Thinking about moving to Malta

Quality here is very low, houses are damp, mouldy and very cold in winter which is longer than you might imagine.  And worse because houses are not built for winter.

Going from shell form to finished with 40k is maybe realistic a few years ago or maybe for a small 1 bed with basic finishings, now I don't think that is even in the same ballpark.

It's advisable to have a holiday here before deciding also it's best to rent when you first come here to see if you like living here.

Don't buy shell finished.

You can't be sure how much work will be left to do and building quality seems to have declined these last years.

I have bought a maisonette in Malta (I can't speak about Gozo) in a building from the seventies and I am happy so far.

Hi, all my wife and Ihave been living in Ireland for the past twenty one years, we are both in our early seventies, and we are finding the long wet cold winters are too much, and would like to live in a country with a good climate, we have been looking on line at estate agents, and most of the properties are very expensive, we could afford an Apartment, but are unsure about shell finish, how much extra would we be looking at to get it finished, also it seems that traditional houses are very expensive. We were thinking about retiring to Gozo, we are thinking of travelling over in October this year, are these Apartments well built, or would we be better off looking for a traditional stone built house, thanks Paul
-@Guest7828

I would not advice you to buy a traditional stone built house. These buildings have no insulation and right now are cooler inside than outside when the sun is shining. In order to have a proper judgement about the climate you should come here when it is worst. I recommend January to March. Gozo has a lot  of new flats right now in Xlendi, but some of these places don not get enough sunshine and are unpleasant from December to April. If you will come in October you will not get a true weather feeling of Malta. I consider October the best month of the year. It is at least as pleasant as July in Ireland.

Hi, all my wife and Ihave been living in Ireland for the past twenty one years, we are both in our early seventies, and we are finding the long wet cold winters are too much, and would like to live in a country with a good climate, we have been looking on line at estate agents, and most of the properties are very expensive, we could afford an Apartment, but are unsure about shell finish, how much extra would we be looking at to get it finished, also it seems that traditional houses are very expensive. We were thinking about retiring to Gozo, we are thinking of travelling over in October this year, are these Apartments well built, or would we be better off looking for a traditional stone built house, thanks Paul
-@Guest7828

You say you have lived in Ireland for the last 21 years but are you Irish or UK citizens? If Irish, no problem, if UK it will not be so easy to retire here as it used to be as you are now TCNs.

If you were able to get residence here as UK citizens it would only be on a year to year basis initially so would be better to rent to start with. Also it would give you more time to decide where you would prefer to buy at a later date.

Good luck.