Relocating to Malta in 6 weeks

Hi Auspom,

welcome to the forum and thanks for the kind remarks about the blog.

I'm sure George will be sending you his great list.

I just want to comment on the townhouse/property market in Malta. Malta is full of derelict and/or unused properties and newly built or just started appartment blocks. Most are way overpriced.

It is not the best time to buy a property but good to find a nice reasonably priced rental property.

My advice is to rent and look around and get used to the different areas of Malta and wait and see how the prices develop in the future.

Cheers
Ricky

Thanks for your advice, Ricky. We plan to take a 6 month rental and find our way around before buying - so i think we're on a similar page.

Are you able to answer the question about the car valuation tax??

Hi Auspom,

the vehicle registration tax is a one-time tax when the vehicle is first registered in Malta , whether as a new or a used,imported vehicle if the owner does not qualify for exemptions.

The road tax is paid once a year when you renew your car insurance and payment is displayed with a disk in the car window.

Cheers
Ricky

very good advice from ricky and george....

Buying now or the foreseeable future is not a good idea...IMO...property here is well overpriced and doesnt show signs of being reduced - hence a lot of empty properties and not a lot of negotiation to reduce.

Hi Auspom, It's good that you find this site so helpful, I most certainly did when I originally moved to Malta some 18 months ago but sadly had to leave only 12 months later!

However, some balanced perspective if I may! Firstly, let me say that I absolutely loved my time in Malta and if not for reasons beyond my control, I suspect I would still be there today...

However, having been raised in the UK but also having spent time in the USA, South Australia and Spain it was initially fantastic to live in Malta and have everything so close to hand (albeit that at busy times traffic in Malta can give any major city in the world a run for its money!) but from a personal perspective, I did start to miss open spaces and the ability to travel far and wide along with those things a country boy like me loves as in open green fields, rivers and streams and lots of trees...

So as per the previous excellent posts, my point would be to really get to know the island(s) and possibly rent in several areas before even beginning to contemplate a purchase as reselling property in most cases will be a very slow process...

Aside from that, I cannot emphasise enough what a great place it is with in the main fantastic people but the governance and administration does take some getting used to???

But each to their own and I really hope that you enjoy Malta and I for one certainly hope to return upon a fairly regular basis once circumstances allow.

Mike

list on its way

List received and perused,
George, you're a star!
I'll take my time reading it to avoid unnecessary pestering for advice already given.
Many thanks,