Soaring demand for property in St Paul’s Bay not likely to be replicated elsewhere – RE/MAX CCO

RE/MAX Malta Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Arnold Cini has remarked that the surge in demand for residential property experienced in St Paul’s Bay is not expected to be followed by similar increases in select locations in the near future.

His reflections came during a short market catch-up interview posted on RE/MAX Malta’s social media on Thursday (today). During the interview, Mr Cini, who has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, was questioned about the state of the property market as at the end of the first quarter of 2024.

At one point, reference was made to the fact that St Paul’s Bay has continued to dominate the property market charts over the past quarter.

The northern locality has not only ranked top of the list in Malta for the past three months, but it has had the most promise of sale agreements and final deeds of sale out of the whole country for four years running. In March 2024 alone, there were a total of 1,177 promise of sale agreements across Malta and Gozo, and 9.3 per cent of them were for properties in St Paul’s Bay. The last time that St Paul’s Bay was beaten by other localities in terms of promise of sale agreements was back in February 2020, when both Mellieħa and Qormi registered more promise of sale agreements at 64 and 43 respectively, while St Paul’s Bay had 41.

However, as Mr Cini pointed out in the interview, the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) data considers Buġibba, Burmarrad, Qawra, and Xemxija – all localities that have been subject to extensive development in recent years – as part of St Paul’s Bay.

In this respect, he remarked that RE/MAX Malta has requested the NSO to provide a “better indication” of what is being included under the St Paul’s Bay area, thus potentially skewing the results.

“There’s still a huge demand for St Paul’s Bay, particularly since it is so close to the sea, and so foreigners will look for it, as well as locals. But we’re expecting more detailed information regarding those statistics,” Mr Cini said.

When asked whether he anticipates any other localities or areas to experience the same surge in demand as St Paul’s Bay over the coming months, Mr Cini remarked that he does not think that this will be the case.

“I think that nowadays, when someone tells you that they would like to buy a property, they won’t just limit it to for example, one location,” he affirmed.

Indeed, Mr Cini appears to be alluding a change in trends within the market, where property buyers are less concerned, to a degree, about the location of a property, so long as the deal is considered to be a good investment.

Mr Cini added: “They are looking to explore other locations, given that the property they are willing to buy meets their requirements and is at the right price.”

He continued by highlighting that it is integral for buyers to carefully check that they are buying the right property, in the right location, for the right price. “I always say a property is always a good investment when that property is bought at the right price and at the right location. Yes, you have to be careful, but so far, owning a property in Malta has always been a safe investment,” Mr Cini stated.