Frank Salt Real Estate Group held its annual general meeting at the Manoel Theatre in Valletta, where it celebrated the company’s achievements for the past financial year and  honoured its best performing agents and team members. The historic theatre was illuminated with the colours synonymous with Frank Salt Real Estate.

The evening began with a laser light show, accompanied by a performance by musicians Simon John Vella on the electric violin and GianLuca Gurriere on the saxophone.

Throughout the evening, the master of ceremonies, Ron Briffa, used humour to put the audience at ease, adding delightful twists to an otherwise formal presentation.

In his welcoming address, chairman Frank Salt spoke about the acting roles he played in the same theatre years before entering the real estate business. He also thanked everyone in advance for their efforts during the past year.

In his overview of the year, COO Darren De Domenico presented the company’s performance.

“2022 was another challenging year and notwithstanding the headwinds caused by spiralling inflation which in turn led to increased interest rates and global turmoil, last year was another successful year for the company as we registered further growth in residential sales and letting.

“Malta’s economy remains resilient and expected to grow in 2023 and 2024. Thankfully, the local banks, which play an important role in the property market, have very strong liquidity and have taken all the necessary precautions to reduce risk against external pressures, and this augurs well for the future. In fact Fitch recently issued a positive report and reaffirmed Malta’s A+ rating, which will encourage further local investment.”

He said that during uncertain times, people tend to be more cautious when investing their money, especially when spending considerable sums of money to purchase property and during such times prefer to seek guidance of professional qualified consultants and look for a company they know and a local brand they trust.

“This is where Frank Salt Real Estate, who have a strong reputation, will stand out from the rest,” the COO continued.

De Domenico also highlighted the benefits of working for a leading brand such as Frank Salt Real Estate.

“Selling real estate is not an easy job, but for those who are determined and prepared to work hard, this job offers the opportunity to earn well above average income and can also be very rewarding, especially when thanks to your efforts and hard work, you manage to find an ideal property which you know will become a lovely home for a young couple or family,” he said.

Last year was another successful year

He remarked that activity in the first quarter of 2022 was slower than anticipated but sales picked up considerably during the second and third quarters which gave the company the opportunity to recover on any lost ground and meet set targets by the end of the year. An increase of over +17% in foreign sales also contributed towards this result, he noted.

In addition, last year more and more vendors chose to appoint Frank Salt Real Estate as their sole agents, which was another key factor that led to greater success in 2022.

“Our sole agency packages offer vendors additional benefits and thanks to our marketing efforts and hard work of our experienced consultants, we manage to sell most sole agencies within the mandate period and, in some cases, sole agencies have been sold in less than a week,” De Domenico added.

Activity in the rental market also increased last year as many foreigners chose to return to the Maltese islands and thanks to the company’s top performing team of letting agents, revenue increased substantially.

One of Frank Salt Real Estate’s objectives for 2023 and beyond is to increase the size of its letting division to cope with such increase in demand. The home interiors and property management divisions also reported positive results and both divisions increased revenue by +9% and +25% respectively.

Grahame Salt shared his perspective on the year 2022 and the importance of the group continuing to provide all of its property services in a professional manner.

“This is the group’s brand promise and purpose. The increase in competition inevitably will lead to a drop in overall quality of service offered and Frank Salt Real Estate must continue to stand out for all the right reasons,” he said.

Salt also shared the company’s strategy for 2023: “We will keep providing ongoing training and support as we want to see each and every one of you perform at your best and provide the best service to our clients. We need to expand our teams to cope with demand and recruit talented and motivated individuals who want to grow with the group and enjoy financial success.” 

He then went on to thank everyone for their hard work over the past few years.

“Frank Salt Real Estate is only successful thanks to the efforts of each and every one of you. Be proud of your company and let’s keep working hard together as one team.”

In conclusion, he congratulated everyone who was awarded shares in the company’s annual share distribution programme, a new initiative that will allow all staff members the opportunity to earn shares based on their performance and also earn dividends annually according to their shareholding.

The event concluded with a piano performance by local pianist Beth Farrugia, followed by the presentation of awards to the highest achievers in sales, letting and commercial, as well as recognition for outstanding contributions by other staff members.

The most prestigious award of the evening, the ‘Best Branch Award 2022’, was presented to the Mellieħa team.