Salt air drifts through a small stone window, and beyond the glass the Mediterranean spreads out in a ribbon of blue so bright it almost looks painted on. You are standing on a tiny balcony barely big enough for two chairs, coffee in hand, and on a clear day you can even make out the shape of the Aeolian Islands sitting on the horizon. This is not a five star resort. This is the rooftop of an 83 square meter house that costs less than a used car back home.
That is the thing about these hidden corners of Sicily. The views that would cost you seven figures in coastal California come attached to houses priced like a down payment. We have spent our careers hunting for these kinds of properties, the diamonds in the rough that do not look like much from the street but hide something special once you climb the stairs. Today we are walking you through three of them, each with its own personality, its own price point, and its own version of that million dollar view.
The Story Behind These Three Hidden Gems
Cheap houses in Italy are not hard to find. There are thousands of them scattered across the south, sitting empty in villages that lost population over the decades.
What is hard to find is a cheap house that is actually worth buying. That takes an eye for the bones of a building, the location, and the potential hiding under bad wallpaper or old furniture.
All three of these homes are what we call diamonds in the rough. None of them are move-in-perfect, but all three are livable as is, and all three sit in spots where the location alone does most of the selling.
Casa Macaion, a Tower Home for €35,000
Casa Macaion is asking €35,000 for 83 square meters (about 900 square feet) of living space. That is not a big footprint, more like a large apartment than a house, but it is stretched across three levels like a little tower.
There are two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms total. The entry level counts as a habitable room in its own right, and the bones of the place, the hard finishes like the staircase and structure, are in genuinely good shape.
Ground Floor Entry and a Window Onto the Piazza
Right from the entry level, the window looks across a tiny piazza (town square) at a former convent that now works as a museum. Down the street sits a bell tower with Arab-influenced architecture, possibly a thousand years old, a nod to the North Africans and Saracens who once passed through this coastline.
The museum is normally only open in summer, but once you get to know the comune (town hall or municipality), locals tell us you can often arrange a visit off season too. You can drive right up to unload groceries, though regular parking will likely mean a short walk.
The Wood-Fired Kitchen at the Top of the Stairs
Climbing the polished granite staircase gets you to the second bedroom, with the same piazza view growing a little better with every step. At the top is the kitchen and dining area combined, simple but well equipped for a €35,000 home.
The appliances stay with the sale, and tucked into the kitchen is a working wood-burning oven with a little ash tray built underneath for easy cleaning. Locals have likely been baking bread in ovens like this one for centuries.
The Rooftop Balcony’s Postcard Mediterranean View
Then there is the surprise. A small balcony off the top floor opens onto a genuinely stunning sea view, the kind that stops you mid-sentence.
The washing machine even lives out here in its own weatherproof enclosure. But it is the water, the old bell tower, and on clear days the silhouette of the Aeolian Islands that make this little perch worth the climb.
Casa Dejo, an €18,000 Renovation Project with Vision
Casa Dejo is priced at €18,000 and is nearly double the size of Casa Macaion. This one is for buyers with an adventurous streak and maybe some construction experience, though honestly the work involved is lighter than you might expect.
There is a small courtyard out front where you can pull a car up to the door, and just next door sits a beautifully restored neighboring home, a nice preview of what is possible here.
A Ready-Made Studio Apartment on the Ground Floor
You enter through a lower door into what used to be a separate studio apartment, complete with its own kitchen and bath and its own street entrance. An elderly couple who once lived here converted this level years ago when the stairs became too much for them.
Above it, the main house is two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so you effectively get a rentable or multi-generational unit built right in.
Upstairs, Future Bedrooms Bathed in West-Facing Light
Past the main entry is a spacious room of a couple hundred square feet with no current plumbing, ideal as a living room or extra bedroom. One flight up is what we would call the future master bedroom, generously sized, with a small bathroom that will need updating and a leftover kitchen nook next door.
That extra nook is bonus space you could fold into the bathroom for a proper walk-in closet. Even from this floor, a little Mediterranean view peeks through the window, facing west toward the sunset.
The top floor is the real payoff, with large windows framing a view east across the water and the north coastline of Sicily, plus another old bell tower in the distance. There is already a working wood-burning oven and existing plumbing here, so the future kitchen could come together without a full rebuild. One wall does need attention, sealed from the roof down, but the granite stairs and iron railings throughout are all in solid shape.
Casa Rosaria, a Sprawling €55,000 Home Built Like a Puzzle
We saved the biggest for last. Casa Rosaria is listed at €55,000, negotiable, for 200 square meters (about 2,153 square feet) of living space, not even counting the bonus rooms below.
This house is a maze in the best way, built and expanded over generations so that staircases seem to appear everywhere, a bit like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
The Grand Dining Room and a Maze of Staircases
Right off the entry is a dining room that has to be seen to be believed, easily 350 square feet with original tile floors worth preserving. It is one of the most impressive single rooms across all three properties.
Further in is a bedroom on its own semi-private level, with a full bathroom nearby that could be shared or kept private for a future master suite. Furnishings stay with the home, and the hard finishes throughout are solid enough that renovation here could be light.
A Top-Floor Suite and Three Surprises Below
The top floor delivers the first big surprise, a breathtaking sea view from a functional wood pellet stove room that practically begs you to linger with your coffee. One more narrow staircase up leads to a top floor primary suite with its own ensuite bathroom and a sizable bonus nook that could become a walk-in closet, all under a view of both the sea and the mountains.
Downstairs holds the second and third surprises. A cantina (cellar) currently used for storing water, olive oil, and wine sits just off the main level, plus a huge subterranean room with high ceilings that would make a fantastic gym or den, staying cool even in summer.
Beyond that is a future two-car garage behind double doors, and directly across the street sit the ruins of a medieval castle with a panorama to match. It is a lot of house, a lot of history, and a lot of potential for €55,000.
Property Highlights of Casa Macaion, Casa Dejo & Casa Rosaria
Here is a quick snapshot of all three homes if you want the essentials at a glance.
- Casa Macaion: 83 square meters (about 900 square feet), two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, three levels, rooftop balcony with a Mediterranean and Aeolian Islands view
- Casa Dejo: nearly double the size of Casa Macaion, two bedrooms and two bathrooms plus a separate ground-floor studio apartment, sea glimpses from multiple floors
- Casa Rosaria: 200 square meters (about 2,153 square feet), multiple bedrooms, a huge original dining room, cantina, subterranean bonus room, future garage, and sweeping sea and mountain views
- All three include existing furnishings and appliances as part of the sale
- All three are considered habitable as is, with solid structural bones and hard finishes
- Location across all three sits near historic piazzas, old bell towers, and in Casa Rosaria’s case, medieval castle ruins
- Watch the full video tour of all three homes
- Featured in Episode 13
- Asking prices: €35,000 for Casa Macaion, €18,000 for Casa Dejo, and €55,000 for Casa Rosaria
Please note: our property tours stay online long after filming, and homes like this tend to sell quickly, so this one may no longer be available. If it has already sold, we can still help you find something similar. Tell us your dream, and we’ll help make it real.
Three Sea View Homes Waiting for Your Vision
What ties these three houses together is not just the low price tags. It is the fact that each one comes with a view of the Mediterranean that would be unthinkable at these numbers almost anywhere else in the world.
Casa Macaion gives you a tiny balcony perch above a piazza with centuries of history. Casa Dejo trades polish for potential, with two sea-facing floors just waiting for the right vision. Casa Rosaria stretches out over multiple levels and throws in a cellar, a bonus den, and castle ruins across the street.
None of these are turnkey in the traditional sense, and we will not pretend otherwise. They are exactly what we look for though, homes with good bones, honest prices, and locations that do the heavy lifting.
If you can see past the current furniture and a little wear on the walls, there is real value sitting in these three houses. Sometimes all a house needs is someone willing to imagine their morning coffee on that balcony, looking out at the sea.
