Luxury Homes Sell Like Hot Cakes in Malta

2014 was a year for consolidation and recovery in many international property markets and Malta was no exception, with transaction activity rising to record levels, particularly for big-ticket properties on the island.

Demand for luxury homes on the tiny Mediterranean island-country remains consistent in 2015 and although a shortage of property at the high-end has started to impact prices, that hasn't dampened investor enthusiasm at all.

Grahame Salt, director of Homes of Quality part of Frank Salt Real Estate Group in Malta said: "In the last year or so the property market at large has picked up. Sales in Malta this year are up by around 40% and in the case of our company by around 60% to 65% over 2014. I would say the high-end market has experienced growth at a similar ratio".

"It is not a case of 'if the property is expensive, then it is a home of quality' but rather the evaluation is based on the quality of the property itself. We take a look at the Frank Salt real estate database, which lists thousands of properties and shortlist a few hundred, based on the quality of the property itself, the location, the value for money and saleability of the property. It could be a studio apartment but if it is a top quality studio apartment, it would quality. We also deal with very high-end properties such as palazzos and villas, but those need to be marketed in a slightly different way, whereby for instance we produce brochures for them and market them overseas," he added.

Foreign buyers are generating significant demand for Maltese property, particularly at the high-end with almost 50% of property transactions being recorded to overseas buyers in 2014. "We get a lot of locals who are looking for good quality properties and want to be treated perhaps with a little more discretion but then through the website we attract a lot of interested foreign clients too. The majority of foreign buyers in Malta are British but there are also a number of French and Italian buyers, Russian buyers due to the citizenship scheme as well as Dutch and South Africans but it heavily depends on where we're promoting at a particular point in time."

Investors at the high-end in Malta are generally looking for contemporary villas with character rather than more traditional builds. Luxury villas are predominantly concentrated in the Sliema and St Julian's area but villas and houses of character are more dispersed across the island.

Grahame Salt continues: "In the case of villas, the most popular locations are close to the seafront, such as Victoria Gardens, High Ridge, Medliena, Birguma, Mellieha as well as along the seafront of Marsaskala. There's a very limited supply of good quality villas and whenever there is a concentration of them in an area that is generally sought after. As for houses of character they are a bit less location-sensitive because people tend to focus more on the house itself rather than on the location. Having said that, the areas of Gharghur, Lija, Balzan, Attard, Naxxar and Zebbug are still very popular".

Malta's golden visa programme which requires a real estate purchase of at least €350,000 for non-EU buyers to qualify for residency has seen significant take-up since it was introduced just over a year ago. The English-speaking island of Malta enjoys a sunny climate for most of the year and has some spectacular landscapes that continue to draw property investors from all over the world.