Casa Nido – Porticello

• 1 Rooms

• 2 Bathroom

• 24 m²

• Ground floor

Casa Nido – A Cosy, Characterful Studio Apartment on a Quiet Square Steps from the Harbour in Porticello: Could This Be the Cheapest Holiday Home in Sicily?

This really might be the cheapest holiday home in Sicily, at least in a location as convenient and welcoming as seafront Porticello. Unlike the island's infamous one-euro houses, it needs no renovation work at all, and could be used from the say you complete the purchase – even if you want to make some small tweaks while you're there. 

Casa Nido is a cosy, characterful studio apartment on Largo Orlando, a quiet square in the heart of Porticello, one of the small harbour towns that line this part of Sicily's north coast. Structurally, it's in excellent condition and needs no investment beyond a little routine maintenance.

Porticello keeps its rhythm all year round, set by the return of the fishing boats rather than the tourist season. Cafes, small shops and the traditionally Sicilian routines of the harbour carry on whether it's August or January, which makes this a practical base for exploring the island rather than just a summer retreat.

For buyers who want a second home in Sicily without taking on any work, Casa Nido offers about as straightforward a way in as you will find. It was bought a while ago by a German buyer as a first foothold on the island, chosen for being easy to look after and simple to reach. They're now upgrading, and we think that creates an opportunity for it to do exactly the same job for its next owner.

The Property

You reach Casa Nido up a short flight of steps to a raised ground floor, entering through a glazed front door that lets in natural light. It was originally built as a storage space but intelligently adapted to become a 24m² studio with a mezzanine bedroom. To the right of the entrance is the kitchenette, fitted with a worktop, storage, a sink, gas hobs, a fridge and a washing machine. The rest of the ground floor is given over to a living area. The walls are in a quintessentially Sicilian shade of peachy terracotta, and the finishings are well chosen.

A staircase brings you to the mezzanine bedroom, whose double bed is enclosed by an old stone archway. Ornate semicircular ironwork, of the kind you would usually find above the door of a grand palazzo, has been put to great use here as a window through the opening. It keeps the sleeping area secure while still letting air circulate, and adds a nice touch of character to an otherwise simple room.

There are currently two small bathrooms, one on each level. The entrance door has good quality double glazing, and the walls were recently treated with a specialist anti-damp paint, keeping the apartment in good health even when it is left empty for a while. The apartment is regularly connected to mains water, drainage and electricity. A little condensation around the bathroom and one corner of the entrance is no more than a sign of time passing, and ordinary maintenance would easily restore what might be the cheapest holiday home in Sicily to full health.

Surroundings

Porticello is one of our favourite corners of the island region, and it is no coincidence that one of our offices is right behind Casa Nido. It is a proper working harbour village, not a resort, where life still runs to the rhythm of the fishing boats rather than the tourist season. Locals do their daily shopping at the greengrocer and bakery, catch up with old friends on benches in the piazza, and gather at family-run bars along the seafront for an early evening drink as the boats come in.

The sea is just 150 metres away, and at the end of the street is Piano Stenditore, the recently re-landscaped seafront park that has quickly become a favourite spot for locals and visitors alike. This is no more than two minutes on foot. You can get to the town's small sandy beach in under ten minutes. Everything is conveniently walkable, although - unusually for a seafront village like this - you will not struggle to find somewhere to park anywhere around the neighbourhood.

A little further along the coast, the old fishing hamlet of Sant'Elia has a particularly pretty cove with colourful boats pulled up on the sand, and from here the whole headland offers beaches and coves in pretty much every direction you look. The archaeological park of Solunto and the nature reserve of Monte Catalfano rise above the village, and the Baroque town of Bagheria, known for its grand villas and good restaurants, is a short drive away.

The train station at Santa Flavia is only about ten minutes on foot, and from there Sicily's bustling capital city, Palermo, is just twenty minutes away. The international airport can be reached by car in around 45 minutes, or by train with a single change.

Potential

As mentioned above, Casa Nido is ready to use exactly as it stands, with nothing essential that needs doing before you move in. The only thing to flag is some condensation around the bathroom and one corner of the entrance, noted in The Property; it is a cosmetic issue rather than a structural one, and a routine treatment costing in the region of a few hundred euros would put it right.

If you wanted to make more of the space in what could be the cheapest holiday home in Sicily, there is also the option of removing one of the two bathrooms to create a larger living area or a more generous wardrobe. This kind of restyle could likely be done for a few thousand euros depending on the finish you choose, though it is by no means necessary.

Because of its size, Casa Nido would not qualify for the licences needed to run it as a short-term tourist rental, so this is not the right property for a classic holiday-let business. That said, it could theoretically suit a medium-term tenant, perhaps someone working away from home for a season who would appreciate a quiet base over the winter months; this would give you both a degree of security while the studio is empty and a modest return on your investment.

Our Welcome to Sicily service can help with this kind of practical follow-through: coordinating any refurbishment work, looking after the property while you are not in the country, helping you open an Italian bank account or finding your way through the paperwork that comes with owning a home here.