First of all the culture of the real estate agents is much better here than at home. At least what I experienced. I asked three agents to look for a new home for us. All of them gave me multiple possibilities and looked for new ones immediately if I didn’t like the first. They took me from door to door, by own car, paying a quite expensive Bolt ride and once (it was my first week) I asked if we can go by bus, so I try that too, and she insisted on paying my ticket.
The better or more experienced agents ask the right questions if you don’t, like how the bills will be paid, where are the valves on the water pipes if any. They also have quite good contract templates.
The fee for the agent is usually one month of rent plus some percent of it (eg 18%), what is paid half-half by the owner and the renter. So if 1000 euros is the monthly rent, you pay 1509 before you move in (1000 deposit to the owner, 509 half of the agency fee) and the first month 1k when you move in.
When I stared looking from home, I was a bit confused. I saw different categories in most searches. Apartment, what is expected and over that masionette and penthouse. For me all of them is apartment but here it means a big difference. Penthouse is a more known word and not really what we were looking for. Masionette on the other hand is an apartment what has a door right to the street, so not from a staircase or elevator. It is still in one building with other apartments, but they have another door their to their own stairs. Masionette can be ground floor or elevated, the latter usually has some garage under. Elevated is better regarding humidity.
There are two types of rent, short and long. Short is basically like Airbnb and less than 6 months, long offers more security for the renter. The owner must notify 3 months before the end of the contract if they don’t want to renew, the renter needs to notify the owner one month before the end for the same. On contact renew the owner can’t raise the fee with more than 5%.
The prices are varying, depends on area and season. During winter Mellieha is cheaper you can get two bedrooms two bathrooms apartment or masionette under 800, the same in the center, Valetta and the surrounding areas offers similar for double or more. More touristic seasons bring up the price in beach areas like Mellieha too with few hundreds. Marsaskala is usually said the one having the best price to value ratio. More on the traffic and public transport later, but if you work in the center and want to get there it is ~1h from Mellieha and ~40 mins from Marsaskala. Sounds like a fair deal coming from Budapest where inside the city I spent 1,5h on bus and metro to get to the office, I had colleagues coming from Cegléd by train in shorter time. However for the first try we thought it will be more convenient to be closer to the center.
Having air conditioning is a must, because of summer of course. If it can heat not just cool even better. The buildings are usually quite cold inside what helps in warm times, but can be uncomfortable at winter. Winter having 16 °C outside feels 20 when the sun hits you 10 when not, thanks to the humidity and wind. In the house you are closer to the 10 from below. There is no central heating as it is not needed 80% of the year. So heating alternatives are electric mobile radiators, what will burn you if you touch them.
The windows and doors basically have no insulation the wind is kind of free to come and go. It is rare to find normal european style modern plastic 5-7-9 air chambers windows, usually it is just simple sliding window with thin plastic bezel.
In all the apartments (or masionette!) I saw a dishwasher was in place. Once optimizing for space the washing machine was on the balcony.
Also all of them was completely furnished, most of the time fully equipped with plates, cutlery, etc. Lot of them did Airbnb before covid, and now going for the stable income.
Most of the owners were pushy to pay the deposit immediately, or they will give it to someone else. I was asked once late night, to show the proof of payment the same day or it will be gone, I replied I want to pay if I think enough and I feel it is my home, not because pressure, feel free to rent it out for the other person. The next day they called I can still have it…
Our options were quite limited, because we have a normal size dog (~27 kg). It looks like there is no difference in it, owners are afraid of pets here the same way as at home. Small dogs and cats are welcomed in much more places, and by the way cats are everywhere on the streets.
We had to tell the destination to the transportation company before 20th Feb, and I arrived at 2nd. I was not completely convinced, but to be safe we rented a masionette on the border of St Julians and San Gwann on the 15th. 10ish minutes to the office, multiple green areas around for the dog and us, also big back terrace and nice front balcony, shops whatever also close and the sea too. Now we have 11 months to bring the best out of it.