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!

This is a bit of a hard one for me to write as it means divulging a bit more personal information than I'm usually comfortable sharing and it's also actually quite embarrassing. But here goes... I got rejected for a home loan from almost every bank in Malta.

So far in our quest to buy a property in Malta, we have had the initial meetings with banks to see if we're eligible and get quotes on repayments. We have searched the market, found a property we liked and signed the promise of sale. So now, the property is off the market whilst you apply for a bank loan and the bank, the notary and your architect do their work to ensure this sale can go through.