Malta - British Expat Forum

Hi folks.

If all goes to plan we should be joining you in spring next year
We'll probably have a lot of questions to annoy you with so apologies in advance.

Firstly I just wanted to verify our plan of coming over with a trailer to make sure it's financially viable. Does a trailer have to be registered with a horrendous fee like a car? It would be around 8x5 foot meshed cage.
Are there any other issues/costs when bringing a trailer into Malta?

Cheers

Hi Cuauhtli, welcome to the forum

I brought over a box trailer when we moved here and had no major problems. It doesn't have to be registered like a car and there are no fees that I'm aware of.

However there are 3 important issues/costs to consider.

A. Extra cost based on overall length for ferry travel/tickets and slightly higher toll charges/fuel consumption when driving down through Europe.

B. When you register your car here you need to apply for a third number plate (about 25-30 euros) for use on the trailer in Malta.

C. Probably the most important...you need to make sure you have somewhere to keep the trailer in Malta.

It's hard enough getting parking space for a car!! Some driveways are like ski ramps and some garages (like mine) have low doors/ceilings so a high trailer won't fit in there. Keep all this in mind when house hunting or you could end up paying yearly fees for a storage yard, etc.

Thanks pumabob,

That's good news.

I'll be looking for a place with garage. The type of trailer I'm looking for comes flat packed so if necessary I could always take it apart again and store it against the garage wall.

As you say though I'll have to be careful about steep driveways, roads and narrow streets when choosing a place to stay.

My wife is very interested in driving from the UK with a box trailer as well, but we don't want to keep it once we're here. In the states, we'd just rent a U-Haul trailer from anywhere, and drop it off wherever we're going. Is there any European equivalent of this sort of service? Or would we have to buy it in the UK and sell it in Malta?

Rahdo, no 'one way' rentals to Malta that I know of, and definitely not for trailers.
You would probably have to buy in the UK and then try to sell here, but it's a very limited market in Malta, so you could be stuck with it for some time.

Large horse box might be another / better option and possibly easier to sell afterwards.

I know you CAN hire a large 'Luton Body' box van (transit type) in the UK, which you can then drive to Malta, but you need to return it to the UK when finished. I've already looked at this option for moving us back to the UK in August, but it's expensive doing one leg of the trip empty when you add in the ferry and fuel costs.

[Edited by Site Admin. We have rules about advertising on this forum (please read the posting guidelines for details), and I'm afraid your post contravened them. Posts like this belong on the Small Ads board - it costs just £5 for 30 days, and half the fee goes to Gozo SPCA. Thanks. - Dave]

would love to help, but in the end we just shipped our stuff and drove down in our micra. good luck though!