moving to malta

Hi there,

As has often been said here on the forum, it's not easy to say what the best place for someone else is... You'll have to come to Malta, drive around and check out different places! It's probably best to rent a short let apartment for 2 or 3 weeks - you can find some on airbnb, for example.

This is in fact exactly what we are doing / have done just now... We are in a short let apartment in Bugibba - cost us about € 450 for 2 weeks, we hired a car and drove around to check out the island. It's quite small, so you don't need too long to go from one place to another (though traffic can be a problem - but I always find it funny if Maltese say something is "far", and it's just 20 km away... My parents in law in Austria live over 200 km from us, and we visit them most weekends - now that is far for a short visit over the weekend...)

To answer (kind of) another question of yours which you asked in a separate post:
Finding an apartment for €400-€500:

We have found a long let apartment (2 bedrooms) in Mellieha now, after about 1 week's search, and we've rented it for 8 months. Cost: € 475 plus bills. You have to consider, however, that Mellieha is "far off" by Maltese standards, and the apartment is not modern. We used an agent, so add half a rent agent's fee. In other areas - such as Naxxar, and particularly areas closer to Sliema/Valletta, it is very unlikely to find something for less than €500, at least that's what we've found in the past 10 days...

It's interesting, by the way, that many agencies seem to be NOT AT ALL interested in clients looking for affordable apartments. We were at "Doors" in Bugibba twice (as there was no reaction at all after our first visit) - the second time the very rude lady there didn't even offer us a seat, she just said something like: "If our agent hasn't contacted you, we have nothing that matches your budget..." Budget was 500 for 2 bedrooms. Other agencies took our details, haven't heard of them since (it's been a week now).

There were some that were very helpful, though: Kurt Muscat at dhalia - Xemxija Branch, and Andrew Scerri at Quicklets.
There are also some very useful facebook groups, we found our apartment there in the end: just search facebook for "Apartments Malta", "Malta Apartments", etc... Mind that all this usually involves agents, so you'll have to pay agent's fees, which - in my opinion - are quite reasonable in Malta. (In other countries, such as Austria, agent's fee is 3 months' rent!!!)

Hope that helps

PS: In reply to your other post about finding an apartment to rent, romaniac suggested browsing through the housding section on this site. I'm sorry to say that we did not find this section helpful at all for Malta. In Malta, you usually need to be on the island to do business

My experience with agents from Dhalia and Frank Salt (Gozo) has been great. Back in 2013 we had a budget of 300 euro and Dhalia showed us like 10+ apartments in Gozo. Some other agents only had 1-2 places to show.

Used Frank Salt (Gozo) twice and both times they have been very good.

One thing to remember with agents in Malta is that they are not 'Managing Agents' they are only normally used by owners to find a tenant and everything else is dealt with by the landlord.

As for those who complain about the fee of 1/2 one months rent, this is not as bad as the fees charged by agents in the UK for administration, credit checks etc. which can easily be £250 - £400

Ray

Hi:  A good place to search for an apartment is  Maltapark. Also Naxxar is within reach of everywhere.