Casa Antonella – Balestrate

€ 180.000

Balestrate - 90041

#86500364

6 Rooms
1 Bathroom
93 m²

Renovated Two-bedroom Villa with Sea Views Thirty Kilometres from Palermo; Potential for a Dream Roof Terrace and Ideal Transport Links

Casa Antonella is a smart two-bedroom villa in the countryside between the small towns of Balestrate and Alcamo Marina, 30 kilometres west of Palermo. It is only a kilometre from the sea, at the centre of the Gulf of Castellammare, a spectacular deep bay which is famous for its long sandy beaches and clear warm seas.

It is close to the state road SS187, which connects Balestrate to Castellammare del Golfo before continuing west to the provincial capital, Trapani. The location is perfect for a summer home, with only half an hour to travel to the airport and fabulous landmarks like the beautiful marina of Castellammare, the historic tuna fishery of Scoppello, the nature reserve of Lo Zingaro and the ancient ruins of Segesta right on your doorstep. Not to mention the fabulous beaches right around the corner.

The single-storey house offers nearly 100m2 of internal space, including a kitchen, living room and bathroom as well as the bedrooms, and a paved garden. It has been renovated in the last two years, including the facade and all interiors. It is very much a blank canvas and you will probably want to set aside some budget for adding a bit more greenery and some personal touches, but it is absolutely ready for immediate use.

The Property

A metal gate brings you onto the driveway, laid in concrete slabs to match the mid-century looking home. There is space to park a couple of cars off-road, although street parking is almost unlimited as well. The front patio has a small flower bed, and a broad external staircase which leads up to the roof, mostly sloping but with a long L-shaped walkway which gives you a view of the sea and surrounding countryside.

On the north side of the home, a glazed front door brings you into a neat living/dining room of 16m2 with a garden view. The floor in this space is a faded terracotta tile, and this continues down the corridor that runs through the rest of the property. Directly off the living room is a kitchen, itself big enough to hold a small dining table if you want to make the first space a little cosier. This is fitted with a modern suite of worktops, cupboards and a sink. The oven and fridge freezer are included in the sale.

On either side of the passageway, the two bedrooms both face south and get plenty of sunlight. Measuring 10m2 and 16m2 respectively, they are each big enough to be doubles or twins. Here, as in the kitchen and bathroom, the floor is a polished white ceramic.

The bathroom is L-shaped and ample, nearly fully tiled in white and equipped with a tub that has a shower attachment. Twin storerooms give you all kinds of space for cleaning equipment and out-of-season stuff. If you want to rent the home out to tourists [LINK TO ARTICLE WHEN IT'S ONLINE] when you're not here the larger one could be invaluable for storing personal effects.

Outside, you'll find a wraparound patio and an outdoor shower which is perfect for cooling and cleaning off on your way home from the beach. There are two nice olive trees, an orange and a young dwarf pine. One of the pair of little outbuildings will be demolished before the sale to comply with building regulations, but the other will remain.

The property is not on the municipal water grid, so water is drawn from a large cistern that needs to be filled occasionally by tanker. Drainage is into an Imhoff septic tank which is compliant with all appropriate regulations.

Surroundings

By car it is only five minutes to the beach, and you have a choice of many great ones at hand if you don't mind driving another short distance. The nearest is walking distance, but the first hundred meters of the route does unfortunately run along a state road with no pavement. It would be a great place to own and use a bike, or a motor scooter if you want to blend in with the locals.

Balestrate is just four kilometres to the east coast, and it's in this small town of about 5,000 residents that you'll find the nearest supermarkets, year-round bars and so forth. Alcamo Marina is slightly closer but really comes to life in the summer. Alcamo proper is a much larger town, home to about 40,000 residents and with shopping centres, a small hospital and an active cultural life centred around the tightly packed old town and the fourteenth century Castello dei Conti di Modica.

In ten minutes you can reach the sights and excitement of Castellammare del Golfo, a beautiful harbour town surrounded on three sides by steep hillsides. Beyond this are Scoppello and Lo Zingaro, which you can explore on foot or by boat. The temple, ancient theatre and hot springs of Segesta temple, theatre are a twenty minute drive.

Trapani city is 45 minutes away, as is Castelvetrano to the south. The Medieval fortified town of Erice can be reached in an hour, as can the Caribbean-style beach of San Vito Lo Capo and the vineyards of Marsala. Travelling in the opposite direction brings you to the thrilling and ever-evolving Palermo in three quarters of an hour.

This is pretty much best place in Sicily for international travel, with Palermo's airport is 30 minutes away, and a secondary one at Trapani just 45 minutes.

Potential

Although the renovation has been very smartly executed, you'll probably want to add a bit of character to the décor, which is all-white both inside and out. A more colourful floor would help, and so would more greenery in the garden – although the concrete yard is easy to maintain if you're not planning on making Casa Antonella your full-time home.

There is neither heating nor air conditioning, present, and we would look to add a trio of two-way air conditioners that could solve both of these issues at a stroke, in the living room and bedrooms. The windows and front door could also be brought more up-to-date in order to keep these temperatures under control.

A more ambitious project would be to rebuild the roof to make all of it flat and usable, rather than the narrow walkway around the perimeter. This would also give you the space to install photovoltaic panels to give you energy independence. If you would like any help with building work, our unbeatable range of after-sales services includes everything from consultation to project management.

If you're buying Casa Antonella as a second home, its sea views, convenient location and polished presentation would make it a good candidate to cover your costs and more. Ask us about how our sister company Solemar Sicilia works hand in hand with Property in Sicily to give you the best possible help in this field.