Tunis Medina after rehabilitation

Table 1.2: Basic Facts and Figures on Tunisia

Item Year Value

* Institut National des Statistiques

Year Total population Annual Growth Total urban Urban population

Source: AUGT 2008(a), p. 4.

There is a very low incidence of HIV/AIDS in

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND

had been dominated by the French. Only the public

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 13

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 15

poor to attain decent living standards. The fund is

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 17

institutions, such as the military, the police, and CENTRAL LEVEL

house improvement. ARRU works closely with AFH

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 19

1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

USAID HG-001 USAID HG-002 World Bank, Third USAID HG-004D

Housing Bank, 1988, USD

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 21

Tunisia starting in 1992. As of 2010 AFD and its

POLICY, INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORKS 23

KEY PLAYERS IN HOUSING

3.1 HOUSING PROVISION IN TUNISIA 3.2 OVERVIEW OF CONTRIBUTIONS TO

1994 2004 % Annual Increase

Source: AUGT 2008(c), p. 4

Table 3.2: Annual Production of Housing Units in Tunisia by Provider 2006-2010