Info on housing, driving, life expenses

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Hello WNadalin,

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A new topic has been created with your post on the Malta forum.

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I would like to follow up on that topic.
I am just back from my holidays to Malta.
Based on a local news paper - Time of Malta - people in the restaurant industry may earn between 800 and 1000 EUR per month.
In the same news paper I saw rental offers - also in the range of 800 to 1000 EUR per month.
How does that work?
Do Maltese restaurants / hotels provide accommodation for their staff?
Or is there a rental market around that is not visible to the English speaking expat?

matjung wrote:

I would like to follow up on that topic.
I am just back from my holidays to Malta.
Based on a local news paper - Time of Malta - people in the restaurant industry may earn between 800 and 1000 EUR per month.
In the same news paper I saw rental offers - also in the range of 800 to 1000 EUR per month.
How does that work?

It doesnt as a single person, but sharing or with a partner its fine.  Just like anywhere else really in london even IT pro's often house share because its impossible otherwise.

Malta is not a good place to be on the bottom of the ladder the costs of things are completely out of whack with salaries

In the restaurant business over here they employ a lot of people from Bugaria and Serbia.Often the minimum wage is paid. That makes a salary between 800-1000 Euros. These people cannot afford to pay a rent of  € 800 per month. They often share accommodation for €350 per month. These accommodations are often arranged by the employer. Altogether one can say if somebody wants reasonable accommodation have a look in the Maltese language newspapers. In english language newspaers there are the cheap jobs and the expensive flats. In the Maltese language newspapers there are the better paid jobs and the cheaper accommodations. Malta has a parallel society. There is hardly a local person working for the minimum wage whilst foreigners do not mind so because in Bulgaria and Serbia wages are lower. Last year I met a cook from Poland who worked in Ireland before. He said he got twice the pay in Ireland, but housing was also more expensive in Ireland. Anyway, after six months he decided to quit the job and take up employment in Sweden.

One of the reasons rental costs have risen is because of the sharing of the properties, landlords know they can ask for more if there are four or more living and paying the rent.

I remember the shared housing market from Ireland.
It is not everyone's pair of shoes to share a rather small place with other guys.
Thanks for sharing your opinions about Maltas labour and housing market for locals and working poor foreigners.

GozoMo wrote:

One of the reasons rental costs have risen is because of the sharing of the properties, landlords know they can ask for more if there are four or more living and paying the rent.

The main reason is that Maltese landlords are greedy And because rents are higher than what regular Maltese person would earn as a salary. Thats the truth.
Because of the iGaming and the good salaries paid over there - usually twice bigger then other sectors - foreigners keep coming to Malta, so everywhere everything is being built. Right now the island is one big construction site. If you go to Sliema or St.Julians and just turn around yourself you should be able to see 7-8-10 cranes around

Anyways, to give you some rough perspective. If you want to live in Sliema, St.Julians, Msida, Gzira - you gotta splash 1200+ for a good apartment (without sharing it with other people) Everything less priced is a dumphole usually. Expect poorly isolated walls, expect dishwasher to be a luxury item and the AC to not being present everywhere. Of course you will find something for 900-1000 but that would be really bad equipped tiny place and you will have to compromise with many many things.
If you move away from this areas - there are cheaper options, again for lower quality.

Other prices are not so high compared to other european cities but still in some aspects are bit on the high side for a place like Malta where everything is generally low quality - infrastructure, roads, buildings, tons of rubbish on the street. Its a tiny dirty place with old infrastructure, terrible traffic in rush hours, lack of parking spaces, mad ignorant drivers and pretty bad bureaucracy.

On the positive side - lifestyle is pretty relaxed, its really warm most of the year, people (generally) are friendly, there is no rush for anything and its pretty safe regarding crime. Compared to other european cities its really safe. Also there are plenty of jobs available in the iGaming and finance sector.