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Furnished Apartments

Apartments

You don't choose a furnished apartment the way you choose a room for three nights. You move in for an assignment, an internship, a semester, a new job or a long stay back home, and you live there like any other resident: you do your market shopping, you get to know the corner shopkeeper, you make the same commute every morning. That commute, in fact, decides almost everything.

This page explains what a furnished apartment means in Senegal, why supply in Dakar is currently split neighborhood by neighborhood, and how to tell which one suits you. Each neighborhood then has its own page, with its landmarks, its streets and the points to watch.

What "furnished" means here

In our vocabulary, a furnished apartment is an entire home, equipped to be lived in rather than just visited — dishes, a working kitchen, bedding, often a desk area — rented for several weeks to several months. It is most often offered directly by its owner, without an agency, and everything is settled with the owner: the check-in inventory, utilities, and the cleaning schedule if you want one.

Three things set it apart from a vacation rental. The price is worked out by the month, and the long-stay discount you get matters more than the season you pick. The neighborhood matters more than the apartment itself, because that is where you will spend your evenings and weekends. And you check how things work — electricity, water, backup power — before the decor, because a month of outages costs you far more than a single night.

Furnished apartment, apartment, serviced residence: where the line falls

All three terms appear in listings, and mixing them up often means booking the wrong product.

An apartment is the broad category: an entire home rented for the day, the night or longer. If you are coming for a few nights, or staying outside Dakar, start with apartments in Senegal.

A furnished apartment, the subject of this page, is the "moving in" version: a long stay, a chosen neighborhood, a negotiated monthly rate, and no hotel services.

A serviced residence combines a furnished home with building services managed for you. It is a different formula with its own page: serviced residences in Senegal. A furnished apartment costs less; a residence saves you the organizing.

Why supply is concentrated in Dakar

The capital concentrates everything that generates stays of several months: government offices, regional headquarters, international organizations, NGOs, the university and major hospitals. Add to that students, interns and a Senegalese diaspora that comes back for weeks at a time, often with family. This steady flow has created a furnished rental market that does not exist on this scale anywhere else in the country.

This market is best read neighborhood by neighborhood, for a practical reason: the peninsula is narrow and its main roads get congested. Between the administrative center to the east and the residential tip to the west, the same trip can take twenty minutes or an hour depending on the time of day. Over three months, that time matters far more than an extra ten square meters. The right neighborhood is therefore first the one that shortens your daily commute, and then the one whose evening life suits you.

Where to find furnished apartments in Senegal

Five Dakar neighborhoods have their own page. Each one fits a different profile, and the best way to choose is to start from where you will spend your days.

Plateau. In Plateau, ministries, banks and markets are all within walking distance; on the other hand, the streets empty out in the evening. Furnished apartments in Plateau suit people whose work is downtown.

Mermoz. In the middle of the peninsula, furnished apartments in Mermoz spare you from choosing between east and west before you even know your own routine.

Point E. Tree-lined streets and low-rise buildings: furnished apartments in Point E are often single floors of villas, best assessed as a shared house rather than as an apartment building.

Liberté 6. A dense, lively neighborhood where the same budget buys an extra room: furnished apartments in Liberté 6 are the choice for long stays on a real-world budget.

Almadies. On the western tip, between the ocean and the breeze, furnished apartments in Almadies mainly raise one question: with or without services, and what "without" really costs. Almadies remains the area farthest from downtown at rush hour.

Outside Dakar. Neighborhood furnished apartments do not yet have a page anywhere else. In Saint-Louis, the equivalent is found among the city's apartments; in Thiès and Ziguinchor, which are mission towns, people tend to stay in serviced residences. On the Petite Côte, long-term rentals usually take the form of a villa.

What to negotiate, what to check

The monthly rate. Beyond one month, this is the main lever. Raise it in your very first exchange with the owner; the discussion is normal and expected.

Electricity. Flat rate or metered, and above what threshold? With air conditioning, two homes of the same size can cost very different amounts. Also ask what the generator or inverter covers, if there is one.

Water. A water tank or cistern avoids days without pressure, which are common on upper floors.

Security deposit and inventory. Amount, refund terms, inventory: better to put them in writing at the start than to argue about them when you leave.

Floor and orientation. They determine noise, ventilation and how hot it feels — in other words, your real comfort over several months. A unit with cross-ventilation beats a larger one facing full south.

The furnished rental calendar

Furnished rentals follow the tourist calendar and its high season, from November 1 to May 31, only loosely. They follow the calendar of the academic year and job start dates instead: arrivals cluster around September, the market tightens from late summer, and the best apartments are taken months in advance. Conferences and institutional sessions can also fill the downtown area all at once.

The climate, for its part, changes your checklist. From March to June, the heat makes air conditioning and backup power top-priority criteria, especially in neighborhoods away from the sea. From July to October, the rainy season (hivernage) brings humidity and showers, but it is also when demand eases and the monthly rate is easiest to negotiate.

Good to know & booking

You book by paying 20% of the total online, which is our booking fee; you pay the balance to the owner on arrival, in cash most of the time. When you are arranging a move from afar, this avoids tying up the full amount during the weeks of waiting. For a long stay, a second deposit may be required; the listing will say so.

From Blaise Diagne International Airport (AIBD) in Diass, allow about an hour to Dakar. With moving-in luggage, have your transfer arranged in advance. And to find your feet quickly, a Senegalese cooking class is a good investment when you will be cooking every day.

Free cancellation is possible up to 7 days before arrival if it falls in low season (June 1 – October 31), and up to 14 days before if it falls in high season (November 1 – May 31). After that, the booking is non-refundable. If the owner cancels, we direct you to a comparable furnished apartment in the same part of Dakar, or refund you in full. The resident rate is shown on every listing: it applies to people living in Senegal and to the Senegalese diaspora, and is granted after your account is verified by phone.

The tourism promotion tax (TPT) is added to the displayed rates: 1,000 FCFA per person per night, payable on site to the owner. For a stay of several months, remember to build it into your budget from the start; Senegal Rent does not collect it.

Who is it for?

Assignments and new jobs lasting a few weeks to a few months, when a hotel becomes a burden and a lease is out of the question.

Students, interns, researchers and medical residents, drawn to the neighborhoods close to the campus and hospitals.

Families relocating who need a base while they find their permanent home.

The Senegalese diaspora coming back for long weeks and wanting to live in a real neighborhood, close to family and the market.

Frequently asked questions