One credit crunch, a low-tax regime, all served sunny-side up. How the property-proud Maltese went crazy for the rental market.
The property game used to mean pulling down townhouses and erecting five-storey apartment buildings. But things have changed at quite an unprecedented pace. From sites like AirBnB allowing hassle-free renting, to second properties being snapped up for rent by… “someone in the gaming business”, it’s no longer buy-to-sell any more: it’s buy-to-rent.
Just in August, the advertised property price index compiled by the Central Bank showed an increase of 6.7% in real house prices in 2014, the highest growth since 2005. It was the first time the property price index surpassed the pre-crisis peak reached in mid-2007.
But the big money-maker became the letting market. Home-owners climbing up the property ladder are holding on to their two-bedroom apartments, and their rental income pays the mortgage.
This is thanks to a combination of factors, driven partly by a surge in foreign labour attracted by the stability of the Maltese economy during the financial crisis, and the convergence of high-value service industries that have made Malta their base.
Read the original article by Matthew Vella, published 16th Sept 2015, here.
The property game used to mean pulling down townhouses and erecting five-storey apartment buildings. But things have changed at quite an unprecedented pace. From sites like AirBnB allowing hassle-free renting, to second properties being snapped up for rent by… “someone in the gaming business”, it’s no longer buy-to-sell any more: it’s buy-to-rent.
Just in August, the advertised property price index compiled by the Central Bank showed an increase of 6.7% in real house prices in 2014, the highest growth since 2005. It was the first time the property price index surpassed the pre-crisis peak reached in mid-2007.
But the big money-maker became the letting market. Home-owners climbing up the property ladder are holding on to their two-bedroom apartments, and their rental income pays the mortgage.
This is thanks to a combination of factors, driven partly by a surge in foreign labour attracted by the stability of the Maltese economy during the financial crisis, and the convergence of high-value service industries that have made Malta their base.
Read the original article by Matthew Vella, published 16th Sept 2015, here.
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