Statistics in Europe show that property prices during the pandemic kept steady growth with only 2 (Spain and Hungary) out of 27 EU countries showing a slight decrease in price. Overall house prices in Europe grew 5.7% in the year 2020. (Source: Eurostat April 2021)

Here are the main reasons why prices kept their stability and even have shown growth during the pandemic.

1 Low interest rates

Interest rates have been at a record low level ever since the 2008 economic crisis, and central banks keep on low rates giving the possibility to keep mortgage interests at also unprecedented low levels.

Who wouldn’t like to take a chance to buy while interests are low? People will do their best to buy in any way they can. Logic also says that banks will keep on interests low in the foreseeable future due to pressure from governments in helping economic recovery process.

2 Government tax schemes

Many governments including ours have came up with incentive schemes to help people buy their homes.

Since those schemes always have an expiry date (in our case signing of Promise of Sale till July 2021 and doing Final Deed by January 2022), people are motivated to bring a decision on buying their home faster, making the pool of real serious buyers even bigger than usual. An increase in interest in buying kept prices steady during pandemics time.

3 Fewer houses for sale

Pandemic has taken its toll in real estate sales too, especially in the second and third quarters of 2020 when it was nearly impossible to view properties.

Potential sellers did not want to risk infection with buyers wandering through their homes for showings, automatically decreasing the number of properties for sale on the market.

Buyers did not want to meet agents out of fear of possible infection and the whole situation brought a slowdown in number of available listings, making properties available for viewing scarce and keeping their prices up despite pandemics.

4 Shift in family spending

Although in Malta there was always strong spending on housing due to the tradition of owning a home, European and world economists have noted that, during the pandemic, households are shifting their spending patterns: less for travel and vacations, concerts and shows, eating out, entertaining, and commuting, and more for housing, especially if some extra space is needed to work from home.

Houses with a little garden or terrace, apartments with balconies, penthouses, and maisonettes… generally all units with some outdoor space became sought after during pandemic.

Additionally, the pandemic has pushed more millennials into homeownership, ending their delays in decision making and buying, and putting an additional push on home prices.

5 Pandemic-induced buying of real estate

Wealthier households have a sweet problem – in what to invest extra money.

Pandemic is causing economic crisis and while in normal circumstances they would maybe opt to buy stocks or bonds of different companies, in pandemic time there are just a few safe investments on the plate, and real estate is one of them.

Demand created by wealthier people in buying another property has created steady growth in property prices despite economic gloom predictions for the upcoming couple of years.

What to expect in near future?

In order to boost spending and start the economic wheel turning again, governments will be forced to print money, meaning our money in a year’s time will not have the same value as it has today. Prices will inevitably raise and housing will be even less affordable than it is today.

Is it the right time to buy a property?

It is always the right time to buy property…especially now.

One of the easiest, fastest, simpliest and the most effective ways to refresh your home is by getting new curtains or blinds.

Which material you should choose, which style of curtains, which length… it all depends on size of your room, size of windows you have, amount of light you wish to have in the space and colours of furniture.

Depending on your wish you may opt for modern, classic, retro style, you may like simple sheers or some playful colourful ones. Pattern and colours, size of curtain can make your space look visually bigger or smaller, wider or narrower.

In small and not so well lit spaces you should choose light coloured, transparent curtains. They will make whole space feel lighter, and more airy.

Heavy material curtains are recommended only for very large spaces with large walls and windows where curtain will give cosy feeling to large space and make it more warm and homey.

There is also always middle way to go – simple curtains with very few patterns, hanged on metal or wooden curtain rail will always fit well into any space.

Shape and type of curtain will also depend on the remaining decor of your room. You may choose classic curtains, then nowadays quite popular vertical blinds that can be found in numerous colours and thickness of material or roman blinds that are also gaining popularity in many contemporary homes.

One of the most important choices is colour of your new curtains. Colour must be chosen in consideration of the rest of your furniture and soft furnishings, but also having in mind mood you want to create in the room.

Warm orange, red, yellow colours will brighten up the room and bring in vividness while classic grey, blue or white colours are calming. To make space feel classy but still intimate, not too vivid and not too calm one can use dark purple, deep dark red or dark grey colours.

Another important factor is a length of curtains. By using long curtains your space will look vertically higher and you will get the feeling that window itself is higher. This is especially useful in spaces with high windows such as semi-basement dwellings where curtains make all the difference in how place will eventually look and feel.

Choosing shorted curtains/roller blinds or similar will bring in feeling of less formal, more casual space.

In the end, one of the main questions everybody asks himself is how much of material I will need to buy for new curtains…well it is easy, height you can calculate from the ceiling till wanted length of curtain plus 10 cm more for the seam, while width will take about 2,5 – 3m for each meter length of your curtain (so if you have to cover 2m of window, it will take you 5-6m of material).

So if you did your spring cleaning, another non-expensive step in giving some new fresh look to your space would certainly be getting new curtains!