Malta Property « Think Malta, Think Everything Maltese

The Mediterranean is but a traveler’s delight because of its lush weather, its beautiful seaside and architecture, and culture. The Mediterranean is also surrounded with beautiful ships, both small and big. The architecture and environment tells a story, and all of these are attracting tourists from the United States, Europe and Asia.

Malta’s traveling potential is probably at its peak in today’s modern world. According to travel experts, the restoration of a direct flight route into Malta from the United States will attract a great number of American tourists into the country. Economic analysts said that Malta should invest in tourism marketing in the United States.

Currently, Malta’s top tourism markets are in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The country attracts more than a million tourists per year. However, most tourists stay longer rather than travel for the beaches and spend more on the local provisions. The target of tourism is to cut the time of the tourists for Malta, as the population grows bigger every year.

The average stay of a tourist is more than 8 days, helping the total tourist expenditure to Malta to reach £1,000 on average.

Malta Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that Malta’s tourism is booming, but the costs of tourism activities and the population of tourists may affect the growth of the industry. Economic efficiency is their prime objective to maximise Malta’s travel central potential in the world.

Economic analysts said that the move will help Malta’s tourism grow. However, tourists may get the impression that Malta is closing of its doors to ‘commoners’, as the plans may prioritise only high-yielding tourists.

Source

I have been investing in properties for so long, and I’ve heard some of my friends talk about certain properties and which ones will definitely bring good profit. These are some of the tips I’ve heard that may put you at high risk. At one point, I followed tip #3 and almost ended up losing a great amount of what I have.

1. Buying Residential Rental Properties
Properties that allow you to let may not be the best investment for you after all. While owning a condominium unit for rent or even a house or home can get you enough personal profits, you would have to deal with tax deductions and poor growth records. This is true for all residential rental properties, including buying shares or the entire hotel or apartment itself.

2. Investing in the United States
Britain has its own problems with the inflating value of properties in London, and yet many investors look to the United States as a good property investment market. If this is true, then the reason is unclear why many US citizens are not purchasing properties in their backyard. Be careful, you may be buying not its worth.

3. High Yields
One time, a friend of mine talked me into buying into properties with high yields. I was tempted because it did promise a great amount of cash flow. But as young as I was, I did not identify the main drivers of growth the properties had. Sure, the cash was good, but today, those properties are gathering dust and not building their growth worth, which makes it troublesome for me.

According to the Financial Ombudsman, banks, including Lloyds, Barclays and RBS, had been using a regulatory provision called “alternative redress” or “comparative redress” to reduce the amount they repay consumers claiming back PPI refunds. UK media also had their take on the development and claimed that these banks have used the provision since last year, with some even from 2012.

Alternative redress works by allowing banks to assume a consumer with a missing or uncertain PPI policy to be refunded with a regular-premium insurance repayment. However, consumers with single-premium insurance, which are more expensive, were given alternative redress. Former financial expert-now-journalist Cliff D’Arcy said that it was a “scandal out of a scandal” pertaining to mis sold PPI.

PPI is a policy designed to repay loans, mortgages and credit cards in case you get sick, an accident or become unemployed. However, because of its many exceptions, many consumers were unable to make use of the insurance policy. The average regular-premium PPI payout is £2870. Single-premiums cost more.

Observers said that this new scandal may reverse the FCA’s tallied 15% overall reduction of PPI complaints to banks in the second half of 2013.

Consumers are encouraged to look for their PPI complaint information, find if they were given alternative redress and demand a full refund from their banks. Consumers may also contact the Financial Ombudsman in case the banks do not fulfil their responsibilities.

Maltatoday.com has compiled a list of accomplishments and disappointments of the Muscat government in the previous year. The list shows how the government had delivered its goals to the people and how some controversies got in the way of good governance.

According to the Maltatoday writer James Debono, Maltese President Joseph Muscat had delivered on his promises for the Maltese people, including abolishing prescription in corruption cases, signing a Whistleblower Act and the defense of the LGBT community in Malta.

Muscat’s government had also reduced the prices of electricity and introduced free childcare through the effective use of taxes.

However, it also has some shortcomings of its own. Muscat’s government shows signs of inexperience when interacting with the media due to its great number of gaffes. It had also tried to return migrants to Libya despite the action being illegal. The Muscat government had a great number of international embarrassments, such as trying to “sell” the European Citizenship for a high price and untoward insults in social media and the internet.

Overall, the government was well-balanced despite questionable anti-corruption practices regarding the bribery of several Enemalta officials and their amnesty regarding the construction of a bridge. The deliverables and results of proper management had reaped its benefits effectively for Muscat’s Malta.

Source

Malta’s Immigration had said that it not selling European citizenship to anyone who could afford €650,000, which became controversial among many EU countries and the European Commission condemn the proposal. Although the EU and its Commission allowed the sale of the passports, it was heavily detested by many EU countries because it “cheapened” the citizenship, coveted by other countries.

Malta said that it is changing the original plan of selling the passports and are requiring the migrants must have lived in the Island nation for a year.

According to Malta’s official statement “no certificate of naturalisation will be issued unless the applicant provides proof that he/she has resided in Malta for a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the day of issuing of the certificate of naturalisation.”

The European Commission suggested to Malta after talks that it should also stress the applicant should have a “genuine link” to the country. Employment or relatives are valid links. According to the EC, the ability to pay is innate with any citizen of a country, which makes it “cheap” just to sell the citizenship to anybody.

Malta’s earlier plans of selling passports for access in the EU was part of a plan to attract other citizens from abroad to bring in billions in euros for the country in the next five years, which could help Malta’s financing develop schools, healthcare and jobs.

Source

Malta asks other European countries for support as it tries to manage the increase of irregular immigrants reaching the shores of Italy and the country. According to the Malta independent, data included in the European Refugee Fund Annual Programme approved by the European Commission, the country received 1294 total irregular immigrants in July 2013.

Malta’s first issue had been burden sharing. Malta had taken care of the pressure of migration on its own. Malta Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had also noted in his statement to the EU that Greece and Italy are facing similar problems regarding migration.

In the previous week, Maltese and Italian coastal authorities had rescued 233 migrants with some originating from Pakistan and Africa from an overcrowded and unseaworthy boat.

Malta’s government is asking for the setup of a Mediterranean Task Force to approach the problem in a unified and integral manner. The task force was set up in October in the aftermath of the 300-passenger smuggling boat that sunk near the coast of Italy.

Illegal immigrants and human smugglers see Malta as an easy access point for unauthorized entry into Europe. However, these migrants risk expulsion by both Malta and Italy. Both countries, including Greece, are providing for the needs and welfare of the migrants arriving into the country as they wait for the decision to their expulsion or retainment.

Two private investigators said that the real bomber behind the 1988 Lockerbie air disaster travelled to Malta before initiating the attack. The investigators noted that Egyptian terrorist Mohammed Abu Taib was behind the attacks and was the one to plant the bomb on the Heathrow plane by bribing na official.

The Lockerbie disaster is considered one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history. On Saturday, it will be reaching its 25^th anniversary.

Right after the Pan Am Flight 103 attack, Libyan national Abdelbaset Al-Megrahl was the only person convicted for the attack. Taib was also arrested in 1989 because he had connections with the bombing.

The connection of Taib to the bombing was discovered by the Swedish secret service, who discovered that he had gone to Malta to meet with a probable Palestinian Terrorist organisation situated in the country.

Megrahl had died in 2012, given a life sentence, the court gave him an early release after eight years for compassion as he had terminal cancer.

The new evidence was submitted to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, who had also concluded that Megrahl suffered a miscarriage of justice for his sentence.

Investigators in Malta, before the attack, had already followed Taib’s movements, but failed to produce results given the lack of evidence.

The European Commission is now investigating why Maltese passports are worth €650,000. The EC said that it is possible Malta and Cyprus governments may face legal sanction. Cyprus passports amount to €3 million.

According to experts, Malta “on Sale” allows anybody with enough money to get a new citizenship without proper examination. They said that any person with a criminal record, regardless how vile, can earn citizenship even if background checks are done.

The EC is concerned about criminals getting a “golden ticket” from Malta to travel anywhere in Europe to conduct illicit activities. Regardless of security emplacements, criminals will have free ability to roam on European soil to use workarounds in going to different places.

In response to this particular action by the EC, Maltese President George Abela said that the government will postpone the implementation of the citizenship sale.

The “on sale” citizenships did not require anybody to have a residency or investment status. Maltese nationalists opposed the law because of their own security concerns and due to the fact that the government will publish the names of those who purchased their citizenships.

According to Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the citizenship sale was made as part of an effort to ease the country’s deficit by bringing in €30 million yearly.

Source

Hundreds of Syrian refugees were left to drown in the Mediterranean Sea after pirates sunk their boat in failing to pay for passage. According to the refugees, Libyan traffickers left them to drown to their deaths off the coast of Malta after a dispute regarding the payment fees for their passage to Europe this month.

Maltese authorities found the survivors off 160km from Malta’s coast. It is estimated that 400 people were on board the fish boat that left from Libya on October 10 this year.

Survivors said that many people, including women and children, drowned and died in the sea. They estimate that from their unspecified original number that 200 people drowned after they were dumped at sea.

The Syrian civil war had left around two million Syrians displaced from their war-torn country. Neighbouring countries Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan are swelling in numbers as the countries try to house all refugees staying in the country as the civil war wages on.

Refugees in Turkey are currently struggling under the attack of both Syrian regime forces and Islamic fighters linked to the al-Qaeda.

The three countries have brought world attention to the humanitarian conditions of the Syrian refugees in their respective countries. They also explained how their presence is affecting the economies and capabilities each country has during the previous UN General Assembly. The three countries had called on the entire world to help shoulder the burden.

Malta Property

Think Malta, Think Everything Maltese

Malta’s Travel Central Potential

Common Property Tips That Could Place Investors at High Risk

Banks Could Swindle Your PPI Refunds Through “Alternative Redress”

Malta Newspaper Documents Malta Government’s Achievements the Previous Year

Malta Government Says it is not “Selling” EU Citizenship

Malta Rallies for European Support on Migration Issues

Lockerbie Disaster Terrorist Travelled to Malta Before Attack

Malta Passports on Sale at €650,000

Malta Rescues Refugees From Syria