Norwegian Air Shuttle Fuelling Malta Property Sales

Malta has undergone its first census in over ten years and the results, if you are in the property game, make for pretty surprising reading, with the revelation being that some 26% of total housing stock remains empty on the island.

That’s over 53,000 properties in total - an increase of over 17,000 units in the last 10 years - and over 20% or 10,028 of these properties were classified as holiday homes. The percentage is high when placed in direct comparison with vacancy rates in Spain (14%), the UK (4%), Ireland (0.5%) and Luxembourg (0.5%).

Experts have blamed the problem on a surplus of new developments being built, claiming that buyers often prefer to invest in older, more traditional, character properties, rather than go for something new. As a result, not only have new development been built but not sold but buyers who do want to purchase a new property then arrive and seek out the most recently constructed properties, leaving a backlog of unsold developments.

Despite relatively recent accession to the EU, good year round temperatures, established economic and political systems and a cosmopolitan population, Malta hasn’t really tapped into the collective enthusiasm of overseas property, with fellow EU destinations such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia muscling their way into purchasers’ view with their cheap and cheerful, quick-profit potential. With properties tending to average around the €200,000 mark, Malta has been accused of pricing itself out of the market, with bargain hunters tending to look more at France and Spain and the routes of low-cost airlines.

However, that may be about to change in Malta’s favour as budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle announced its plans to operate bi-weekly routes between Malta and Oslo from April 2008. Norwegian AS is one of Europe’s leading low-cost airlines and has claimed that it is keen to capitalise on the fact that Malta has always been a favourite destination for Scandinavians.