The neighbourhoods
Plateau
XOF 350,000–800,000/mo for a furnished two-bedroom; older unrenovated stock from around 200,000The colonial grid at the tip of the peninsula: ministries, banks, the BCEAO, Kermel market and the Grand Théâtre, emptying out after 7pm. Genuinely walkable, which almost nowhere else in Dakar is.
Commute: You are already there. Everything else is a reverse commute, which is the underrated advantage — you drive against the morning tide instead of into it.
- The only part of Dakar where a car is genuinely optional
- Ferries to Gorée, the ministries, the banks and the museums all within a short walk
- Reverse commute to anywhere on the peninsula
- Residential stock is thin and much of it is tired — this is an office district that happens to have flats
- Dead at night and at weekends, with the nightlife an expensive taxi away in Almadies
- Street parking is a competitive sport and traffic funnels through here all day
Point E, Fann & Mermoz
XOF 400,000–900,000/mo for a furnished two- or three-bedroom; unfurnished chambre-salon from around 150,000The professional middle of the city: villas subdivided into flats, UCAD and the teaching hospital on one side, the Corniche Ouest on the other, and the densest concentration of restaurants that are not aimed at tourists.
Commute: Plateau in 15–25 minutes off-peak and up to an hour at 08:00. The Corniche is the escape route when the VDN seizes.
- The best balance in Dakar between price, walkability and being near things you will actually use
- Corniche Ouest for running and the outdoor gyms built into the sea wall
- On high ground — the rainy season is an inconvenience here, not an event
- Subdivided villas vary enormously in build quality street to street; view before you commit
- Student density around UCAD means noise and periodic campus disruption
- Prices have risen fast and the value gap against Sacré-Cœur has narrowed
Almadies, Ngor & Yoff
XOF 700,000–1,500,000/mo for an apartment; villas comfortably above 2,000,000; smaller Ngor and Yoff flats from around 300,000The north-west coast and the diplomatic default: walled villas, serviced apartments, the surf breaks, and the westernmost point of the continent at the end of the road. Ngor and Yoff are still Lébou fishing villages underneath the development.
Commute: Plateau in 25–35 minutes off-peak and 60–90 at rush hour along the VDN or the Corniche. Blaise Diagne airport is 45 km the other way, not next door.
- Guarded residences, international schools within reach, and the sea in front of you
- The densest concentration of restaurants, hotels and coworking aimed at foreigners
- Ngor and Yoff give you the same postcode at a fraction of the Almadies price if you take a village street
- The most expensive part of the city and you will be car-dependent
- Airport noise is gone since AIBD opened, but the old Yoff runway area is still an industrial patchwork
- The gap between a Ngor village flat and an Almadies villa is a factor of five for a five-minute walk — do not assume the postcode sets the price
Sacré-Cœur, Liberté & Mermoz-Sacré-Cœur
XOF 150,000–400,000/mo for a chambre-salon or small F3; newer three-bedrooms 400,000–700,000Where Dakar's own professional class lives: 1970s Sicap and HLM estates filled in with new-build blocks, the VDN running through it, corner shops and gargotes on every street.
Commute: Plateau in 20–35 minutes off-peak via the VDN or the Corniche; genuinely bad between 07:30 and 09:00.
- The best quality-for-price trade on the peninsula, and by some distance
- A complete neighbourhood — market, pharmacy, tailor, mechanic — rather than a compound behind a wall
- Well served by taxis and ride apps at every hour
- New-build quality varies wildly and off-plan sales here have a poor record
- The VDN is loud and crossing it on foot is unpleasant
- Very few landlords are set up for the documentation a foreign tenant needs
Ouakam
XOF 250,000–600,000/mo for a two- or three-bedroom; cliff-facing new-build well above thatA Lébou village that woke up under the Monument de la Renaissance: cliffs, the Mosquée de la Divinité on the rocks, a former military airfield being redeveloped, and new blocks going up between old family compounds.
Commute: Plateau in 20–30 minutes off-peak via the Corniche; Almadies in ten. One of the better positions on the peninsula.
- Sea and cliff frontage at prices Almadies stopped offering years ago
- Between the airport road, the Corniche and the VDN, so you are never boxed in by one artery
- Still a real village at its core, with the social life that implies
- Construction is constant and the redevelopment of the old airfield will run for years
- Land tenure around the village core can be genuinely complicated — verify who owns what
- Thin on international schools and supermarkets compared with Almadies
Diamniadio & the TER corridor
XOF 100,000–300,000/mo for a new-build two- or three-bedroom — a fraction of comparable space on the peninsulaThe state's answer to a full peninsula: a planned city 30 km east with ministries, the Dakar Arena, the exhibition centre, an industrial park and the Youth Olympic Village, connected by the TER. Purpose-built and still filling in.
Commute: TER to Dakar every 10 minutes on weekdays from 05:30 to 21:00, XOF 1,500 second class — the only Dakar commute that traffic cannot touch. Driving the same trip at rush hour is a different experience entirely.
- New housing at prices the peninsula cannot match, with the rail link to make it work
- Space, parking and no flooding history in the planned sectors
- Close to the AIBD airport road, which matters if you fly often
- Amenities are still arriving; evenings and weekends can feel empty
- Everything depends on the TER — check the timetable against your actual working hours before you sign
- Off-plan purchases and lettings here have attracted their share of disputes; verify title before money moves
How renting works in Dakar
Two things decide everything. First, the law: décret n° 2023-382 du 24 février 2023, in force from 1 March 2023, caps the deposit at two months' rent for leases at or below XOF 500,000, of which only one month may be taken at the start with the balance spread over twelve; caps agency or brokerage fees at half a month's rent in the same band; and says rent is payable at the END of the month of occupation, not in advance. Second, the market: landlords routinely ask foreigners for several months up front anyway. Budget for the reality and negotiate toward the law.
- 1
Land somewhere furnished for a few weeks
Short-let apartments in Point E, Mermoz, Sacré-Cœur and Ngor are plentiful and are the standard landing pad. Two to six weeks buys you the ability to view in person, which matters more here than in most cities because listing photographs and reality diverge sharply, and because you cannot judge a street's rainy-season behaviour from a photo.
- 2
Search the portals, then the WhatsApp groups
Expat-Dakar carries the deepest stock by a wide margin, with CoinAfrique Sénégal, Keur-Immo and Loger-Dakar behind it. But the better unfurnished flats in Point E, Fann and Ouakam frequently never reach a portal — they move through neighbourhood WhatsApp groups and through the gardien of the building next door. Ask everyone.
- 3
Work out who you are actually dealing with
Between you and the owner there is usually a démarcheur or coxeur — a freelance intermediary with no licence, no agrément and no accountability, who will want a fee for the introduction. Licensed agencies exist and are worth the difference. Before any money moves, ask to see proof of ownership: the titre foncier, the bail, or the délibération, depending on how the land is held.
- 4
Assemble the file a landlord will ask for
Passport and copies, your carte d'identité d'étranger or récépissé, three recent payslips, your employment contract or an attestation de travail, and bank statements are near-universal above about XOF 250,000 a month. A newly arrived foreigner with no Senegalese payslips substitutes an employer letter — and is then asked for more months up front, which is exactly how the illegal advances get normalised for expatriates.
- 5
Insist on a written lease, and read what it says about the caution
Get the rent, the caution, the charges, the notice period and the inventory in writing, with the amounts stated separately. If the lease says three months' caution payable immediately on a XOF 400,000 flat, it is asking for something the 2023 decree does not permit — say so, in the room, with the decree number. It is remarkable how often that changes the number.
- 6
Do the état des lieux with photographs, on key day
Walk the flat with the landlord or agent, write down every mark and every appliance, and photograph all of it with the date visible. This document is the only thing standing between you and an invented damage deduction two years later, and it is the single most commonly skipped step in the whole process.
Upfront cost
The law is specific: for leases at or below XOF 500,000 a month, the caution may not exceed two months' rent, only one month may be demanded at the start of occupancy, the remainder is spread over twelve months at one twelfth each, agency or brokerage fees are capped at half a month's rent, and rent is payable at the end of the month rather than in advance. The market is equally specific: foreigners are routinely asked for two to three months' caution plus one to three months' avance, in cash, before viewing is over. On a XOF 400,000 flat the decree points at roughly 600,000 to get the keys; the number people are actually quoted is closer to 1,600,000. Carry both figures.
Where to search
Insider tips
- Learn the vocabulary before you search: a chambre-salon is a one-bedroom, and an 'appartement 3 pièces' counts the salon as one of the three. English aggregators mistranslate this constantly and inflate apparent value by a whole tier.
- Negotiate, and negotiate hardest on the advance rather than the rent. Landlords defend the headline number and are far more flexible on how much of it they take up front — which is the part that actually hurts on arrival.
- Ask three questions about water and power before you sign: is there a tank and a pump, is there a generator or an inverter, and who pays for the fuel. Cuts happen, and a building without storage is a building without water when they do.
- Insist on your own Senelec meter. In subdivided villas several flats sometimes share one and the landlord splits the bill — a reliable source of monthly argument.
- Take unfurnished if you are staying a year or more. The furnished premium in Dakar is severe and you will recover the cost of furnishing well inside twelve months.
- Get a receipt for every payment, including the caution, with the date and what it is for. Cash with no paper is the normal state of this market and the reason deposits vanish.
Avoid these
- Paying a démarcheur a 'visit fee' for a flat that is not available — the classic version collects it from twenty people for one address
- Renting from someone who is not the owner; ask for the titre foncier, bail or délibération before any money moves
- Accepting a verbal lease, which leaves you with no proof of the rent, no inventory and no route to a judge over your deposit
- Signing in the banlieue — Pikine, Guédiawaye, Keur Massar, Yeumbeul — without asking neighbours what the street looked like last August; the flooding there is annual, not exceptional
- Reading 'charges comprises' as all-inclusive; water, electricity, internet, the gardien and rubbish collection are frequently extra and are often the difference between two apparently identical flats
- Signing before you have driven the commute at 08:00 on a weekday — the peninsula's two arteries turn a 20-minute trip into an hour without warning
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.