UK pension changes let the vultures descend

You would have to be mental to buy a property here. It's the lowest quality of anywhere I have ever seen, that includes Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Mexico. And it's completely overpriced compared to what is available in Spain and Portugal at the moment.

The Rental Income Return is the 3rd lowest in Europe too -



Wishful thinking from Maltese property agents if you ask me.

And this made me laugh -

"The changes have raised fears that pensioners may go on a spending spree or fall victim to investment fraudsters."

I'm sure there are quite a few Maltese estate agents who could almost be placed into that last category. 

What many, who elect to cash in, could find, to their cost, is a huge tax bill.
As for buying out here?  DON'T!!!

(I do accept there are some exceptions but the majority do and will, rue the day.)

Its more likely the vultures descending will be the scam merchants, they'll move away from bombarding us with PPI rubbish to bombarding us with "pension investments" etc
They think all pensioners are either easy pickings or one foot in the grave.
NOT ME - bring it on -Ive got my whistle ready for bursting the ear drums of the first caller - lol

As for property i Malta - well it'll be a no then!

Rent is where its at.

Most pensioners are going to think seriously, i think the media have got it wrong, pensioners aren't kids who have just won on a horse, they have a mind, they can think, after all its been a lifetime saving it - yes they'll be the odd one who grab media attention but not everyone.

I read somewhere that Frank Salt were promoting 6% rental income..... yeah right.....

whoops gotta go just saw a flying pig

renting is the way to go for both Malta and Cyprus.... rents are so cheap and affordable... i would never ever buy despite it going against everything i have ever learned

things and locations change so quickly that i have no confidence in buying on either island....

It's not just PPI, it started years ago with endowment mortgages, then there was the interest rate swap scandal, thousands of successful small businesses being forced to shut down. Most of these companies who sell annuities are crooks as well.

There was in interesting program I saw about a week ago, it's worth watching if you can find it online somewhere.

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-03-26/toni … evolution/

You need a balance with both not just one. The rental market here has risen quickly in the last 2 years and it will continue to rise. The last thing you need in Malta is a market like they have in the UK.

Here we go:

http://www.uploadable.ch/file/BR26MhVfv … 4-c4tv.mp4

Yes saw that program, the media seem to think that pensioners are easy pickings - they obviously haven't met me (a pensioner almost!) and my friends - most people i know think more than twice before investing in ANYTHING and are very careful with money, after all its bee hard earning it.

Of course our government (UK) think we should not get pension at all!! as they move the retirement age further away - in my grandfathers day they didn't reach pension age and in the future the same will apply OR as some think (my sons anyway) there will be no retirement pension - government funded.

good luck to those who try to prise my hard earned out of my pocket

Quote: "You need a balance with both not just one. The rental market here has risen quickly in the last 2 years and it will continue to rise. The last thing you need in Malta is a market like they have in the UK."

The market is strange in the UK - we have been trying to sell our house for 1 year and have now dropped it to the same price we bought it 11 years ago and thats in Cumbria, its true the houses have risen very fast in certain areas but not ours.

Rental here is on par with what you would pay mortgage.

Of course the media would have you believe everything is bouncing along - we are in election year!!! - the truth is it depends whether you live in the North (as we do) or in the South.

however tempting it might be (NOT) i couldn't use my pension pot as i work for the NHS and they are ruled out of schemes but i do have a very small pension that i could use but wouldn't pay for a door for the house let alone the house. lol

I can't speak for the North of England only London and the home counties and Gran Canaria. The last thing you need is a high quick rising market, it might benefit the owner at the time and the agents ( I have been one for many years) but It ruins the balance. You need first time buyers to keep the wheels in motion and I have seen over the years those FTB's being pushed to rent which then has the developers rushing to buy 4 or 5 homes to put them in which then raises the rental markets to stupid prices. I have seen this in London and Suffolk. The Canaries was just as bad and when I left there was homes for sale all over the place, inflated and left.
Malta's rental market is sensible at present but so was the Canaries when I was there and that changed so much in 3 years and not for the better. Let's hope it stays the way its is here.

I agree prices have rocketed especially in London and the south, take a look at what you can buy UP NORTH (our house) for the price of a car parking space in the South.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for … 82286.html

I have never understood why people want to live in cities but thats me and the draw of Gozo

Its funny when I go up North I find the people to have more of a community spirit then those in the South. When I grew up (43 now) I knew everyone in our street. When I left the UK i barely knew my neighbours. Hence why I have moved here I want my kids to have what I had and the UK cannot offer it. Safety, to play outside and explore and to enjoy generally enjoy life. They already have taken to life here and learning a new way of life and language will benefit them greatly, I have been here a few months and already I know a lot of neighbours.

The UK hasn't had a housing policy for years, by any government, Labour or Tory, and it's all gone tits up. It all started when Maggie decided to flog off the council houses on the cheap, without bothering to replace them. There will be no council-owned social housing left in the UK soon, it will be all be in the hands of the private sector. There was another interesting series just finished on TV about that, Britain's Benefit Tenants, it was both horrific and hilarious to watch at the same time. It's in a sad state of affairs the UK.

I was lucky, when I graduated in '92 I managed to get on the housing ladder in the South-East, but only just. The property I bought back then is worth 4 or 5 times that now, I wish I still owned it. Add in the fact you now leave Uni with £40k or £50k debt, need £25k for a deposit, how are the young supposed to buy a property?? And on a zero-hours  contract!!

The South is nuts. We managed to buy our first property in Brighton seven years ago and it had increased by 70% in value when we remortgaged it a year ago. It's a one bedroom flat that's worth more than a three bedroom house where my sister lives in North Yorkshire. Fortunately, pensioners will now be able to put the deposit down for their kids

Robin Soiland-Mills wrote:

Its funny when I go up North I find the people to have more of a community spirit then those in the South. When I grew up (43 now) I knew everyone in our street. When I left the UK i barely knew my neighbours. Hence why I have moved here I want my kids to have what I had and the UK cannot offer it. Safety, to play outside and explore and to enjoy generally enjoy life. They already have taken to life here and learning a new way of life and language will benefit them greatly, I have been here a few months and already I know a lot of neighbours.

Thats why we feel at home on Gozo and intend to move there when we have sold, life is changing even in the North of the UK, the village we live in here is nice but still we can't sell.
There is a difference even between our village and the nearest town, Carlisle.
As an example, I have been selling and giving away loads of stuff to try and get ready when we eventually move, the day before yesterday someone came to pick up a printer and dropped his wallet at the top of our drive. No one here would have nicked it so when my wife came home off night duty she saw it in the drive and brought it in.
Yesterday I managed to trace him from a business card, he works in Carlisle, he came and picked it up BUT was really surprised that someone would return it, so much so he posted this on Facebook.
For me its how we were brought up so just a normal thing to do.
Had he dropped it in Carlisle he would have waved his wallet, credit cards and money goodbye.

Pig Ear wrote:

The South is nuts. We managed to buy our first property in Brighton seven years ago and it had increased by 70% in value when we remortgaged it a year ago. It's a one bedroom flat that's worth more than a three bedroom house where my sister lives in North Yorkshire. Fortunately, pensioners will now be able to put the deposit down for their kids

It was Brighton I bought my first place in, well, Hove actually 

I didn't want to associate myself with all those ruffians along the coast. 

I bought it for about £44k, I sold it for a tidy enough profit several years later, but if I had held on another 5 years, it was valued at £200k    For a one bedroom flat on the seafront. I made the mistake of searching through one of those land registry websites a few years ago, after I saw the price I wish I hadn't.

I wouldn't want to be graduating these days and trying to get on the property ladder.

I have a friend who bought their first flat in Hove for a similar sum and sold it for 250k. Mind you, it's still nothing compared to some areas in London.

Back to the original post, I did get an email from Frank Salt as I rented through them in 2011 (and I must say that at that time they were very friendly and helpful). In it they say that you can get 4-6% return on renting a property and a capital gain growth of 5% (I'm not in a position to argue this, but property prices when I've looked seem lower than they were three years ago?)

In fairness, what they essentially detail is that with the new pension rules, favourable exchange rate and Maltese tax laws there may not be a better time to invest in a property in Malta. Now of course that is a statement that needs to be seen in context - i.e. is it ever a good time to buy in Malta?

It definitely depends on which area you buy, Sliema and the surrounding areas seem to give you a much better return, probably because more people need to live there for work. And quite a few people on here seem to be having problems finding an apartment in those areas at the moment.

I've been looking at farmhouses in Gozo recently, to rent, not buy. I happened to find exactly the same place on the market for sale and for rent:

Ghasri Farmhouse to let

Ghasri Farmhouse to buy

€12,000 a year to rent and have a look at the asking price. The return on investment is not even anywhere near 1%. And that's gross, probably about 0.5% net. So it changes drastically on the area.

By comparison, we'll be able to rent our one bedroom flat in Brighton for more than the equivalent of one thousand euros, but it's certainly not worth anywhere near one million euros. I suppose that sums up why we should rent and not buy.

That was the most extreme case I found, I only started investigating after I searched by mistake for properties to buy instead of rent, and I realised a lot of houses were advertised in both sections. But there are a lot of places you can rent for about €700 - €800 a month which are on sale for €700,000 - €800,000.

It would be quite surreal paying £725 a month in rent for a place that was on sale for more than €1.5m