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Malta Cost Of Living Compared To U.S.
Malta vs U.S. monthly cost breakdown on this post because I’m sure a lot of people are wondering how much things cost in this part of Europe, and especially on the island of Malta as they research their move. Malta being a popular destination already for expats from across Europe, it is starting to gain ground with U.S. expats thanks to shows like House Hunters International. Since this was information that was basically non-existent when we started doing our research, I thought l’d give a breakdown of what we typically spend monthly in Malta. I have converted the prices to U.S dollars at the time of writing for conformity. You can see that you do get a bang for your buck.
Things to keep in mind for the cost of living Malta vs USA:
- We currently rent a 2 bedroom, 2 bath Marina view apartment with a large terrace, right in the center of town. If we lived just a block or two behind , the same unit would cost about $200 less. We do this because l really like the view, remember my motto is everything in moderation so no extreme frugality for this girl.
- Central Malta is also not a dog friendly place and it therefore makes it hard to find apartment buildings that let you keep pets. More often than not, as soon as you mention pets, most either hang up or stop listening. If your budget is high, that is you want to live like you did back in the States, meaning a swanky apartment in Sliema for instance, a lot of landlords are willing to accommodate pets, but your rent would be at least triple what we pay currently.
Living in Malta: My take
I think the reason for the attitude towards pets is probably because the places come furnished (usually crappy and mismatched but furnished nonetheless.), so they are afraid the pets will ruin furniture etc. This is the view from our terrace. I like to sit on the terrace dreaming we own one of these babies, or at least know someone that owns one! It goes without saying that an expensive flat would have good furniture.
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- I budget our monthly grocery bill at the high end. We love to eat well at home, and rarely, very rarely go out to eat. We splurge on seafood (which is very expensive here, as most seafood are sold to Italy, because they pay better according to the fishery which sucks for us). The weeks we don’t get fresh seafood, our grocery bills are less
- We seldom take the bus. We use convenience stores which are walkable, and do the big supermarket once weekly. The gym, post office, butcher, banks etc. are within 10 minutes walk, and l walk slowly!!!The bus stop is practically right outside the front door.
- Our cell phones do not have data plans. We brought our old unlocked phones with us and just purchase top up cards as we go along. I am still using the same €10 top up card l purchased 4 months ago! It costs to call and to receive phone calls here, so most people don’t use it. I love it, l am not assaulted by people yakking away on their frigging phones. Texts are cheaper, so most use it. We also use the magic jack app, so we can still make and receive calls to the U.S for free. In Europe, most people communicate through Whatsapp, a free app owned by Facebook that lets you make free calls all over the world via WiFi
Once our current insurance runs out, we will most likely just pay as we go. Doctor’s visits run about $10-15. If you read my post which can be found here regarding my E.R visit , you’ll see why.
Cost of living in Malta: Malta vs U.S. monthly cost breakdown Chart:
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Related Reading: Sliema Malta
Malta cost of living:
From the above table, you can see that the cost of living Malta is extremely cheap compared to the U.S. In Malta, there are community fees to be paid (similar to the American HOA) but that is usually included in your rental fee. You may choose to have rental insurance, but again, that is a cheap fee..about 20€ per month or less.
You can also reduce your Malta cost of living a bit by eliminating cable service. We both enjoy football (him more than me) so it’s worth it to have that package but we have friends who only watch Netflix which runs for about €12 per month.
Check out images from our neighbourhood here. Not too shabby!
*Update for 2019*
The costs in Malta for rentals have slowly increased just like everywhere else. The same unit that we lived in here would now cost you roughly $150 more per month. Moving further out would still be a little cheaper. As Malta continues to increase in popularity with expats, the prices will keep the upward trajectory.
For us, it’s a no brainer. It costs us much less in Malta compared to the USA. Less than half in fact. It is therefore a good incentive for people like us to consider being expats. If you’re curious about monthly expense differences of Malta compared to Spain,you can read this for the numbers.
Are you surprised by the Malta vs U.S cost comparison difference? More importantly, are you surprised by the Malta cost of living being so reasonable? or is it in line with what you expected? Are you ready to pack your bags now and go off on a new adventure?
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Wow, these are some really nice prices compared to the US. And they are really good prices for Europe too! And one of the reasons why I like smaller countries or cities is that everything seems to be within walking distance. Staying in the center of the town also helps. And, my, what a view!
Hi C, thanks for dropping by and commenting. After doing my research before the move, it didn’t take long to make up our minds. It’s great because we are closer to his family in Rome. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe this place us part of the E.U. The average wage is about €800 per month. Needless to say there are lots of British expats here especially. I love not driving here, but had we had a car, we would still be at the $375/month flat. It had a good view too, and you can drive the whole island in about an hour..I am going to write about the prices of what you wrote about so we can compare apple to apple as well.
I love the view you have! My wife and I often wonder how life would be if we could move to a lower cost area…that’s pretty much everywhere since we live in NYC. But our family and friends are here so we probably won’t do that. It’s always interesting to see how much things costs in different places.
We had basically narrowed it down to Belize and Malta. We didn’t really want to learn a new language. In the end, the fact that my family rarely visited from Africa due to the long haul sealed it. They weren’t going to come for sure to a place that was even farther away.. ;o). This way, we are both closer, him more than me. Yeah..the view sealed it for us, plus the location. In the summer, Malta has fireworks practically every weekend somewhere, and often we can just sit on the terrace and watch. Yeah..New York is pretty pricy, used to live in Boston before moving to L.A, but NYC is insanely pricy, but you’ll find a house soon..hang in there..
I like your view! Sometimes it makes sense to pay for a good location. If you’re right next to the bus stop, you probably save a ton in transportation costs anyway.
Thanks. It is worth it for us since we are major homebodies. The bus stop is literarily across the street (since they drive on the other side, another reason we did not want to drive!).
Looks ideal! As for the comparison versus US costs, what would it look like if you were to rent (or own) a more modest 2 BR apartment here?
I ask because I’ve pondered the question many times too. We could sell our 4 BR house and buy a 2-3 BR condo 0.2 miles down the street for 40% of the price. That would probably save us at least a few thousand per year (even ignoring mortgage differences).
So when I’m mentally comparing rent on a 3 BR condo or apartment in Thailand or Santiago, Chile (or now, Malta) vs the costs on a similar size residence where I live, they end up closer to the same number. Maybe the take away lesson is that we’d be just about as happy in a smaller residence wherever we live.
A 2 bedroom in Houston would probably run about 1,000 so it would be close to what it is here. Of course, we would still need the cars etc. we have a 2 bedroom rental condo that’s in a so so neighborhood that is paid off. I would not live there, but my husband would totally live there and save every other penny. I am not a big fan of condos though, we sold our other 2 before moving. So many headaches and they always hit you with extras (the last one had been leaking water under the street or something and the HOA ended up owing the water dept. thousands, meaning we all had to pay like 1500 each). It never stops…I am pretty sure we will sell our house after the renter moves out since we are pretty sure we don’t want to move back. Malta ticks a lot of boxes for us, you just have to forget good customer service.. It’s the land that time forgot in some aspects, but official languages are both Maltese and English and it’s gorgeous. I had kind of looked at Panama, Ecuador and Belize, but this was it after 3 years of looking, researching etc..I’m glad you are expanding your list..
We’ve had a similar experience with condos. Frequent assessments. It’s worse than fixing your own house, since you can’t control how much you spend or the timing of when you fix something.
Malta sounds very nice and very affordable. I also didn’t know English was an official language (which makes it even easier to live there, I imagine!)
Oh yeah, everything is written in both languages. I didn’t want to be forced to learn a new language. I have picked up a couple of Maltese words, and my husband likes it cos a lot of people speak italian as well, not that it’s helped me any..lol..