Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1539671
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 SEPTEMBER 2025 NEWS SPOILT FOR CHOICE Relax in comfort with your favourite drink and explore up to 6,500 channels of entertainment. Watch a new movie, discover a new box set or pick the soundtrack for your journey. It's the ideal way to start your holiday. Fly Emirates in comfort from Malta to over 150 destinations. frustration over difficulty to rent to regain possession of their property more quick- ly, avoiding lengthy court battles that are often nec- essary when dealing with Maltese tenants. Landlords have more control over foreign tenants MaltaToday also spoke to James Paris, the director of Pelago, a small real estate agency. Paris acknowledged that tenants are right to feel frustrated with landlords who refuse them simply because they are Maltese. Nonetheless, he said, these tenants still eventually end up finding accommoda- tion. Paris noted that similarly, some Indian nationals also face the same problem due to their nationality. He ex- plained that a significant factor which makes land- lords so picky is the fact that demand for housing is very high, and so they can afford to turn away some tenants in favour of others. When asked why a landlord might opt for non-Maltese tenants, Par- is says that there is a belief among some landlords that if Maltese tenants refuse to pay rent, they might end up squatting in the prop- erty. This, he noted, would then leave the owners with few options to reclaim their property. Another reason some landlords prefer foreign tenants, Paris said, is that landlords have more con- trol over them. In the case of third-country nationals, these workers need a fixed residence, among other re- quirements, if they are to live legally in Malta. This makes them more likely to comply with landlord de- mands. Paris says that there is a belief among some landlords that if Maltese tenants refuse to pay rent, they might end up squatting in the property