Malta has ranks first beating Hong Kong to become the world’s fastest growing housing market, according to a report from property consultancy Knight Frank.
According to Knight Frank report for Q2 2018 , The Mediterranean island of Malta has moved ahead of Hong Kong this quarter to take the lead in our Global House Price rankings. According to data from the Central Bank of Malta prices increased 17% year-on-year. Supply constraints, combined with a robust economy (6.6% GDP growth in 2017) and a buoyant technology industry is pushing up demand.
- Singapore and New Zealand, Hong Kong has also seen new property market regulations introduced in the last three months
- Latvia, Slovenia and Hungary all saw prices accelerate by between 12% and 14% over the year to June 2018 and the region as a whole registered average growth of 8% compared with 5.1% for the rest of Europe
- Mainstream house prices in 12 of the 57 countries are still below their Q3 2008 level, including those in Spain, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Russia.
“A growing tech industry in Malta has boosted the country’s economy, which grew by 6.6 per cent in 2017,” the report said.
Dr Muscat was addressing the Malta Developers Association (MDA) in a meeting, Quoting a 2017 KPMG report commissioned by the same MDA,
Dr Muscat said that wealth was increasing thanks to the property sector, especially considering the fact that about 80 per cent of Maltese people are home owners.
However, he said that about 20 per cent of the population were not in a position to buy their own home, and that these people also had to have housing they could afford, particularly in light of the boom that the letting sector has experienced in recent years.
He said that while the free market had to remain free, there had to be regulations where, for instance, every rent contract had to be registered, a measure which would create the basis for a structure.
According to European central bank, the residential property prices on the rise in Malta.
According to the 2017 Annual report published by Malta, since 2016 about 80 properties have been purchased while 483 properties leased in Malta to apply for citizenship. 85% of IIP applicants prefer the leasing route and only 15% chose to buy a property. The most popular area for purchased properties was St Julians, and Sliema
The Malta Developers Association in IIP consultation report recommended increasing thresholds for rent and buying property for the individual investor program
- The minimum amount to purchase a property should increase to Euro 500,000. We believe that the current Euro 350,000 is low and is creating a negative impact on the lower brackets of the population to purchase property.
- The minimum amount to lease a property should increase to Euro 30,000 per annum. We believe that the current Euro 16,500 per annum is low and is creating a negative impact on the lower brackets of the population to lease residential property.
- Applicants should only be allowed to sign a lease directly with the landlord and the property should have not have been sub-leased from third parties. Sub-Leased should only be allowed if the lease is being done from a subsidiary of a holding company.
Malta is seeing an increase in tourism with 1.7 million tourists visited Malta from Jan-Aug 2018 which is an increase of 15.7 per cent over the same period in 2017. In 2016, Malta had 18000 rooms available in hotels. Malta’s property owners are embracing the Airbnb sharing economy and today over 300 properties are listed on the website. The listings are mainly targeted at Malta’s burgeoning tourism industry.
Malta has received 169 billion euros Foreign direct investment in 2017, according to national statistics office. In the period January-August 2018, total recurrent revenue amounted to €2,744.1 million, 6.2 per cent higher than the €2,583.8 million recorded in 2017.
As of 2018, Malta also has over 800 superyachts (yachts that are over 24m in size) registered under its flag, a figure which indicates an increase of 10 per cent over the previous year. Speaking at the Monaco Yacht Show, Transport Minister Ian Borg, who made the announcement, said that Malta offered a respectable, serious and efficient framework for the maritime sector. He said that commercial yachts registered under the Maltese flag would now be able to benefit from a tonnage tax scheme, which was approved by the European Union earlier this year. Besides the economic investment that these registrations bring to Malta, Dr Borg said that they were also helping Malta consolidate its flag as a leading maritime destination, even for yachting.
The EU average residential property prices, according to Statista
