Insurance money refunds

With reference to my letter published on the Times of Malta (November 4) regarding insurance money not being refunded by Ryanair, I would like to inform readers that the money I was claiming has now been refunded.

This is no thanks to any of the authorities, which are always preaching to us what our rights are, but due to my perseverance as I always believed that the money was owed to me.

Obviously, eventually Ryanair must have been convinced that I was right because, after the long correspondence and phone calls, Ryanair paid up.

Angelo Polidano – Attard

The finished journalist

Revel Barker is the best thing that has happened to Maltese journalism over the past five years. Style, content, subjects in his aim and sights, have been simply a great lesson to all. And well done to the Times of Malta for hosting him.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara

Dissecting property properly

Malta is one of the most expensive places to live in, certainly in Europe. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

I refer to Noel Muscat’s letter (November 6). I couldn’t believe my eyes because I was going to write to the Times of Malta regarding property in Malta today, although maybe on slightly different grounds.

Muscat mentioned the average property in Malta costing €400K in relation to first-time buyers! He can’t be serious! I made inquiries about selling a 2/3 bedroom spacious, fully finished, flat (in a recently fully refurbished block of eight) in a top resort by the sea and the agents quoted €200K. Am I being screwed or is Muscat trying to score cheap political points? I expect a bit of both.

Since when have first-time buyers started looking at €400K properties? The reason probably is that, instead of being realistic and buying what they can afford, they want to keep up with the Joneses and can’t bear to see a friend or acquaintance doing better. All they are doing inadvertently and stupidly is prompting agents to further inflate the price of property.

In the UK, first-time buyers usually look for ‘starter homes’, generally one-bed, sometimes two-bed, properties. Thereafter, they upgrade and move as and when they can afford to increase their mortgage. If more starter homes were built, then first-time buyers would have no problem buying affordable property.

In Malta, it’s the same old thing – corruption. Renting property gives people a chance to find somewhere to live before splashing out on their first property. But agents are greedy and try to fleece landlords before the first rent payment even touches the bank. Landlords first see the renting agent who will look for a tenant (costs half the first months’ rent + 18 per cent VAT). Then, you’re put in touch with maintenance department, which costs €950 annually and another €400 if you want them to collect the rent plus €500 deposit. Then, you’re put through to another department for a quote to have an EPC certificate and, then, landlord insurance, each department creaming off your rent.

I worked out that the first four months’ rent disappear in the agents’ pockets. And all that without even being able to vet the tenant because in Malta it’s not allowed (the agent tells me), which means expensive landlord insurance to cover fraudulent tenants. This takes rental properties off the market, which are then sold, leaving a shortage of affordable dwellings.

In the UK, you phone the estate agent and, within days, he’ll do all the above for eight per cent of the rent! In Malta, they milk you till you drop. Corrupt and disgusting and typical of the way the get-rich-quick fraternity on the island do their business.

I’m not an expert on the subject but, in the UK, the government requires builders to hand over 10 per cent of new builds to the local authority as affordable housing for the locals. The government can probably do more in this regard.

Sadly, Malta is one of the most expensive places to live in, certainly in Europe but even as further afield as America. I’m a fan of a TV programme called A Place in the Sun, featuring mostly Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Cyprus, Crete and the USA among others. Brits flock to buy holiday and retirement properties by the thousands. Unsurprisingly, Malta never features in this programme! The price of property in these countries is less than half of what it is in Malta, in some instances a third for similar properties.

Despite the above, my children love the island, as I do. I feel so much at home. I left 50 years ago as a young man and nothing’s changed!

Comforting indeed.

Paul Brincau – Middlesex, England

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