House hunting

Best to come over first, survey the areas and see what there is to offer,, look at property types and locations...

Thanks Toon,
Been to Paphos several times, years ago nearly purchased through an agent which turned sour, we had a lucky escape and which took us to Malta.
Ideal may be to find a property owned by ex-pats moving on?

plenty of them going back to UK..... or looking to downsize......

we never bought when we lived In malta for 6 years as was never confident enough in buying property having seen how they build them,,,,,and with the recent collapse of a whole building in mellieha - a close friend's home (rented) she sadly has lost everything and was lucky to escape alive ...on saturday the third one to collapse in three months...

property is better built here in my opinion and of better quality and i suspect much cheaper too... more choice of styles too.  and overall better value for money

Although we are in Gozo - more suitable to us - the same 2008 frantic rush to develop and generally prices rapidly on the increase etc.
Some folks have very short memories!
Recently they changed conditions of permanent residence and if your (rented) dwelling is no longer available, you must now conform with the new conditions which doubled the minimum rent and the minimum purchase prices required. So for the two of us we will have to rent a 4 bedroom property!
We never really considered purchasing here, always felt outsiders.

I understand that feeling.. although we always felt at home we never felt it was our last resting place... here we have a great home and it feels like home...

Like you we always felt that we weren't quite accepted. . Despite having many maltese friends

Any we have no regrets and genuinely feel that we made a good decision to move here

Also you may like to consider bank repossessions.. latest figures suggest over 32000 repossessed homes held by banks. All major banks have them on their books...

Well - that' a very interesting suggestion.
Where to begin?

Enquiries with the local Municipalities and also the major banks repossessions departments.. (Bank of Cyprus, Alpha Bank, Hellenic Bank) it can be a frustrating path as ive found out trying to identify who owns the empty unkempt (but good condition) properties due to data protection legislation etc,... talk to neighbouring property owners they may give clues too....