Furnished house - what does this mean?

Hello Katie,

A fully furnished house at an average of MUR 35,000 has most of your kitchen requirements, anything like a master chef mixer, good pots and pans, juice maker, a clothes dryer (definetely not standard here), dishwasher may not be there. As your budget increases to 50,000 + you will find most of the items you require available.

Details like lighting i.e. table lamps, bed table lamps. maybe a miss whatever the budget.

If your children are going to école du nord, you will still have to consider driving from grand bay to get to Port Louis a good 45 minutes + congestion unless you leave after 09:00 am or before 07:00 am.

Negotiating rent, really depends on the region i.e. Flic en Flac there are a lot of houses that are empty (targeted for tourism) because Tamarin has now become more attractive for self catering.

Grand Bay would probably be more unlikely to negotiate more than 10%.

A house that generally has a pool will be maintained by the owner because he has already a 12 month contract with a third party provider, this would also apply for rentakill services. If ads do not refer then it generally imposed and negotiated in addition.

Good luck in your quest to settling into Mauritius. Merry Xmas and a good start to 2014 in the tropics.

Hi Katie,

We recently went hunting for a rental flat in the north, here are some of the things we found:

* Rental prices vary hugely (You can pay anywhere from MUR 15,000 to 50,000)
* The more you pay, the more you get (you won't get a house on the beach with full western comfort for MUR 15,000)
* At the lower price range the quality varies hugely too
* Fully furnished can mean anything, but you can negotiate what you get
* There is a huge glut of rental properties, so you'll have plenty to choose from, and a good place to negotiate from
* Prices are very negotiable, with a bit of skill you can knock 25% off the price
* Pool maintenance and cleaning is usually included in the rent
* Garden maintenance is usually included in the rent if you're living in a residential complex

Our 2 biggest issues with the place we ended up renting are:
1. The complete lack of insulation means that the top floor gets very hot on a sunny day (everyday), and stays hot all night
2. Our windows don't have fly screens, so the mosquitoes like to visit us at night

As Frenchieg mentioned, Port Louis can be a bit of an issue to get into during peek hours.  Driving times in Mauritius can be much longer than a map would let you believe.

Good luck in your move!

Regards,

Dan.

thedandan wrote:

...with a bit of skill you can knock 25% off the price...

I need to practice on the negotiation skills

Negotiating is easy:

Step 1. Get your Mauritian wife to do all the talking
Step 2. Hide your foreign skin and accent in the bushes

More seriously, when we were looking 3 months ago, the rental market was totally crazy (I assume it still is).  We looked at many rental properties, and ALL of them were vacant, usually for several months.  I think the bottom is going to drop out of the rental market.

Dan.

thedandan wrote:

I think the bottom is going to drop out of the rental market.

Dan, I agree with you but only in certain areas like Flic en Flac because of the tourist holiday rental market shift to Tamarin which has caused numerous owners to review their policy on short term rentals i.e go into long term rentals. The short term rentals per night have become over priced in Flic en Flac. Recently a beautiful 250 sq meter house with all amenities and comfort and extremely secure grounds went for MUR 16,000. The owners starting price was MUR 28,000. This did not necessitate arduous negotiations except looking and questioning about the neighbours i.e. I see that next door is empty as well? Actually all 4 houses were. Anyone still renting long term at Xmas time has definitely withdrawn from the short term rental.

As for the property market: we have a 9% negative growth in the construction industry foreseen this year. 3 years ago I predicted a massive drop in the property market within 5 years, and everything is indicating as such but not for another 2 years.

This said, 1 year ago we were renting beach property in Tamarin on long term, at MUR 55,000 per month and we saw the market was not taking the increase on renewal and hence decided to concentrate on the short term rentals and have let all long term contracts expire. This is the Tamarin area and is very well suited to short term rental.

Definitely negotiate on everything - rental prices have come down in the north and there is a glut of housing (although the new road bypassing PL may change that). Don't use an estate agent if you can help it, sites such as this one and Mums/Dads of the North and Mums of Mauritius often advertise rental houses so you can avoid paying out 2-3 months rental in deposit and agent fees.  Speak to everyone and check out the shop windows at Super U, Store 2000 and Chez Popo for housing ads.  Don't rely on your container for essentials - we waited 2.5 months for ours end to end (friends have waited 4 months).  Furniture is very expensive here and not the best quality so you don't want to buy unless you have to.  But the second hand market is busy busy