History and Company Profile
Real Estates
a family business since 1812

Baron Properties Limited
A generation of Real Estates.

Lazzarro Sant Fournier (circa 1890)
Co-founder of the Sant Fournier Family Estates

Baron Properties Limited began operating as a company in 1998, but the family has been in the Real Estates business for over two hundred years. Our business in the past dealt mainly with ownership of real estate’s, the management and purchasing of Real Estate as an investment or livelihood.

Today we have expanded our scope, beyond that of ownership by offering our services as agents to clients who also wish to buy property as a home, a second home, as a business or even as an investment.

We offer a personalised service, we are unbiased in rendering a service both to the client and the vendor, even on the rental sector to lessor and lessee. Property owners should be aware of the significant difference between an agent who has chosen not to raise standards, possibly increasing the risk of negligence, poor service and maybe even not obtaining best property price for the client and the agent who has chosen to be professional, chosen to follow the code of conduct and chosen to raise the standards in the Industry.

Property in Malta is the main hub of the driving force of the economy, much depends on any new laws that regulate the market. Any slight change, or wind of some change would drastically affect the market.

Commercial property is still slightly weak in the rental sector, where people still prefer to purchase rather than rent, this may or may not be partly due to archaic laws dating back to the 1939 Rent laws. As recently pointed out by the “Kamra tal-Periti” on the 5^th of February 2005.

There are too many differences between the man in the street and the Government as regards to certain laws, this might have an adverse affect on the way the market moves, and this may sometimes stem the proper growth of the property market.

To quote one of the competitive estate agents, “The market has to be free to regulate itself. However it is important to introduce measures to increase the supply of houses and consequently to reduce prices”.

Each family member of Baron Properties Limited is today also a shareholder of one of the oldest Property establishments on the Island, B.Tagliaferro e figli - Est.1812. (Biagio Tagliaferro & Sons owned the company in full). 
The Company was later known as "Sant Fournier and Sant Fournier en nom colletif" which at the time owned and set up the "Tagliaferro Bank" (which later amalgamated with The National Bank of Malta). 
The history of Tagliaferro et figli and Sant Fournier goes back to 1780's, when "Conti Giorgio Fournier" owned property and lands, thus forming the Estates of The Count Sant Fournier. 
The family later acquired Banking experience from the Tagliaferro family, and went on to merge Banking with property under the company name "B.Tagliaferro and Sons Limited" which is still very much in existence today. Steve Sant Fournier was elected Director of the company on the 22nd June 2005 (and also serves on the Committee of the Federation of Estate Agents).

In 1998, with all this experience in mind, the children of the late Count Alfred Sant Fournier founded the company now known as:

The family is proud to share this vast experience and will continue to do so for many generations to come. The Late Count Alfred Sant Fournier first formed the partnership/company way back in 1988 but was actually registered as a company with the MFSA in 1998, the company operates from the Capital city (Republic Street) Valetta.

A little story behind the name and logo:  Back in the 1980's it was common amongst many Maltese to hate Nobles for their so called 'upper class' and ' privileged' status. Fortunately today this has very much disappeared, with many people claiming to form part of or even claim to be part of the Islands Nobility. 
An ancestor of the family, "Hugh", who was known for his 'dandy' ways, and whom incidentally never to be caught without his hat and cane, walked the streets of Valletta many mornings, and would salute him and shout out 'Good morning BARON' or 'Bongu sur Baruni' (sic). Many of these gentlemen were mainly lawyers, judges, notable businessmen and the landed gentry of the time who paid homage to the Count. In fact although the son of a Count, the name Baron rather stuck and when many years later a name was needed to form a company, the instant our friend and accountant mentioned the word, this rather stuck. Hence the name for the new company was formed. 

Another interesting point about the name, was the fact that it was associated with 'Land Baron' and at one time was even used by the Prime Minister of Malta of the time to make reference to a 'person of corruption'. This soon subsided as the name became a favourite amongst many businesses, and the novelty soon wore out.