If a job opportunity presented itself or if you’re just looking for a place with an amazing landscape and welcoming climate, moving to Malta is probably worth the consideration. It’s an island that’s both serene and full of excitement. You can get to know the untapped beauty of its nature and water or the amazing culture of the local people. Regardless of your circumstances, there are at least a few things worth knowing before you move to Malta. Here are a few tips!
It’s a great place to start or continue your career
Since Malta is quite a small island-country, most of the businesses that are set up here, operate on a remote basis. They service countries in the EU, the UK and many more. Business people are attracted by the fair taxation policy. Malta’s economy thrives because of it and there are a lot of jobs, in a variety of different sectors, that you could forge a path in a new sector or continue blazing trails in your current niche.
Ranging from driving a taxi in Malta, all the way to programmers and executives, Maltese islands have a lot to offer, for your professional growth.
Use ride-sharing to get around the island
Regardless of whether you’re a tourist or a local resident, ride-pool service in Malta is probably the No.1 option for travelling. Because the island is too large to reach everything on foot, but too small, to invest a lot into a car, public transport and taxis are considered to offer the best value for money in terms of transportation. You can download a free taxi or free car-pooling app and arrange transport fairly quickly.
Get a residence permit
If you are planning to stick around, you are going to need a residence permit and appropriate residence status. Rich foreigners usually tend to go for a citizenship by investment programme. With at least a cool 1.15 million Euros (€) to spend, you can get a place in Malta and a passport at the same time. It’s one of the more popular options. The requirements are:
- Owning a home for at least 350 000€ (or renting for at least 16 000€ per year)
- Buying government bonds or other securities for at least 150 000€
- Make a contribution of at least 650 000€ to the Malta’s National Development and Social Fund.
Otherwise, you can get the citizenship by marriage or become a citizen through naturalization. Your local Maltese embassy or consulate can give you the 101 before you decide to apply!
It’s not all so simple trying to find a place to live
In contrast to how easy and inviting the Maltese job market is, the island has a very limited amount of area to develop real estate. Since the growth of businesses has been enormous in the past few years, supply for apartments and houses hasn’t been able to keep up. It isn’t relatively easy trying to find the pinpoint perfect place to live, so you might need to make one or two compromises if you want to guarantee accommodation at a reasonable price. You can use real estate brokerages and agencies or go a bit further and purchase property if you’re thinking about settling.
The weather is great all-year-round
Temperate Mediterranean climate makes for beach-bound weather almost 365 days a year. Only the few shorter weeks of winter bring in slight colds, but other than that – temperatures rarely fall below 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit). In general, it’s considered that Malta gets approximately 300 days of sunshine every year. Still, coats and jackets are good to have, just in case.
Lots of expats here
Since Malta has both welcoming natural and economic climate, it’s no surprise to find out that tens of thousands of expatriates call Malta their home. Coming from the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Australia and many other countries, expatriates are a significant social group within the country. Since settling isn’t all that difficult, people can quickly integrate within the very cosmopolitan local community and find out so many things there are to love about this island country. It’s highly likely that you can find your community of expatriates living in Malta on Facebook!