What's the most expensive mistake buyers make?

Perit Matthew James MerciecaArchitect & Civil Engineer · Kamra tal-Periti (Chamber of Architects, Malta)

Building & DesignReviewed: 16 July 2026

The short answer

Prioritising other people's idea of what comes next instead of your own needs. When a stakeholder tells you the permit is next, that's the apparent step, not the right one — the right step is to stop, define what you want, and start with a good design. Decide only once you have a holistic list of what needs to happen with the costs assessed against it.

Prioritise your needs, not other people's next step

Matthew opens and closes on the same line, which is how you know it is the answer: "Prioritizing your needs, not the suggestions of others as to what should come next." The expensive mistake is not choosing the wrong property. It is letting someone else set the order of your decisions.

The mistake is a rash decision about what the priority is

"I think it's making rash decisions in what they perceive to be the priority." The word doing the work there is perceive. The buyer is not being careless — they are being decisive about the wrong thing, because the priority they are acting on was handed to them.

Decide from a complete list with the costs against it

"When we think holistically what needs to happen, and a complete list is carried out and the respective costs are assessed, one can decide." Note the sequence: the deciding comes last. Everything has to be on the list, and everything on the list has to have a number against it, before a decision is worth making.

Why "the permit is next" is the wrong instinct

His example is precise, and it is the one buyers hear constantly: "When we are told by some stakeholders the permit is next, they suggest what the next apparent step is. In fact the right step is stepping back, defining what you want, and then starting with a good design. That is at the end of the day what's going to prevent expensive mistakes."

The apparent next step is always the procedural one, because procedure is what the people around you administer. But a permit is permission to build something. Deciding what that something is comes first, or you have paid to get permission for the wrong thing.

There is a legal counterpart to this from the other side of the transaction. Dr. Laferla's biggest legal mistake buyers make is committing before checking with the bank whether you can afford to. Same shape, different lens: step back and establish your own position before the process starts carrying you.

Sources

Perit Matthew James Mercieca — Yitaku Asks video (Architect Series, Cluster 1) — prioritise your needs not others' suggestions; rash decisions on a perceived priority; a complete list with costs assessed; step back, define what you want, start with good design