Andy Towler

Notes from a small island is a blog by Andy Towler about life as a designer in Malta. In this entry, Towler discusses his property search in Malta:

And so, having lived in Malta for over a year, the time has come to stop renting and start looking for a property to buy...So, with property prices in our favourite town being quite high (for Malta), and with most of our 'selling up in the UK' profit staying firmly in long term offshore investments, it's back to the drawing board.

Do we go for an 'unconverted house of character' (a standard Maltese term meaning a 150 to 300 year old stone house with rooms around a small central courtyard) or a new 'shell apartment' (rooms exist, but floors, doors, kitchen, bathroom etc have to be put in) - either way we'd have to factor in building costs for renovation or completion, and continue renting our current place while this was done.

Or we could go for a finished apartment (new or older) or maisonette (which is an apartment with a private front door - no shared staircase or lift) that we could just move in to. But it seems that over the last year, property prices have gone up considerably, which means our original plan of buying a nice house with garage that we could live in immediately is out of the window - unless we move to the south of the island where property is cheaper but the commute to work would be doubled...