Property Description

Three-bedroom, Spacious and Modern Beach House in Sicily’s Palermo Region

20 kilometres south-east along the Tyrrhenian coast from Palermo, in a quiet residential area just 500m from the nearest beach, Villa Maria Giovanna is a three-bedroom semi-detached home with a large garden. Its twin first floor terraces offer partial sea views, and with the large open garden you’ll never be short of plenty of space to relax and enjoy the beautiful Mediterranean climate.

Whether you want to invest in a Summer escape that can generate rental income when you’re not using it, or are considering a full-time relocation, this house is big and well-located enough to cater for your needs. Coming in under the €200,000 mark, we think it’s a great deal.

Although sharing a party wall with its neighbour, Villa Maria Giovanna does not lack privacy, screened by a hedge to the front and a wall to the rear. The 2010-built family home is in good condition, too, with great windows and flooring.

In style it actually has more in common with many northern Italian houses than the traditional Sicilian design, with sunny yellow plaster on the external walls, clay floor tiles and wooden stairs underfoot rather than the ubiquitous local marble tiles, and finishing trim in dark wooden tones.

The property, perfect for a first-time buyer of a beach house in Sicily, is sold with air conditioning, radiators in all rooms powered by an efficient boiler and the kitchen as seen. Ready for immediate inhabitation, the villa is an excellent option for a family looking for a holiday home right next to a quiet beach, with great transport links and on a mid-range budget.

The Property

The front door of the smart modern home leads you straight into a large living room. With a glazed front door and a window facing west it is bright, and the white walls and partially open wooden staircase accentuate the height of the ceilings. It’s L-shaped around the separate kitchen, and heated by a radiator.

The kitchen is compact but neat, with a double sink, oven and gas hob. A really nice backsplash has been added in a local tile pattern.

Also on the ground floor are two guest bedrooms, both with with radiators and garden views. The slightly larger one faces east, letting the morning sun straight in through the window. The smaller one is a squareish room which would also make a nice study, about 15m2 in size with a built-in bookcase. It overlooks the veranda.

Completing the ground floor are a sunny yellow bathroom with a box shower and heated towel rail, and a storeroom which makes practical use of the space under the stairs. These lead up to small landing which is heated by another radiator. An almost idenitical bathroom here has been finished in turquoise tile, with shower and built-in linen cupboard.

To the left from this landing, the master bedroom is both spacious and bright, with access to a private terrace through French windows which face east and an additional window to the south.

A larger first floor roof terrace is completely open to the south and the west, meaning that it gets direct sunshine all day. This overlooks a handful of neighbouring houses and gardens, but there also offers a partial sea view.

The garden is about 500 square metres in size. One highlight is a deep veranda in front of the main entrance, covered by a fixed hardwood canopy and finished with terracotta tiles underfoot. Framing this, and indeed throughout the garden, are some beautiful ornamental plants and a mature olive tree. The driveway is in perfect condition with some well-laid crazy paving, and the whole property is fenced in, with a characterful stone front wall and railings on the street side. These open through a pair of automatic gates, one for cars and the other for pedestrian access.

The windows are made of wood and have external blinds and mosquito nets. Air conditioning has been installed on the ground floor, and the radiators throughout are heated by a gas boiler. The cylinder is buried underground in the garden, for aesthetics and safety. It also provides the property’s hot water. The home is served by a large storage tank for water, and a septic tank for sewage.

Surroundings

Villa Maria Giovanna is just half a kilometre from the sea, although a small frustration is that the need to cross the coastal railway line by a footbridge means that the walk takes about twenty minutes. By car, of course, it is a very short trip. The seafront of Altavilla is long and varied, with both public and private beaches and several popular beach clubs, but it is much less frequented than many spots in the region.

Inland, the green hills rise up steeply, making the views from the terraces really green and relaxing. You would not feel as if you were a twenty minute drive from the outskirts of Italy’s fifth biggest city. The property around here is all recent construction, and in contrast to many seafront communities, many are inhabited throughout the year – not only during the summer months.

The nearby motorway connects Palermo, whose international airport can be reached in 40 minutes, to the famous beach town of Cefalù, a similar distance to the east. The biggest town in the neighbourhood is Bagheria, with around 50,000 residents. This offers all manner of choices for shopping, food (it boasts two Michelin-starred restaurants) and some extremely important examples of Baroque aristocratic villas. Despite the proximity of this motorway there isn’t an issue with noise pollution, and the road of the villa itself has very minimal traffic.

Potential

The property has been very well maintained, and needs absolutely no work doing in the short or medium term. We think that the location, proximity to the sea and views all combine to make it a great option for the asking price

No doubt with one eye on the Sicilian climate, the vendors have chosen to pave over some areas of the garden, in contrast to the green lawn retained by the immediate neighbours. However, this could be removed and turf laid for an investment of just a couple of thousand Euros, if you have children who want to run around on a softer surface, or if you just have what the Italians would call a ‘green thumb’ – a love of gardening.