Property Description

One Bedroom Apartment for Sale in Palermo’s Old Town

Tucked away on a one way street in the heart of Palermo’s historic Ballarò market district, this apartment is a well-restored, practical base for life in one of Sicily’s most up-and-coming city neighbourhoods. Whether you’re looking for a small home for one person in the island’s capital, a holiday pad that could bring in some reliable cash while you’re not about, or just a pied-à-terre in the Mediterranean Sun, Appartamento Ballarò would make a very smart investment.

Spacious, bright and comfortable, this one bedroom apartment has two balconies and a beautiful shared entrance, staircase and lift. It is a practical space perfect for a couple to use part-time or digital nomad travelling solo, but as a holiday home it could comfortably sleep four.

The Property

Measuring 70m2, this first floor apartment for sale in Palermo enjoys a great central location. Overlooking a small street diagonally across the way is the colourful covered market of Piazza del Carmine. It is divided into a large open-plan living space and a bedroom, plus a bathroom with a shower.

The walls are a smart white plaster that keeps the place feeling roomy and fresh. The ceilings are high and so are the full-length windows, opening out onto the balconies. These are in good condition, with double glazing and smart wooden shutters that help regulate heat and sound as well as the light.

The living room contains a dining area and a fitted kitchen, with a neat beige cupboard suite and nautical blue backsplash. A washing machine is plumbed in and there is also an extractor fan to keep humidity under control.

The bedroom is very roomy and simple – perhaps this would be given a personal touch by a spot of colour, or some more artwork – but wonderfully lit and with plenty of cupboard space. The bathroom is nicely tiled with a walk-in shower.

There are radiators throughout and an air conditioning unit in the bedroom to make sure you can stay comfortable all year round, even in the city’s long hot summers.

The entire palazzo building in which Appartamento Ballarò is found has been restored in the very recent past, and the common spaces are beautifully presented. There is a vaulted lobby with marble floors, which impresses without the sense of wasted space that you can sometimes find in these old buildings. A beautiful open staircase passes up through a beautiful rounded archway and then winds around a very large, modern lift. This last feature guarantees that the apartment can be easily accessible to all guests.

The apartment for sale in Palermo is ready for immediate occupation, and includes an alarm system connected to the security door downstairs, a satellite system for international TV reception, and high-speed fibre-optic internet.

The vendor is prepared to listen to offers to buy Appartamento Ballarò fully furnished, as seen, which would of course make the process of buying a house in Sicily and even smoother and faster one.

Surroundings

Almost outside your front door, the ancient street market from which the apartment takes its name begins to spread out through the streets, selling everything from meat, fish and vegetables to household goods. Around the corner, the perennial favourite Pasticceria Porta Sant’Agata serves freshly-made pastries to a loyal local clientele.

A few streets away is a wonderful local initiative, the ice cream parlour BarConi. Supported by a local cooperative which also manages co-working spaces and a restaurant, not only is this some of the best-tasting gelato to be found in Palermo, but a social endeavour staffed entirely by recent arrivals to Palermo from around the world.

This area of a fabulously storied, multicultural city (we couldn’t begin to fit everything it has to offer into one short paragraph, but take a look at our extensive guide to this bustling and emerging city) a has begun to follow the path taken by La Kalsa, the increasingly trendy stretch of Palermo on the other side of Via Maqueda. Now filling up with artisanal businesses, boutiques and bars, real estate prices in La Kalsa have begun to rise dramatically, and we see the same in store for this part of town. If you’ve ever walked through a rejuvenated, once-industrial area of Berlin or Barcelona and thought ‘I wish I’d got into the market just before this all changed’, here is your chance to do just that.

Although surrounded by a distinctive neighbourhood community, Appartamento Ballarò is very much at the centre of Palermo. All the city’s major landmarks, from the famous twin theatres (the Massimo and Politeama) to the Cathedral, seafront and fashionable shopping district of Via Libertà, are within easy walking distance. So too is the Centrale station, which will bring you to the airport in around 45 minutes, or to any corner of the island, including Cefalù, Agrigento and Catania, within a couple of hours’ travel.

Potential

The central location and spacious, flexible layout mean that there is obviously great tourist rental potential for Appartamento Ballarò. In the past it was rented, for spells, on both short-term basis and longer-term contract. Obviously if you would like to invest in a rental property in Sicily without actually relocating to the island then you will need a property manager, and our sister company Solemar Sicilia has been helping holidaymakers find their perfect accommodation for decades.

We would be delighted to make the relevant introductions and help you find trustworthy cleaning and maintenance staff, manage bookings and even make a splash with some well-crafted online publicity.

There is really no further work that needs to be done to this lovely apartment – any extra investment would be purely discretionary. In Sicily there is always the temptation to buy a ruined property and do the renovation work yourself, and indeed this can be a fabulous way to work. However, the narrow streets, traditional nature of the area and sprawling Palermitano bureaucracy make this an advanced project, not one we’d recommend to first-time developers on the island.

If your heart is set on a restoration project we suggest it would be much better to start with one of our more rural redevelopment projects and work up to the complexities of the big city. If, on the other hand, what tempts you is a quick and easy transaction which still has potential for return on your investment, this simple but superbly functional apartment for sale in Palermo is a great compromise – saving you time, money and a good few grey hairs.

The condominium fee, which includes the cleaning of stairs and hallways but also water consumption, electricity for the staircase and the lift, and even an annual gas safety inspection, is a very reasonable €55 per month.