On The Ball Travels
Vacation for a week or less, Amazing. Living there, Get. Me. Out.
Trip to Old Malta
I flew from London Heathrow direct to Valletta, Malta. KM Malta Airlines was a nice little change compared to other airlines (we noticed the airline agents were Indians, something that will make sense later on). Partly because it wasn’t a packed flight–it was about 50% full, if that, so everybody had lots of space to stretch out–I recall seeing 6 people fully laying out across the 3 seats.
Passport check was incredibly fast–later we’d realize that we were just two of 10s of thousands to show up and they literally don’t have time to ask questions during these months. But check in must be done online for “security” reasons…
After a little trouble finding our driver at 1AM, we finally arrived in our “Bolt” (cab) and we’re off… Well… we left the airport parking lot at least. RIGHT after pulling out, the driver’s car broke down. The engine absolutely quit on him. We needed to try to find a new cab from somewhat the side of a highway. What an intro to the island. Now 2AM, we managed to get another car and be onwards to Valletta. Both drivers were Indian.
Once in Valletta, it didn’t take long until you realize there are many British accents around on vacation; Filipino servers and Indian drivers; a sort of caste system.
Malta is OLD. Easily the oldest country I’ve been to and one of the most beautiful and outstanding as well. Everywhere one turns there’s an element of history and indescribable detail, photos cannot do it justice.
It was unlike anywhere we have been, as so much had thousands of years in its walls (now think how old the USA or Canada are). Malta is a hotbed for stories, history, legends and a unique culture and sceneries. My article speaks to more of about the down-to-Earth, economic and cultural overview of what I’ve experienced but I should note that Malta was one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever visited and I will without a doubt be back (assuming the flights are still flying of course).
Intel Scoop
I was at the citizenship office and I’ve noticed a demand from UK, Gibraltar and Australian citizens seeking Maltese citizenship. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall in their respective countries and want a 2nd chance–all were a bit older in their 50s or 60s I’d say.
I’m not sure if this is anything new; but it certainly is a reminder that these “first world” locations are simply not cutting it again.
Malta’s immigrants work the jobs Maltese people don’t want to do, or refuse to do for little pay. In a short period of time, for working diligently, they’ve earned their stay in Malta.
Open Door Consultancy: Malta’s Trend
Malta hosts three billionaires, alongside approximately 10,000 millionaires. The ultra-high-net-worth population has surged by 74% over the past decade. This rapid growth is driven by the country’s economic stability and its highly sought-after citizenship-by-investment program, which attracts foreign investors to the island.
Malta, is pleasant enough where you can understand why so many millionaires are leaving cold, failing Western Europe for its shores–but it’s not stable enough to keep extremely wealthy families. For the time being, Malta is a bubble; of tourists, of real estate (some of the most ridiculous prices I’ve ever seen), of business loans for hospitality, of AirBNB costs. Everybody is trying to earn their crust while the going is still going–and today or tomorrow still looks pretty sweet.
Malta in the last 5 years has continued to make themselves more attractive in the fund industry for hedge funds, private funds, private equity and venture capital style, though with minimal success on a global scale. In the EU, Ireland ranks number 1, Luxembourg living off of their coat tails ranks number 2 and Malta has climbed to be the bronze position in this respect. More impactful however is their gaming industry, which continues to bring more and more government revenue and business interests. This industry has a very low percentage of local Maltese working in it (other than administrative positions), but it’s their best shot at stomaching upsets to their economy.
Main Notice
Where the hell are the Maltese people?
Even if we assume the gambling, real estate and cruise ship bubble continues, Malta is a dying country. While its median age is below the EU average, it’s higher than the Americas at 38.4. More worrying is their fertility rate. Their fertility rate has been declining every year for 8 straight years now hovering around 1.04 TFR. A reminder that 2.1 is required to sustain a population and 1.2 is the threshold of the point of no return unless something drastic is done.
Seeing children in Malta is terribly uncommon even. Partly because it is a bunch of young adults going to get drunk, take instagram photos and make bad decisions but amongst the locals, they’re almost all in their 60s or older from what I saw. In fact, I’d say this is the main purpose of going to Malta for the younger bunch; to take advantage of its beauty everywhere so it adds to that perfect instagram story/photo–thats exactly what groups of 5-8 young women had been doing.
Whereas years prior you may have said that if you went to certain designated areas in Malta thats where the Maltese people were vs. the foreigners in another place–the foreigners and tourists have completely invaded all major cities worth visiting or living, leaving the Maltese people largely displaced. Everybody I’ve spoken to who was Maltese was fully understanding and disliked this reality, but accepted it as though it were merely a cloudy day.
This reality is so bad that the “Silent City” of Mdina was one of the noisiest places we had been.
In one instance of seeing children, there were about 12 on a class field trip in the heart of Valletta, very small maybe age 6. Of these, 3 of them were Indian. Malta, despite their fantastic history of resilience, bravery, and proudness is giving up on what it means to be Maltese without realizing it.
Maltese Joke About This:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DadahlXsJEB/?igsh=d3dmbnkwbHJxdjZ1&wa_logging_event=video_play_open
Malta’s Economy
Malta’s economy is heavily dominated by the services sector, which accounts for approximately 80% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
1. Services (Tertiary Sector) – ~80.6% of GDP
This sector is the engine of the Maltese economy, employing over 81% of the workforce. Key drivers within this sector include:
- Tourism and Hospitality: Malta’s top economic earner, making up about 15% of the country’s GDP. The islands consistently welcome millions of inbound tourists annually.
- iGaming (Online Gaming): Malta was the first EU member state to regulate online gaming. It has developed into a dominant global hub for iGaming technology, development, and compliance.
- ICT & Shared Services: Rapidly growing sub-sectors that focus on cloud computing, cybersecurity, blockchain, and data protection. Again, very few Maltese operate in these sectors.
Old apartments are being converted into AirBNBs to catch the rush; the entire country is becoming a Mexican resort
2. Industry & Manufacturing (Secondary Sector) – ~11.7% of GDP
Because Malta lacks natural mineral and energy reserves, its industrial base focuses heavily on high-value, advanced manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
- Advanced Manufacturing: Encompasses the production of microchips, semiconductors, and precision instruments.
- Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals: Plays a crucial role in domestic exports.
- Construction: A highly active sub-sector within the local economy, driven by infrastructure upgrades and commercial/residential development.
3. Agriculture and Fishing (Primary Sector) – ~0.7% of GDP
The primary sector contributes minimally to the overall GDP and employs a very small fraction of the local workforce.
- Production: Malta produces only a tiny percentage of its food needs. The main agricultural output consists of potatoes, grapes, tomatoes, barley, and wheat
Free Market? Nope
When looking exclusively at the Maltese workforce, about one in four (25.7%) of the local population is directly employed by the government. When you consider the private market with a majority ownership of the government such as their airline KM Malta Airlines (which was great), the figure is closer to 40%.
I’ve learned that especially when it comes to real estate, something about 15% of their economy at this point, the government is tremendously engaged as well… to make this post a tolerable length I’ve created a separate article on my real estate sit-down with an expert in Malta. Please see that article separately.
Religion
Malta has 364 churches on the island and of those who are religious, 95% say they are Roman Catholic. There is one mosque on the island, a very large one and I’m told that unofficially they’ll never be anymore mosques as the locals won’t approve of it. The young generations never interact with church, it’s only old people now–which may not be a surprise.
Ceremonies, traditions and celebrations of a religious origin are throughout the island during all times–but the dogmatic element to it is withering away.
Grocery Store Research
Grocery stores are very important when scouting out a new country. You not only get to get a sense of how the locals interact but also how much they’re spending on food, how vast the stores are, and crucially, where the foods are coming from that sit on the shelf.
Wine is incredible cheap and there’s an abundance.
Water comes from Ireland or Italy
MOST food comes from Italy, UK & Ireland being a surprising 2nd place, notwithstanding the specialization such as pork from Spain, cheese from France, etc.
It’s also worth noting that many products had a label that read MAXIMUM 10 ITEMS PER PERSON behind it. Which I thought, makes sense given the population density here, but this is a terrible starting point if a real food crisis were to erupt.
Shoppers seemed to be loading up their carts regardless, and prices seemed to be quite reasonable. I made one point to ask somebody where the majority of the food came from to which I received the answer, “well, all over the place”. I pressed whether this was a concern and they said “why would that be a problem? do you have allergies?”. It seemed he thought I was asking that people would object to Irish butter rather than get to the core of my question which was what happens when there's no more Irish butter on the shelf?
The grocery store was the first time where we noticed that locals absolutely scream and yell at one another, both employees and shoppers. We often felt as though we were between two people fighting, for all we could ascertain they could just be saying “we need more milk in the house”. This was true on every corner of the country. Everybody was shouting. One lady shouted at her family up the street over me while I was eating a sandwich at a restaurant. Maybe I was being filmed and people were laughing at my reaction, a Maltese Just for Laughs–or maybe that was just acceptable here.
There was an awkward moment while paying. I’m usually quite good at distinguishing accents… but my partner and I received ZERO understanding from the Indian guy behind the counter. He may as well could have speaking Finnish to us. I have no idea how he received the job.
ALL of our drivers were Indian, and half of them seemed very unhappy while driving
Reason to Steal
Construction projects, like Paraguay and Mexico have popped up everywhere with many allegedly being fronts for laundering money or just a scam of taking the money and running–this is not uncommon in Malta. We’ve been told that the number of people escaping UK, Germany, France for Malta has attracted the Russian mafia who jumped all over opportunities to scheme and scam these newcomers.
We don’t like it [tourism], but what can we do? (a lack of innovation, thinking outside of the box and intellectual laziness persists regarding new economic opportunities)
People
Maltese people strictly speak Maltese and in every aspect of their life. Even concerts clearly meant for tourists were narrated in Maltese, causing everybody to just look at each other with confused faces. Some, even struggle with English fluency which very much surprised me. Despite English being an official language, you’ll find more English elsewhere in Europe I’d imagine–and any history as a British colony feels like it’s long gone.
We’ve encountered a lack of social awareness, whether it be face-down in cell phone as you’re responding to a question, incredibly loud shouting close (as mentioned), a lack of what I’ll call “flow” to the conversation, a sort of grace or melody to discussion, t was though grown adults were something similar to a 15 year old socially awkward emo kid who was inept in social environments. The French never taught their Savoir-faire during their time here.
As a foreigner, the people had a genuine disinterest in anything related to outside of their islands. Not only this, but while trying to guide the conversation there was an element of impatience and quick-tempered responses (watch for how grandmother’s treat their grandsons for instance).
Another funny characteristic is how quickly they may become hypocritical. Even if it goes against their thoughts. For instance, they’ll say that they dislike how many foreigners are arriving–and yet say a benefit of Malta is how much money it’s bringing to the economy. They’ll complain that people are not eating enough meat in the country, and yet order salad. They’ll complain about how loud music is, yet recommend you check out a nightclub this evening…and so on. I’ve made note of this because I believe it’s very difficult to change course if there are cognitive dissonances done daily.
In their defense, the people are tired of being in Malta…
Fears of tax changes are lurking, a main appeal for expats. They’ve already reshuffled their citizenship by investment program. The Gambling Industry brings so much revenue (via application and license fees) it likely won’t be touched
Malta Real Estate Meeting
Like all realtors, there’s never the thought that the music is going to stop or a vision of asset prices failing to go up. Everybody is assuming higher prices and chasing the highs
For sake of length of article–there will be a new post for these findings for subscribers.
Bormla (Cospicua) Fact
Bormla is a place that I have a connection to, way back when… but I later learned that years ago it was a place where the upper classes wined and dined. Real estate was vast, villas were large and multi-level and it was a sought after place. I assume most families owned the ports, yachts or shipbuilding companies just down the hill. However, following WW2, where the Germans bombed the hell out of the 3 cities because it was their major shipbuilding manufacturing and food/munitions point, Bormla was almost entirely leveled.
The “old buildings” I see are only 60 years old or so, and in the 70’s a socialist government came to power where they used this as a place for mental hospitals, poor, homeless, drug addicts, etc. It had went from being an elitist area and gathering to a place with minimal housing space and low class living.A microcosm of what may happen to the rest of Europe?
Party On
It can be said that Maltese people, like the rest of the P.I.G.S. in Europe hold a priority regarding entertainment and “doing nothing”. In fact, maybe this shouldn’t had come as surprise for me…but I now see why South Europe is some of the most indebted, dependent, non-productive regions in Europe.
There was more concern about the next party, who had the best desserts, where the music was loudest rather than real fundamentals governing their lives. They will complain about how miserable everything is at the latest party.
Other Conversations
Every single Maltese person I’ve encountered is unhappy with the foreigners, to the point where this was the beginning of their discussions. More specifically, they’ve categorized every group of non-Maltese person to have a separate complaint about them.
Another point I’ve noticed, which always shocks me at this point, but every single Maltese person believes in voting very strongly. Even with their admission that the country is heading in the wrong direction, is terribly corrupt and organized crime is moving in (not to mention any realization that the nature of government is to extort, lie, cheat and steal); but they will still fully believe that their vote can alter outcomes for the better. There’s a complete failure to grasp that politicians are actors for the donors and money interests who send them there.
In so far politicians even matter (since Brussels and the ECB are the overlords to their vassal states) and Eurodollar keeps the wheel spinning, the latest administration “intends to press ahead with further equality reforms, with the aim of returning Malta to the top spot in ILGA-Europe’s annual ranking for LGBTIQ rights“. A new article will be coming regarding a perverse trend we’re seeing in Europeans looking to flee.
I had no idea and this was a sad, disappointment…but the waters for swimming are heavily polluted too. This is due to waste from hotels spilled into the water, diesel from boats and trash (I’m told exclusively from Africans). Malta is a maritime country and being an island they all cherish the sea, this is a real blow to the country. Poetically, this was a metaphor for the situation for locals there. It’s worsened so bad that the state are now advising people to cease from taking a dip (I’m told they are about 8 years too late getting to the announcement).
Another conversation (as though it weren’t obvious enough) explained the culture is one that definitely cherishes song, dance, drink and food as opposed to free enterprise, individual entrepreneurship, cleverness/wit and story-telling. I asked if it was like South America where it is party first, work second and they said “yes but work second only if they feel like it that day…”
The most interesting and lengthy conversations I’ve had were with Serbs and Filipinos and given the purpose of my trip, this had been a let down.
Banking is so slow, inefficient and bureaucratic that it will genuinely shock you
My Fear
My fear is that Malta is going to continue to become some sort of multicultural, commercial tourism slop of a European country–it already has very weak local birth rates, it has invited many of South Asians in who are having children of their own, it complains but changes nothing and they refuse to participate in the emerging sectors such as finance and e-gaming. Despite their history of protecting their religion and borders, they’ve seemingly thrown in the towel for some Euros to become a resort which will wear and tear at the seams. I believe Malta, again on face value, has the potential to distinguish itself in Europe and be a playground for entrepreneurs or HNWI’s–but there’s no sign of it.
The culture does not have the fundamentals to pull themselves out in an innovative, strategic manner because they do not value those characteristics like other countries (USA probably the best instance of this).
On the bright side, it is apparent that they are far more conservative in their thinking than the rest of Europe and preserve their culture well enough for the boats and planes to continue to show up. Maltese language creates a sense of togetherness which I believe to be a major benefit for the Maltese people. Malta feels safe, too.
Unexpected Reality
Despite it feeling safe…My partner has been viewing Malta Today on Instagram ever since our trip and we are shocked at the state of the country now. In what we can tell a relatively short period of time, we’re seeing daily deaths from partying, arson, fist fights, bottle fights, even police shootouts in mid daylight take place. We’ve seen mafia activity that was terrifying to see and general chaos turn directly into crime leading to deaths.
It’s something you’d expect to see in Mexico–but no, now it occurs in Malta. At this rate, I don’t even know if it would be a safe country in the future.
Closing
Malta is a unique place. For history buffs there is no place like it. It very much scratches the itch for people who enjoy old stone streets, thick walls and a feeling you’re in a time machine with 30 degree weather. For vacation, I can easily see how Europeans treat this as their Cancun equivalent.
However, Malta is the perfect example of a place being radically different between visiting and living
Perfection, Luxury, Amazement
As I said, it was one of the more beautiful and pleasant places I’ve been in my life. Even for stays longer than a week, Malta benefits by being relatively better than decaying countries in Western Europe. I don’t know how much longer this will keep prices inflated.
The other side of this wave of bodies is the assembly line of instagram girls who simply go to Malta for the photo of the background, the bay, the church, etc. and its onwards to the next photo-op location.
Unstable, Densely Populated Island
Malta is extremely chaotic. Parties, dogs, shouting, fireworks, shooting, music, there is really no rest for anybody. Imagine living next door to a night club–that is now living anywhere in Malta.
There are other places to not pay tax on foreign income or pay 5% corporate income tax (only after a state refund). The exception being the e-gaming/gambling company setup.
Malta feels to me to be splitting as people use it as a prostitute to line their pockets; it’s just becoming another random spot of skin that coats the Earth like a skin rash as Doug Casey puts it. The locals are very traditional, true to their faith, behaviorally distinct with their shouting of their language and different occupations, whereas the Europeans tend to congregate in the same overinflated 15-minute city type locations with their more reserved attitude in more digital/e-commerce type positions. The Indians and Arabs work service jobs in restaurants and cab drivers while the Africans are construction works, they don’t appear to have any contact or similarity with the Maltese people; especially as they willingly break the law of living space (they’ll pack people in small rooms).
Many don’t appear to be happy but action is minimal. They’d rather drink, eat or dance it off than to stay up all night working diligently on a problem, after all, they believe that politicians are there to fix all of their problems. These guys and these guys are long gone.
Trying to remove my bias, I can see an argument that Malta will continue to be a clear release valve for the destruction of the rest of Europe–and seemingly continue the bubble going. I wouldn’t invest here though as it appears that the downside of asset prices, employment opportunities and networking far outweighs the remaining upside. I suspect that government intervention, taxation, policy changes are going to be the catalyst that causes the music to stop. At which point, Europeans will turn elsewhere, only if they’re lucky. It was obvious that Malta is going to be hit aggressively hard when the economic crisis hits Europe.
I cannot stress enough–living in Malta and visiting I believe are vastly different. Visiting, I’m not sure who on the world has it beat…living, there’s a list of problems that are mixing together to come to a head and we’re already seeing bad results.
