What are the positives to living in Malta?

Wanderlust1 wrote:

Guys I've heard so much negative stuff about living in Malta, but what are the positives? As I've mentioned before on other posts my circumstances are this... The UK based company that I already work for have offered me a promotion if I'm willing to relocate to Malta (office is in Sliema). The salary on offer will put me in the highest income tax bracket in Malta which I believe is 35% (correct me if I'm wrong)

My wife & I  (no kids) already live very comfortably here in the UK as have a high paying job which provides us with all the materialistic comforts we need without going into any debt & always have money left over at the end of the month to save for a rainy day. I think what I'm trying to say is that We're very happy with our lot in the UK.

Apart from the sun, what can Malta offer that the UK doesn't? I'm already a well travelled individual & have never even thought of visiting Malta for a holiday, let alone live there!
This forum like others is full of horror stories re: renting property, being ripped off by landlords & utilities, dodgy tax evasive people who don't abide by the law & a government which is corrupt! I could go on & on.

So come on guys help me make an informed decision. Tell me the positives about moving to Malta.

1. the sun
2. the sun
3. the sun

no seriously i like Malta its a great island , it has plenty to offer in terms of culture and beautiful scenery, its a whole new way of life out here its much more relaxed when you get settled and there are some lovely people here .

its not for everyone though , i was told its a bit like marmite either you love it or hate it and i have met people who really dont like it though they had told me they liked benidorm so not much surprise there .

Hi Rob, thanks for the reply. I'm very well travelled & can honestly say I've never been to Benidorm! I'm all for having a bit of culture/history/sun whilst holidaying but the sun is not enough of a reason for me to relocate to a tiny island in the Med permanently!

Come on can anyone else give me some positives on moving from UK to Malta in my circumstances highlighted in my original post?

Wanderlust1 wrote:

Hi Rob, thanks for the reply. I'm very well travelled & can honestly say I've never been to Benidorm! I'm all for having a bit of culture/history/sun whilst holidaying but the sun is not enough of a reason for me to relocate to a tiny island in the Med permanently!

Come on can anyone else give me some positives on moving from UK to Malta in my circumstances highlighted in my original post?

Why did i relocate ... cheap rent , sun, cheaper lifestyle,
your right though culture history and sun are great for a holiday but they shouldnt be a reason to move to the island .. in all honesty we were just so fed up with the UK we wanted somewhere new and well we came here on holiday and moved here within a month (not that im suggesting thats a wise idea) almost a year later i dont regret it one bit , we eat better over here, we spend more time together even with him traveling to work by bus, we walk more especially since having a dog , we swim regularly at the weekends in the summer .for us it was a great fresh start and a brilliant place to start married life together

Rob, thanks for being so truthful/ honest about your reasons. If I was fed up like you were then of course I'd probably want to jump ship as well but... I already have good health/wealth & happiness by living in my home country. I also live in a very beautiful region of the UK.

I would purely be moving to Malta as that's where my current employers have their EU offices. I'm interested in the promotion but it's just unfortunate that it's based in Malta & not UK hence being hesitant!

Does nobody else have positives about UK v Malta?

robpw2 wrote:

... in all honesty we were just so fed up with the UK we wanted somewhere new ...

same reason for me 

almost a year later i dont regret it one bit

the first half year was horror, since I compared everything with what I had and was used to, then, slowly, I adapted to the lifestyle here and the mentality ... and now, almost 3 years later, I like it here more and more

But I'm not fed up living in the UK!  My wife & I are very blessed to  live a privileged lifestyle in the UK.

It's quite evident to me that you have no reason to leave the UK. I suggest you come over for a couple of days and if you totally fall in love with the country, consider moving. One positive thing that wasn't mentioned is the shorter commutes although this can be offset by terrible traffic if you travel at certain times. The climate is over rated in my opinion. It's true that we don't get much rain but we do get too much wind, excessive humidity and unbearable heat in the summer months.

Thanks Lambada.  My biggest fear is that if I take the job  (I know I'm going to like the job) & move to Malta but my wife or I hate it there then I can't  just say to my current employers "whoops sorry I made a mistake, can I come back to my old job" as someone else will have it! I'm then potentially unemployed!

I don't think that by going out to Malta for a few days to test the water is a true indication of whether someone would or wouldn't like it.  I think you need to stay for a prolonged period of time ie at least a month or so, living like a local. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of time to be able to do this as my employer needs my commitment or either yes I'm up for the job, or no sorry find someone else.

It's a tough call for me to make as this decision will affect not just me but my wife as well.

1st world problems, I know!

I know that coming here for a few days won't give you a true feel of what it would be like to live here. There's a big difference between coming over as a tourist and coming to stay long term. But at least you get a vague idea which is better than nothing. What's the minimum amount of time you'd have to stay here for to retain your promotion? 2 / 3 years? Would your wife want to work? Do you have any particular hobbies which you'd want to practise here?

Hi Lambada, my wife wouldn't need to work (but she might like to) as my salary would be well above the average Malta salary. It will be benchmarked against UK salary scale not Maltese. If I took the job then the commitment is long term ie permanent unless i decided to leave of my own accord. I wouldn't want to do that as I've worked for my current employer for over 15yrs & love working for them as they are a very good employer.

As for hobbies well neither my wife or I have any in particular. We are both very much homebodies & enjoy living in a beautiful home by the sea. We both love travel though & as Malta is in the middle of the Med, it would be easy to travel more extensively around Europe from there.

Your wife may or may not find it difficult to find a job depending on what she wants to do.

As for travelling around Europe , believe me the UK is a much better base for doing that. You have much better and cheaper links to the rest of Europe than us. We sometimes have to travel to other European countries via Rome or Frankfurt .

Like I say my wife won't have to work. I'm surprised that it's not cheaper to travel to European countries from Malta as you're obviously a lot closer in distance than me here in the UK.

I've got a couple of months to decide as I think they want me in Malta by July if we're going. I'm just dreading the horrors of finding somewhere to live without being ripped off & used as a cash cow.

If you know that your move will be pretty much permanent, you might as well consider buying rather than renting.

lambada wrote:

If you know that your move will be pretty much permanent, you might as well consider buying rather than renting.

I think if he cant decide if he should come or not he should hold off buying out here until hes sure that hes made the right choice, found the right area to live and is definatly sure that Malta is the place to be , its a lot easier to move when your only renting than it is to sell a place if you  decide you have made a huge mistake .

On the basis of the lack of positive reasons to move and every reason to stay where you are  - I would be staying put.

True Malta can be a lovely place to live (I lived there for 6 years) and its all down to you managing expectation, and making it what you want it to be....... for us it was too small, we felt like it was limited, we were getting into the small island mentality....but after 2-3 years we knew it was never going to be our final resting place. But we met some fab interesting people, made some great friends and still have a fond place in our hearts for our Village of Mellieha...But for us it wasnt enough to stay so we moved on....to some new experiences for better or worse while we still can...lol

As for positives
Climate
True maltese are / can be the salt of the earth
You can have a fab social life, lots to experience
Kind of relaxed lifestyle
Safe for women and children
Relatively low crime rate
Culture and history abounds
Everywhere reachable within reasonable times  - although it has to be said that heavy traffic at peak times hinders that to some degree
Cheap flights to and from UK
A great airport (one of the best ive used)
Central med for travels
Quirky
Sometimes funny hilarious
Cheap to live

Negatives
Crazy administrative processes that make no sense
Low wages
Long hours
Traffic
Corruption
Tax evasion
Renting / landlords can be a nightmare
Dirty
Dog fouling is heavy in places
Beaches arent as good / clean as they should be
Litter is a problem
Public transport can be a problem
Too much building works
Overcrowded
Too many cars polluting
Quirky  - maybe too quirky
Sometime only hilarious after the event.

am sure there are more of both sets

just my ten pennorth for what its worth

If this is a career move and will help you achieve a goal that you are striving for then move.

However if its just change for the sake of it then  don't bother, the UK will give you a lifestyle that you will not achieve in Malta.

Its a very very small island with little or no sophistication, imagine living in a small village cut off from the outside world run by the local amateur dramatic society!

We like it but we are retired and its NOT our forever home plus we find the travel to the rest of the world irksome
( flights expensive and usually via somewhere you don't want to go to and ferry very expensive and during the winter months unreliable).

Terry

I worry that you are moving for the wrong reasons, we are in the UK and hope to move to Gozo in 2016 for me to retire and my wife hopes to find a part time job, not cause she has to but she wants to.
We have travelled many times to Malta & Gozo but we won't move until we are satisfied its the place to be, as I'm 10 years older than my wife I look at the move as being permanent for me.
I started a blog here of what we wanted and countries we looked at, so far Gozo has come top.
I would never move to a place without researching it and going a few times and "living like a local" rather than a holiday maker.
We had 13 years on the Isle of Lewis and it is the same mentality and we loved it, problem is it just isn't warm enough there for us.
Living on an Island has its good and bad things and you will either love it or hate it.
No matter what the job is or how highly paid it is you only go to work for a portion of your life and if your wife does not work then she is more exposed than you so you must consider her in the move.
Only you can decide and I'm afraid if it was me and the employer values you so much then they should be willing to send you out for a month to "try" it.
If they do, don't stay in a hotel, rent somewhere in a village that you would like to live.
A month should give you a reasonable time.
It's taken us 2 years so far to consider where we want to move to!

I would agree with what has already been posted, if you were desperate to leave the UK at any cost, it would be a different story. But if it is only to further your career and you already have a happy, privileged lifestyle in the UK, I would be very wary. Malta isn't like one of the Canary Islands or Sardinia or Majorca. It's probably more like living in Libya or Algeria, the one place it reminds me of the most is Havana in Cuba, and that's a communist country. I did a lot of research before I came here, but the one thing which I had never heard of was its nickname as the Marmite Island. You will either absolutely love it, or absolutely hate it. There is no middle ground, and it is completely true.

Toon's list below is a great summary, the one thing I would add to the Negatives would be the noise pollution in Malta. It is the worst I have ever experienced anywhere in the world. And it is my number 1 gripe in Malta, I could scream some days. This was backed up by a recent report.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi … EU-.552425

Spookily enough i did have that in in the list On an Island but removed it as it sort of had connotations towards traffic and hunting shooting church bells roosters shouting balling in the streets and tooting and hooting not to mention boy racers.

should have included it really

but took it out as not all of these bothered me  - just some

Onanisland wrote

' the one thing which I had never heard of was its nickname as the Marmite Island. You will either absolutely love it, or absolutely hate it'

I hate Marmite but quite like Twiglets 

redmik wrote:

I hate Marmite but quite like Twiglets 

You're weird!! 

I neither hate or love marmite I'll eat it but I don't crave it

I can tell you some of the reasons I'm moving back...

When my daughter got sick back in 2011 we took her to the public health clinic (in Victoria, Gozo) and we were met by two men battling to work out how to set up their new computer system. They said it was all in english and they were struggling to work out how to register my daughter's details. They asked a number of questions, including whether my two-year-old was married. Finally my partner went round into their cubby hole and helped them.

Having registered we then sat with about fifteen other people who chatted with us and made jokes with my little girl. After about an hour we finally went into see one of only two doctors on duty. He proceeded to spend fifteen minutes thoroughly checking her over and asking us and her lots of questions. He even found time to ask us how we were getting on in Gozo and whether we would be staying. Like a lot of people we met during our time he had a great pride for his country.

A few months ago my daughter got sick here in the UK. We went to the doctors but they were full and said that there were no appointments available. After pushing them they arranged for a doctor to call us. four-hours later we got a call and the doctor told us to come into the surgery the next day. The next day we went in and he spent about a minute doing a quick check of my daughter before pushing us out the door with a prescription and a "if it doesn't clear up come back and see me".

Another time I was at the local grocers in Fontana (Gozo) and we took our pile of items up to the till. He began scanning them through while making jokes about my football team. I got my wallet out to pay but realised I didn't have enough money. At this point he misunderstood and thought I didn't have the money and produced a pile of notes and asked if I wanted to borrow some money. I thanked him but said that I would run home and get the cash (I didn't have to as he said just to drop it in next time). I thought this was just a generous, one-off occasion but over the following months I noted how he would lend money to everyone and kept a little ledger under his till. Someone told me that this money was lent at a zero interest rate and was just to ensure everyone was able to afford to buy their groceries.

From everything you've written I don't really think you should move. You would probably spend the whole time concentrating on what Malta doesn't have rather than what it does and if you're happy somewhere you really shouldn't risk change for the sake of a bit more money.

On An Island wrote:

redmik wrote:

I hate Marmite but quite like Twiglets 

You're weird!! 

Yep! 

I could also relate incidents very similar to Pig Ear's; overwhelming kindness and excellent treatment, healthwise, here on Gozo.

i hate twiglets but love marmite but as others have said I dont go mad craving for it.

and in my experience most will either love the islands or hate them  - and i agree there is no middle ground....

In my case i hated Malta when on holiday - and still did when we decided to try and live there....then gave it another try in another village and grew to like it (note like it not love it).... then grew out of it again over the following 5-6 years...

but hey we are all different and the islands and its experiences are different things to different people....

I'm so grateful for all the replies to my original post. I think I'll send my wife over to Malta to see what she thinks. I've been a couple of times to our Malta office in Sliema to work for a couple of weeks at a time in the last couple of years. I've always stayed in our company's apartment though so didn't get a "real feel" for the area as cocooned from the reality of Malta.

The reality is often different from the expectation based on a holiday or short term stay.

It would be a good idea to try 3 months or more first then decide..... but stay somewhere other than a complex or hotel  - you need to sample life as it would be if you lived here without the comforts of a hotel... live day to day as a local would.

Good luck

Very interesting read ! We moved here in December & I really miss our very comfortable lifestyle and beautiful home and money at the end of the month - every month ! My husband is loving his job. I, on the other hand was promised a job which proved not to be what it said on the tin so sit in an overpriced apartment with a stroppy landlady fearing to switch a kettle on or run a bath with the ridiculous energy costs. Searching for work can be problematic when an advert does not say "must speak Maltese" but try and find somewhere to learn their language is almost impossible ! People generally are very friendly and particularly if money is involved. Red tape to get bank accounts, car registration, changing rules and documents randomly - the expectation is that if you don't know something then don't ask - 15 variations on an answer......do it wrong at least 3 times before you find out yourself.

I struggle with positives just now and considering we arrived during the worst winter for 30+ years the sun isn't even enticing me yet. On the other hand, having no money except for the ever dwindling equity from our house sale I accept it's early days.....we decided to move across because we had the opportunity and could perhaps always wonder what if ???!!!

The prevalence of smoking is fast becoming my most hated thing about Malta. I was on a patio the other morning having a coffee and a couple with a baby sat down next to me. I thought, 'how long before someone sits next to them and starts smoking?'  A moment later- the father of the baby lights up!
It was like being in a Mad Men episode. Ridiculous.

Plocke wrote:

Very interesting read ! We moved here in December & I really miss our very comfortable lifestyle and beautiful home and money at the end of the month - every month ! My husband is loving his job. I, on the other hand was promised a job which proved not to be what it said on the tin so sit in an overpriced apartment with a stroppy landlady fearing to switch a kettle on or run a bath with the ridiculous energy costs. Searching for work can be problematic when an advert does not say "must speak Maltese" but try and find somewhere to learn their language is almost impossible ! People generally are very friendly and particularly if money is involved. Red tape to get bank accounts, car registration, changing rules and documents randomly - the expectation is that if you don't know something then don't ask - 15 variations on an answer......do it wrong at least 3 times before you find out yourself.

I struggle with positives just now and considering we arrived during the worst winter for 30+ years the sun isn't even enticing me yet. On the other hand, having no money except for the ever dwindling equity from our house sale I accept it's early days.....we decided to move across because we had the opportunity and could perhaps always wonder what if ???!!!

Weather? I would have thought even though we had a worse than average winter, it is still a lot better than Manchester weather!

Jobs? If I was considering working in another country I would expect to be able to speak their language. If I had a job and cash was tight I would have stuck with it until something else turned up. Many local councils run Maltese lessons.

Banks? We walked in to a bank with passports( before we got eResidence cards) and opened an account on the spot.

Energy costs? Our utility bills are about half what we paid in the UK

Red tape? That's Malta.

But of course you checked out all these things before you decided to move over here, didn't you?

Ray

Plocke - thanks for your reply. It must be said that living in Malta (as an ex pat, not holidaymaker) sounds like hell to me! Yes the place looks beautiful with plenty of sunshine & the majority of people speak English but... I'm not sure why most of you still live there as this forum is full of horror stories with little/no redress from authorities to us expats! I don't believe you're all "Moaning Minnie's". Each & everyone of you are telling us about your everyday factual experiences. I'd be an absolute idiot to ignore all of your accounts of life as UK expats living in Malta.

Plocke amongst others has put another nail in the coffin with her honesty about their experience. I think if you either perceived your life, rightly or wrongly to be bad in the UK & think that your money will go further in Malta then I might see the appeal to relocate, I said might!

As for smoking re: Nange comments, as a non smoker I was ecstatic when smoking was banned in UK. There's nothing worse than stinking of someone else's cigarette fumes.  I wholeheartedly agree with Nange's stance on the subject.

Plocke wrote:

Very interesting read ! We moved here in December & I really miss our very comfortable lifestyle and beautiful home and money at the end of the month - every month ???!!!

Not sure why you were looking to move!

Loads of positives about Malta, we love it ( at the moment) but no place is perfect and Malta is not our forever home.

Its a big world and these days you can go ( nearly) anywhere you fancy, suck it up or move on.
You only have one life.

Terry

As a prospective ex-pat who is thinking of retiring on Gozo I value the negatives as much as the positives then i can balance them up to see if i want to move or not.

For me/us we have formed a blog of against and for's at my website here

Its taken us 2 years so far to get as far as we have and we don't intend to move until 2016

I will be retiring so will have a retirement pension plus a small NHS pension, my wife is too young to retire so will probably try and get some sort of part time work BUT we realise that this may not happen, however we should have enough to live on by the time we move.

Why is it valuable to hear negatives - well then your not so surprised - we have been to various places and they ALL have there negatives BUT they all have their positives too.

The UK is not perfect so you just have to balance it all up and then decide.

For us its a slow process but of the countries we have looked at Gozo has come top so far.

Appreciate that Terry

Hence why I said it's early days

Plocke wrote:

Appreciate that Terry

Hence why I said it's early days

You cannot look back  and forward at the same time.

The choice is always yours!!

Terry

Yes Ray, we did and by the time we arrived a lot of processes had already changed - couldn't open a bank account without ID, with a 3 month wait for an ID....

As for learning Maltese, I would like nothing better but a local council course started in October and would not accept late comers. I cannot currently afford private tuition.

I think it's a shame that I appear to have touched a nerve to the point that sarcasm appears to be the only response to my genuine and honest thoughts and experiences SO FAR. This is not my home country but I chose to be here and want to settle here - it has only been 4 months for goodness sake !

Cut me some slack why don't you ??!!

Plocke wrote:

Very interesting read ! We moved here in December & I really miss our very comfortable lifestyle and beautiful home and money at the end of the month - every month ! My husband is loving his job. I, on the other hand was promised a job which proved not to be what it said on the tin so sit in an overpriced apartment with a stroppy landlady fearing to switch a kettle on or run a bath with the ridiculous energy costs. Searching for work can be problematic when an advert does not say "must speak Maltese" but try and find somewhere to learn their language is almost impossible ! People generally are very friendly and particularly if money is involved. Red tape to get bank accounts, car registration, changing rules and documents randomly - the expectation is that if you don't know something then don't ask - 15 variations on an answer......do it wrong at least 3 times before you find out yourself.

I struggle with positives just now and considering we arrived during the worst winter for 30+ years the sun isn't even enticing me yet. On the other hand, having no money except for the ever dwindling equity from our house sale I accept it's early days.....we decided to move across because we had the opportunity and could perhaps always wonder what if ???!!!

Hey Plocke
is there anything that maybe i or others on here could help you with ... i appreciate there is a minefield of information out there but having someone steer you in the right direction can help

you can message me on here if you like and ask any questions you want .

everything will come together soon and i know how difficult it can be when your feeling alone

anyway as i say if i can help you with anything i will
all the best

Wanderlust1 wrote:

Plocke - thanks for your reply. It must be said that living in Malta (as an ex pat, not holidaymaker) sounds like hell to me! Yes the place looks beautiful with plenty of sunshine & the majority of people speak English but... I'm not sure why most of you still live there as this forum is full of horror stories with little/no redress from authorities to us expats! I don't believe you're all "Moaning Minnie's". Each & everyone of you are telling us about your everyday factual experiences. I'd be an absolute idiot to ignore all of your accounts of life as UK expats living in Malta.

Plocke amongst others has put another nail in the coffin with her honesty about their experience. I think if you either perceived your life, rightly or wrongly to be bad in the UK & think that your money will go further in Malta then I might see the appeal to relocate, I said might!

As for smoking re: Nange comments, as a non smoker I was ecstatic when smoking was banned in UK. There's nothing worse than stinking of someone else's cigarette fumes.  I wholeheartedly agree with Nange's stance on the subject.

yes some people come here and things dont work out for them or things arent like what they expected but if your willing to take the risk of moving then you can make a great life out here, its expected that there will be teething problems at first for everyone. And different people will adapt to life at various different point and for some it just isnt the right thing for them  but at least they have come out and made an attempt at it.

from what you have said previously though you dont really want to move to malta anyway and you could find any excuse not to come .
your clearly happy and settled with your current lifestyle and i dont think moving is the right thing for you.(at this time)