(openPR) - SEATTLE – 77 Great Estates, a luxury real estate firm in the Central Mediterranean Sea, is the first Malta-based brokerage firm to join the global LuxuryRealEstate.com network, which includes more than 1,800 brokers and firms.

Malta is an island-nation located about 60 miles south of Sicily (Italy) and 180 miles north of Libya. At the crossroads between West and East, North and South, and Arab and Western culture, Malta is uniquely situated to act as a commercial hub for regional and continental expansion. In 2004, Malta was admitted into the European Union. In addition, it enjoys an excellent working relationship with the Maghreb countries on the North African coast.

The capital of Malta is Valletta – where 77 Great Estates’ office is located. With a total area of 95 square miles, Malta is a little less than twice the size of Washington, D.C. Maltese, English and Italian are spoken fluently by the population of 400,000.

Malta has a fiscally beneficial tax system for international investors. Their laws forbid taxation on worldwide income but only on Maltese source income and on foreign income remitted to Malta; foreigners who become local residents may only be taxed at a flat rate of 15 percent; there are no net-worth or real-estate taxes and there is no capital-gains tax on people who sell their main residence after three years. Malta recently entered into a double-taxation agreement with the United States and other countries.

77 Great Estates was created by Carl Peralta (B.A., LL.D.) in 2003. Business being his chief interest, Dr. Peralta has successfully co-organized many large-scale entertainment events since 1995. His company specializes in representing palaces, rural houses, commercial property and urban apartments.

At the end of May 2008, the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network included 120,998 agents, 5,815 offices and 1,813 members in 65 countries.

For additional information on 77 Great Estates, please visit their Web site: www.77ltd.com.

Luxury Real Estate
2110 Western Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121, USA

Press Contact: Robert Lockard
T: (800) 488-4066 Ext. 856
F: (206) 695-4837
E: rlockard@luxuryrealestate.com

www.LuxuryRealEstate.com is the most-viewed luxury real estate Web site in the world. The Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network includes 1,813 of the world’s finest real-estate companies with properties in 100 countries. Participation is strictly invitation-only by CEO/Publisher John Brian Losh. In Ultimate Homes’ 2008 issue, the network represented more than twice the number of top 1,000 most-expensive properties in the country than any other network. The Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate network is governed by the Board of Regents.