What can the owners be thinking? EUR10.8 million for a penthouse in St Julian’s

Published: April 20, 2012 at 1:47pm

I’ve just received an email from The Telegraph expat service, highlighting its current stories. One of them is a pictorial feature about luxury homes with libraries, which are on the market. I flicked through them, wondering why the presence of bookshelves turns a drawing-room into a library, and came to:

A traditional-looking library, complete with leather sofas and floor-to-ceiling shelves, attached to a huge penthouse apartment in St Julian’s, Malta. And as if that’s not enough space to be studious in, there’s also “his” and “hers” study areas. You can buy the apartment for a rather staggering GBP8.9 million, from Leading Luxury Real Estate.




48 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Why would you want a “his” and “hers” “study area”? Call mine a one-track mind, but a nine million pound penthouse has one purpose only: getting into “her” knickers.

    [Daphne – Baxxter, the penthouse IS OWNED by a ‘she’. I know this for a fact, even if you couldn’t deduce it from the decor. It’s got to be a woman or Noel Coward.]

    • Jozef says:

      Love the Pompeian cinema.

      It’s like something Tony Montana designed for Elvira Hancock.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Looks like something owned by an Arab sheikh. No taste, no class, and glitzy in that Maltese nouveau riche way.

      • Paul Bonnici says:

        Spot on Baxxter!

      • Dee says:

        Plastic covers jonqos minhabba it-trab u doilies min ghand tal- Lira.

      • Joe Micallef says:

        This is puzzling – part of the description says

        “……excluding the maid’s quarters.”

        With 1400sqm either the maid is bionic or there is a mistake in the calculation of area, or the other maids are black market (hope that is politically correct)

    • Dee says:

      Min jaf kemm isiru borom bis-soppa tal-armla f’dik il-kcina, dejjem jekk il-prezz tal-pastard u gbejniet, kif ukoll dak tal elettriku u gas, ma jkomplux jgholew.

    • Grezz says:

      All that money and they can’t buy good taste. Shame.

  2. Jozef says:

    If it’s a library, why the TV?

    Judging by the empty shelves and faux volumes, it could be useful.

    It looks like someone ordered one cigar room/wine bar too many.

  3. Mark M says:

    10M euro and only 2 bedrooms?

    ‘The exclusive home for sale comprises 2 bedrooms, living room, lounge room, a 100 foot living/dining area.’

  4. john says:

    I suspect that no papers for peer-reviewed scientific journals have had their gestation in either his or her study area.

    I remember being in a London antiquarian bookshop when a client ordered leather-bound volumes by the yard, clearly without a clue as to the content of the books.

  5. Antoine Vella says:

    Socialist Yana Mintoff could afford it. If not today, when she inherits.

    • Dad's Army says:

      If I were her, I would not bet on inheriting anything from that old carcass either. I hear that he does not even trust his daughters with cashing his cheques. That is not to say they are not to be trusted, but only that Mintoff is the sort of miser who wouldn’t trust anyone with a cheque or money.

    • La Redoute says:

      Her father could afford it but he already has a spiritiera for his cooking.

  6. Paul Bonnici says:

    It looks like an English pub. Is that a bar there? A flat for almost 9 million pounds – that is madness.

    • Jozef says:

      It is.

      Everything is standard tacky hotel fare one can order off catalogues from China.

      Derivative chesterfields, cheap carpets, off the shelf ‘paintings’, imitation designer lamps, plastic rattan, aged wood veneers, even the flowers look plastic.

  7. Book Worm says:

    Who needs a library today with iPad and Kindle?

  8. butterfly says:

    My ex boss lived in an enormous house where he and his wife each had their own bedroom with a little sitting/study area. Sort of a private apartment. Such a big penthouse with only two bedrooms is really absurd.

  9. butterfly says:

    Not a good look…

  10. Sowerberry says:

    At least this penthouse comes with four parking spaces.

    I have heard about such properties in Portomaso or Tigne in the seven figure bracket with not even one parking space or, at most, a small space for the Smart.

  11. Stanley J A Clews says:

    I’ll wait for a Christmas sale when they offer two for the price of one.

  12. Gahan says:

    Ghandi kamra ghaxra b’ghaxra f’nofs ghalqa ta’ tlett itmiem b’veduta tal-bahar kemm tara ghajnejk. La noqod innaddaf tapiti u l-anqas nikkoppa jekk jidhol xi hadd. Nidhol sal-bieb bil-karozza u dritt nimtedd fuq zewgt it-twavel ghal-hajt tax-xemx. Hemda taqtaghha b’sikkina ghax ‘il-fuq minni hemm il-Germanizi tal-CABS jghassu ‘l kaccaturi. U hallieh ha jhabbat!

    • ciccio says:

      Eh, imma dawk tal-CABS ikollhom it-trombi.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      Iva? U bnejtha illegalment, jaqaw?

      • Gahan says:

        Baxxter: le, kollox ghadda mis-sentejn ’torturi’ tal-Mepa. Jien cittadin ezemplari hi, kelli gorbog jidher fuq il-pjanta tal-1967 u zidt 25% maghha – ghalhekk immur rasi mistrieha. Kif jghidu bil-Malti “kollox above board”.

        Ciccio: bit-trombi m’hu se jaraw xejn interessanti. Nista’ nqis li ghandi sigurta ahjar milli jipprovdu l-agenziji kollha ta’ Malta bl-ALE, l-SRT u l-SMU flimkien maghhom. Sikwit jarrestaw xi nassab jew xi kaccatur, u jien nghid “wiehed inqas”.

  13. Denis Bartolo says:

    In fact, Daphne, the “she” is a Canadian who has spent a good number of years in Vegas. I recall her saying “the more it glitters the more I love it”.

    Need I say more.

  14. Denis Bartolo says:

    And another bit of info: the statues and the high chair in the gym are ex Caeser’s Palace auctioned stuff.

  15. Spiru says:

    U l-aqwa t-tromba ha joqghod inemmes (sorry for the Maltese) or is that someone with a penchant for astronomy ?

  16. Anthony says:

    Major Clews can afford two for the price of one.

    I will camp out three days before the sales start to get the first one free.

    That is all I can afford.

    Yes, the owner had to buy his own furniture, as we say in English and that is pretty obvious.

    Otherwise I like the place.

    At 1400 sqm that’s the area of twelve good-sized flats.

    Not bad. Very well kitted indeed I would say.

    I would put in an offer at 70% of asking price.

    That would be reasonable. Hovels in certain parts of Malta get sold for threehundredthousand euros nowadays.

    HoweverI will try camping out the Harrod’s Sale way first .

    You never know.

  17. butterfly says:

    Dak is-ceiling fan fil-librerija?

  18. Richard Royle says:

    I’d go for Noel Coward – that priapic ivory ‘tuks’ is a dead giveaway, but then he would never choose to live in a Weatherspoons pub.

    Sorry Daphne, have been away from Malta for 18 months now but still addicted to your blog and couldn’t help myself.

  19. bookworm says:

    Maybe I should buy this penthouse just to expand my library.

  20. L.Gatt says:

    These comments were such fun to read— the flat decor is a hamallata Victoria Beckham style.

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