There are some things I like about the property purchase process in Malta, like the promise of sale period, where the property is taken off the market and cannot be sold to someone else, whilst you arrange everything from architects reports to getting the loan. What I do not like is that NO ONE that you deal with will be transparent or knowledgeable. No one will be able to tell you what the process looks like or entails or costs from start to finish. No one will be proactive and once each step is complete you’ll need to continually chase your loan manager to find out what’s next.

I recently bought a apartment and my biggest frustration along the way was not know WTF was going on. No one could really spell out to me, before I started, what the exact steps are and what this shit is going to cost me. All I knew was what deposit amount I needed to save for and the monthly repayments I’d be signing up to. So I decided to collect everything I experienced during the process and list it here to help the next poor sod trying to plan for this massive investment.

This blog has been very property heavy recently but that’s because I have just signed and received the keys to my first ever property! This is an insanely exciting time but it’s also been a long process, made stressful by the fact that no one really tells you what to expect. People who have been through it tend to want to forget it as soon as possible and anyone who’s job it is to know tends to be unable to explain the process start to finish. So that’s what I’m trying to do.

Buying a property in Malta has been a real whirlwind but we are nearing the end of the first part of the journey. I have the date to sign the final contract and get the damn keys!

Travel has been a big part of my life for a long time. I have always travelled around 4 - 10 times per year for work and as much as I can for pleasure, usually fitting in a few long weekends around Europe in alongside trips back to the UK to see family. I realise now how much I took the ease of travel for granted and I’m kind of nervous to see what travel looks like in the post-Covid age.

I don’t drive, so when buying things like cat toys and cat food for my princess, Kinnie, I’ve always relied on local pet shops delivering to my apartment. Cat trees, new litter boxes, or even wet food tins can be heavy and there isn’t a really well stocked pet shop anywhere in easy walking distance, so it’s so much easier to order my pet supplies online and have them delivered to my door in Malta.