What should you look for in a property before you sign anything?

Don't be taken over by the presentation

Matthew's first instruction is a warning about your own eyes: "Do not get taken over by just what you're seeing and how the property is being presented." A property being viewed is a property being sold — staged, furnished, lit and timed to show its best. What you are standing in is a version of the space, not the space itself.

Put yourself and your lifestyle into it

The correction is to stop assessing the property on its own terms and start assessing it on yours: "Include yourself into the property, your lifestyle, and see what is missing." The question is not whether the room is attractive. It is whether it holds what your life actually puts in it.

Cost what's missing — and let that number into the decision

This is the step buyers skip. "Cost what is missing and include that in the decision." The gap between the property as shown and the property as you would need it is not an abstraction — it has a number. Until that number sits next to the asking price, you have not seen the real price.

The big picture is what gets missed

Asked what buyers almost never do, Matthew is blunt: "Not viewing the big picture is probably what's missed most often." The big picture is the total — the price, plus the works, judged against how you will actually live there.

The same measurement, framed as an architect's read of the building, is age, condition and the gap to finish. And it sits underneath the legal starting point too: Dr. Laferla's first step when buying property in Malta is making sure you actually want the property. This is how you find out whether you do.

Sources

• Perit Matthew James Mercieca — Yitaku Asks video (Architect Series, Cluster 1) — don't be taken over by the presentation; include yourself and your lifestyle; cost what is missing; the big picture