Can My Sicilian Second Home Make Me Money?

While the dream of a holiday property in the Mediterranean sunshine is always alluring, if you can’t spend more than a few months a year there, do you need to just accept leaving the place shuttered? Increased maintenance costs from lack of use, security concerns and the reality that some bills will rack up whether you’re using the place or not all nudge many buyers towards putting their villa or apartment on the tourist rental market.

Aerial view of Noto including Basilica Minore di San Nicolò and Palazzo Ducezio, Sicily, Italy

Fabian Gruessner is the lettings specialist at AIPP-accredited agency Property in Sicily, a versatile family firm that has been helping international buyers find, renovate and then manage homes on the island since the 1980s. We asked him to share his insight into what makes a property a rental success — and what you need to know before you can think about hosting guests.

“The headline, for us, is that Sicily is now a dream for short term letting. We had more than 20 million visitors last year, and obviously they can’t all have been in Taormina in August! What we’re seeing is demand all year round and right across the region.

“You’ll probably know that some other countries in the Med have been tightening the regulatory screws on holiday rentals, but Italy is still very supportive of homeowners’ right to earn from their properties. You’ll need to make sure you do things the right way, but as long as the paperwork is in order you can earn very well here.”

With that optimistic outlook, we asked Fabian to give us three suggestions for prospective buyers who don’t already have a home in Sicily but who would like to buy somewhere with passive income potential.

Size Matters

Fabian’s first piece of advice is about scale. Many rental opportunities in Sicily are micro-apartments with one bedroom and a sofa-bed squeezes into the living room. This means that properties sleeping four or more in private bedrooms attract a far wider pool of guests. It’s good to be able to offer flexibility, too – Twin beds that push together or separate give you an edge over a fixed double.

Appeal to the Sun Seekers
People who choose Sicily for a holiday are chasing light and warmth, and they don’t want to have to walk to the beach for that. Ground-floor flats in the old quarters of Palermo or Catania can be atmospheric, but many get almost no natural light. “If you can’t get a balcony overlooking the water,” says Fabian, “remember that Sicilian rooftops are a spectacle in themselves. Get the highest spot in a village and the view will do the work for you.” Outdoor space of any kind, even a modest terrace, consistently outperforms properties without it.

Location or Luxury
This is where the agency sees buyers make their most expensive mistakes. “We love the quieter areas like the Nebrodi Park,” Fabian reports, “and the purchase prices there are really tempting. But part of their appeal is the lack of tourist traffic. That might be a better fit for a full-time relocation to the island. That’s not to say that you’ll never get bookings out in the countryside – nowhere on Sicily is more than a couple of hours from an airport, so there’ll always be someone interested. But if you’re going that route then you need to make sure you can fit the house out with something exceptional — a pool, an agricultural experience, a crazy view… something that people will travel for.”

In areas with premium visitor flow, like the old towns of Palermo and Catania, the coastline around Cefalù and Santa Flavia or the Val de Noto in the south-east, even a two-bedroom flat can generate €20–25,000 gross per year.

Of course with a gross figure there are caveats. You’ll pay commissions on booking platforms, and then there will be utility bills, maintenance, cleaning costs. Income tax on a single short-term rental property is levied at a flat 21%.

Beyond that, if you’re not on the island yourself, you’ll have to find (and pay) someone to manage the place. The administrative burden is real too. You’ll need identification codes (CIR and CIN) before you can take bookings, mandatory safety equipment and a written contract plus guest registration for every booking. It is a lot, but a good rental manager can take care of everything and still leave you with around half of that gross figure. Sicily remains one of the more accessible short-term rental markets in southern Europe. The key, as Fabian puts it, is buying the right property in the first place: “Get that decision right and everything else falls into place.”

Contact Fabian and his team at: info@property-in-sicily.estate

Or visit their website: https://www.property-in-sicily.estate/how-to-run-an-airbnb-in-sicily/