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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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Take the geographic map of Europe. Malta or more precisely the Maltese Archipelago (Malta, Gozo, Comino and two other uninhabited islands) is situated in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya. The biggest among the islands - Malta is comparable by its size to the Manhattan or the island of Montreal. The population of less than 400 000 makes for living mostly from the tourist industry. The ratio foreign tourists-local population (3:1) is one of the highest in the world, surpassing even that in Cyprus (2.8:1).

Can we buy a property?

These days I was really surprised to learn how many Bulgarian businessmen have dual citizenship with Malta. I expect the same thing may be applied to any other country in Central and Eastern Europe. But let's imagine that you aren't in this category of people and you simply want to buy a house for residence in the Archipelago.

There are some conditions you have to respect when you prepare to this important deal. Malta is divided on "specially designated areas" where you can buy as many real estate properties as you wish and all the other areas where your rights are limited to just one property.

There are minimum price you have to pay which depends on the type of the property. For the apartments this minimum is set at almost $70,000, for houses - at $120 000*. You may simply forget about these restrictions because in general the properties in Malta are much more expensive than the minimum set by the local government. The good news here is that when you resell the property you may repatriate the full sale price (including any profit).

Let's talk briefly about the prices in Malta. If you choose a villa of 150-200 sq.meter (1500-2000 sq.feet) with pool in the garden in some prime location it may cost you up to $600 000. If you sacrifice the idea to have a pool the price for the same kind of villa will fall to $400,000. If you are ready to make a compromise with the location then the price will fall further to under $200 000. For the townhouses the fair price goes around the mark of $150 000.

When you buy a property in Malta you have to be prepared to pay additional Duty on documents - 5 percent of the whole price, Notary fees - 1 percent and $230 for the Ministry of finance.

What to do with the foreigners after the D-day?

I'm always surprised when I see examples of short memory among the whole nations. When a country depends entirely on some particular kind of industry or services with almost no alternatives it's unthinkable that the population of this country may decide not to develop this industry or services and even to start to block any further expansion. French Antilles islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the recent years are trying everything in their possession to avert big number of tourists from these beautiful islands and as the result they did almost succeed. Now the principle destinations in Antilles are Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Something very similar is going on in Malta (I hope they don't succeed). Malta is very dependent on the tourist revenues - $700 million** per year ($2000 per citizen per year), not to mention the investments in the real estates. If I was Maltese I would try to double or triple these revenues. As a matter of fact they are trying to block any further development. The Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg recently told the press that his government wants to stop European Union citizens buying second homes because this will aggravate the island's housing shortage once Malta join the block on the D-day***. The primary condition for buying a property will be whether or not the foreigners are intended to live in Malta. For those who want to settle there will be no problems. The oil into the fire was poured by the opposition Labor Party that warned that EU membership would open the flood gates for EU citizens to snap up properties in Malta, forcing up the prices.

What to say about all this? The people in Malta obviously have forgotten that the foreigners for better or worse are one of the main sources of revenue for their economy. I don't see any striking example of a country that does prosper more with less investments (including the foreign). But I can cite tens of examples of just the opposite cases (including my own country).

Maybe the reason for this short memory is the sentiment that the high living standard that is enjoying the population of Malta is something that will exist forever with no additional energy. If so, I hope that this contagious illness pass soon.

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Malta.