Perry Estates Agents Managing Director, Robert Spiteri Paris, said people are already becoming more confident, adding that promises of sale signed before the pandemic are now being honoured – even those signed by foreigners.

Looking closely at the Government ’s recent “excellent measures”, Mr Spiteri Paris argued that they can be fine-tuned, and suggested raising the value of property so more first-time buyers would qualify, he added.

Once the airport reopens in July, Mr Spiteri Paris is hopeful the pace would pick up considerably, asserting that the situation in the property market could have been worse. For a while, during the crisis, it was practically impossible to sell any property, but Malta succeeded in handling the pandemic “in a great way”, he said.

Moreover, echoing the other stakeholders, Mr Spiteri Paris said he sees encouraging signs for the future, like the emergence of a new market for villas, as people increasingly seem to want their house to have more open space.

In this regard, Mr Spiteri Paris reported a surge in demand for houses having pools and gardens, and this applied to both the sales and rental markets, with the latter showing demand for long-lets, even by locals. He attributed this to people having had enough of being locked inside their homes for weeks on end.

He said that, judging by his company ’s performance, the situation was practically back to normal as of 1st June and he reported “encouraging” signs from partners abroad as well as a rising interest in property on the home front.

“Malta has always proved to be quite resilient. Therefore, I am very confident that things will work out and the value of property will hold. Of course, there will definitely have to be corrections in terms of overpricing,” Mr Spiteri Paris concluded.

This is an extract of an article carried in the June edition of The Malta Business Observer