Mazatlan old town casa near Olas Altas

Mazatlan's Centro Historico has spent the last twenty years quietly turning itself back into one of the most attractive urban neighbourhoods on the Pacific coast, and this three-bedroom colonial townhouse sits right in the middle of it. The facade is classic Sinaloan nineteenth-century: tall arched windows with iron grilles, a small wrought-iron balcony, and a painted stucco front in the warm ochre and terracotta palette the historic district is known for. Behind the door is 120 square metres of high-ceilinged living space arranged, as these houses always are, around a central patio.

The ground floor holds a long living and dining room with the original exposed beams overhead and the original patterned pasta tile underfoot, then a kitchen at the rear opening onto the courtyard. The courtyard is the heart of the house: open to the sky, walled on all sides, cool even in August, and big enough for a table for six under a jacaranda. Two bedrooms sit upstairs with the balcony room facing the street, and a third ground-floor bedroom works equally well as a studio or guest room. There are two full bathrooms, both renovated within the last few years.

The house is liveable now and does not need work to move into, though there is obvious upside for a buyer who wants to restore the plasterwork properly, add a roof terrace over the rear section, or convert the ground-floor room into a rentable casita with its own entrance. Ceilings run close to four metres, which keeps the interior naturally cool and gives any renovation real presence.

Location is what makes this listing unusual for its price. Olas Altas beach is 350 metres away, a genuine two-minute walk down a shaded street. This is the original Mazatlan seafront, a crescent of golden sand under a curving promenade where locals gather every evening to watch the sun drop into the Pacific and the cliff divers work the headland. The malecon that begins here runs 21 kilometres north, past Playa Norte and into the Zona Dorada, and is one of the longest oceanfront walkways in the world. Runners, cyclists, food carts, pulmonia taxis and live banda music fill it every night of the week.

Plaza Machado, three blocks inland, is the social centre of the historic district, ringed with open-air restaurants, the restored Angela Peralta theatre, art galleries and a coffee culture that would not look out of place in Oaxaca. Mercado Pino Suarez, five minutes further, is a genuine working market where the shrimp comes in daily from the boats in the harbour. Mazatlan is Mexico's shrimp capital, and it shows on every menu.

The city is well connected. Mazatlan International Airport is 30 minutes south with direct flights to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, Calgary and Vancouver, and the toll highway east reaches Durango in three hours through the spectacular Espinazo del Diablo. There are good private hospitals, a large permanent Canadian and American community, and a real year-round local economy built on fishing, shipping and tourism rather than tourism alone.

For a foreign buyer the historic centre sits outside the strict beachfront band but still within the coastal restricted zone, so purchase proceeds through a fideicomiso bank trust in the standard way. Rental demand is strong: Carnaval in February is one of the largest in the world and fills the centro completely, and the November to April snowbird season keeps well-presented centro houses booked. At 2,290,000 pesos, a three-bedroom colonial within walking distance of a Pacific beach is the kind of value that is becoming genuinely hard to find anywhere in North America.