Malta has been ranked the seventh most affordable place for wealthy Britons to buy a luxury second home, according to a luxury real estate consultancy.

With the average price of a luxury waterfront three-bedroom property standing at around €635,000, Malta ranked as more affordable than the United Arab Emirates, Canada and Montenegro, among others.

The most affordable country was Ireland, where acquiring the same property would set buyers back by around €520,000, the study from Proven Partners said.

The study determined property prices by looking at October listings featured on JamesEdition, a website Buzzfeed once called the “Craiglist for rich people”.

Countries included in the survey were based on Google searches related to second homes and holiday homes, with the top 20 selected.

Malta was also seen as attractive due to its short flight times and low air fares from the UK and its Mediterranean climate

According to the study, criteria including the “average price of a tasting menu at a top-rated fine dining restaurant” (€118) and the “average price for premium car hire per day” (€83) helped Malta’s affordability.

Malta was also seen as attractive due to its short flight times and low air fares from the UK and its Mediterranean climate.

Meanwhile, perhaps surprisingly, the country fared less well for property tax affordability, scoring only two out of five.

According to the study’s authors, Malta emerged as a “highly attractive destination” for UK property buyers who, it said, are being pushed out of Britain due to its moves to aggressively tax second homes.

While the report may come as good news to the UK’s wealthy, it comes against a backdrop of housing unaffordability and a cost-of-living crisis for many people in Malta.

Earlier this month, a study by KPMG found that young single people on an average income are unable to afford 95% of properties on the market.

The analysis found that those in their late 20s earning a wage of €21,000 are only able to afford a property worth up to €171,000, which account for just 5% of Malta’s available properties.

Food and housing costs have exploded over the past two years. Graph: NSO

Meanwhile, according to data from the National Statistics Office (NSO), prices of housing and food have shot up since 2018, with large increases seen since the start of last year in particular.

And, in January, the World Economic Forum warned that pressures on the cost of living would be the biggest global risk over the following two years.

A survey from the organisation produced in collaboration with consultants Marsh McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group described the cost-of-living crisis as the “biggest short-term risk” by 2025, followed by natural disasters, extreme weather events and “geo-economic confrontation”.