I recently spent a few days in Sicily with Shalise, a Canadian-American who studied at the American University of Paris. She’s an interior designer and a buyer’s agent in Malta and Sicily.
We were visiting some ruins that could be converted into Airbnbs when she pointed out an entire village for sale in the hills around the city. The location is excellent; it could be a good play for intrepid investors who enjoy hands-on work and are prepared to navigate the Italian bureaucracy.
It could be turned into a whole resort and be used for conferences and events, given that it’s in the heart of one of the Sicily’s most touristic cities.
This is not an Airbnb play. This is a resort play.
What kind of ROI can you get?
If you make the right choices in Sicily, you can achieve net returns of 5 to 6% on Airbnb. It is an attractive option for both Americans and Europeans seeking an affordable investment that is easily accessible by air from all of Europe.
Feel free to get in touch with Shalise using the link below.
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor
To a World of Opportunities,
The Wandering Investor.
Services in Italy:
Articles on Italy:
- Why invest in Siracusa (Syracuse) real estate in Sicily? Good ROI
- Village life in Sicily – the case for real estate, taxes and lifestyle
- Renovating Historical Property in Sicily: is it worth it?
If you want to read more such articles on other real estate markets in the world, go to the bottom of my International Real Estate Services page.
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Transcript of “Buying a Historical Village In Ragusa, Sicily – Is It Worth Renovating?”
LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, Ladislas Maurice of The Wandering Investor today in beautiful Sicily and we are checking out a whole village that is for sale. So, Shalise, you’re a buyers agent, investment advisor here in Sicily, what what are we doing here?
SHALISE: So, this property is an entire village within a city. Uh, there’s a potential to make it 19 holiday homes, five shops, two restaurants, a bar, so you can really create an entire complex.
How much does it cost to buy a village in Sicily?
SHALISE: And we wanted to come to see it together and in fact, right when we wanted to come to see it, it got pulled off the market. So, the asking price originally was around 500,000, now it’s up to you, whatever you decide to possibly offer so we can see what we can negotiate with the with the owner and with the seller’s agent. But, as you can see, it has full potential, no walls to even behold you to any structure uh and it can certainly lend itself to more of a resort style living. It can be perfect for tour groups. There’s a lot of senior tour groups that come through Ragusa or potentially for conferences, which is a really underdeveloped market in Sicily but slowly growing, where you have easy walking access to all of the shops and amenities in town as well as whatever you manage to develop here. But also, you have a lot of access within the the buildings themselves.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, this is really interesting because Ragusa is one of the top tourism destinations here in Sicily and this little village is within Ragusa. So, it’s not just buying some little village in the middle of nowhere in Sicily where no one really wants to go. Here there’s actually a lot of tourism and people want to spend time here, all the dining options, the bars, all of that. And then you’re just walking distance away from it and you have the whole village.
SHALISE: Yes. Incredible. Yet incredible location. Price at least for whatever it was listed for when we saw on the listing, incredibly low for what you have here. You have also a river that’s flowing just next to us, so you could create almost some kind of lido structure, but obviously, as you see, everything to be renovated.
How much are renovation costs in Sicily?
SHALISE: You’re looking realistically, let’s say, depends obviously on what exactly your program is for this kind of investment, but most likely around 7 and a 1/2 million it would take to really develop everything considering you have around 3,000 square meters of built area at around €2,000 per square meter of investment.
LADISLAS MAURICE: So €2,000 per square meter is high in terms of renovation costs for for Sicily. Typically you’d be lower than that, but because, I mean, in some cases it’s almost new construction, and then you also have all of the infrastructure of the village to build as well. That’s why you end up with a higher cost per square meter of renovation. Look, this is unique. You know, I travel the world looking for investment opportunities. For anyone that has this sort of budget, you can make it work, right? I’m not too sure what the exact concept would be, if it’s just doing 19 holiday homes, I’m not sure that it would be enough. I really think like you were saying, you need to target tour groups, because that’s a absolutely unique offering, being able to put all the tour groups within a single village in a major town, and then like you said the conference market. I think that’s interesting. It’s pretty undevelop- underdeveloped here in Sicily, though it shouldn’t, because there are flights from everywhere in Europe, really affordable. There are two airports, so there’s Catania Airport, about what, 2 hours away from here?
SHALISE: Around an hour and a half or so.
LADISLAS MAURICE: An hour and a half. And then there’s a little airport with direct flights to Paris, Brussels, I think Frankfurt, I forgot, Rome, Milan, half an hour away.
SHALISE: Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Comiso, in the town of Comiso exactly. So, it’s very accessible. And Ragusa is quite popular already. I could even see this kind of village lending itself almost to a more shared investment structure like a fund, perhaps, someone who wants to get together with a few people and share the property, can be both holiday home, also for them. It could be also a really interesting structure. Plus the idea of having bars and restaurants would even add value not only to your property, but even to the neighborhood.
Is it easy to renovate property in Sicily?
LADISLAS MAURICE: Look, I again, I travel around the world, and when I see things like this it just makes me smile, because it’s just so interesting. You can do so much with this. Obviously, it’s for larger budgets, but it would be a fun project. You do a lot of renovations here in Sicily and in Malta. Yes. Just tell us a bit like because it’s not an easy place to be dealing with like big renovation projects, like in terms of permitting, in terms of labor.
SHALISE: Yes, I let’s say, Mediterranean has a certain lifestyle that also comes with some complication in terms of working, but obviously, you end up with incredible results that you don’t find other places, where perhaps you have the opportunity to do some work on some new builds with a bit easier work, easier contractors to deal with, but the opportunity to renovate something like this would be really incredible. When you have the bones of a historic structure to work against, you never get the same results as what you would if you have only a new build. And it’s something really beautiful to be part of preserving and restoring something that’s part of the character of the village, and even to offer something not only for the investor who buys it but even for the neighborhood, makes it even more special.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Other villages like this for sale in Sicily?
SHALISE: There are, probably not as special as this one in terms of having a village inside the city, but there are a number of other villages, masseria, things like this that we can definitely help you find, whatever your budget is in any location around Sicily.
How to contact Shalise
LADISLAS MAURICE: Fantastic. So, if you’re interested in speaking to Shalise about investing in real estate here in Sicily, about renovations or construction here in Sicily, there is a link below to get in touch with her. Shalise, thank you very much.
SHALISE: Thank you so much for coming.
LADISLAS MAURICE: Make sure to download my free eBook, 12 Mistakes to Avoid When Investing in International Real Estate, which you can find on my website link below, and feel free to follow me on Instagram @thewanderinginvestor. I look forward to hearing from you.
