Malta restricts who may buy property here. The restriction is real rather than a formality. It runs on the Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act. Whether you need a permit depends on your nationality, how long you have lived here and where the property is.
Get that question answered before you start looking, because it decides which properties are even available to you.
Before you start looking
Do you need an AIP permit?
Whether you need one depends on nationality, length of residence and the location of the property. Special Designated Areas are open to everyone without a permit.
Answer this before you view anything, because it changes the entire search.
Residence routes
Buying happens in two stages
Buying here runs in two stages with a deposit at the first. Searches and permits happen between the two.
The gap between them is usually months. The deposit is at risk if you walk away without a valid reason.
Renting first
Stamp duty, notary and searches
The headline price is not the cost. Stamp duty, notarial fees and searches all sit on top and are worth budgeting before you offer.
A notary is not optional here and does the legal work that a solicitor would do elsewhere.
Tax and duty
Do you need an AIP permit?
The four positions
- EU citizen, resident here five years or more
- No permit needed for anything. Five years of continuous residence at any time before the purchase frees you entirely. This includes Maltese citizens.
- EU citizen, resident under five years, buying a home
- No permit needed for your primary residence, or for property you need for your business or to supply services. Buying a primary residence assumes you are moving your ordinary residence here.
- EU citizen, resident under five years, buying a second property
- A permit is required. This is the case people get wrong: a holiday home where you are not changing your ordinary residence counts as a secondary residence.
- Non-EU citizen
- You may not acquire any immovable property at all unless a permit is granted.
Where a permit is required, it will not be granted if you have already acquired immovable property in Malta. Other conditions apply as well. In practice this means a permit route gives you one property, not a portfolio.
Special Designated Areas
There are defined zones, known as Special Designated Areas, where none of the above applies. Inside an SDA there are no restrictions on acquisition at all: anyone may buy, including a second or subsequent property, with no permit. This is why many foreign purchases are concentrated in a few developments. Prices there behave differently from the rest of the market.
Where no permit is needed regardless
Inheritance is unrestricted. So are transfers between co-heirs, partitions between co-owners, the redemption of a ground rent, and a grave or burial site. Donations to a spouse, a descendant or an ascendant in the direct line are also unrestricted. Acquiring a further share in a property you already partly own is also unrestricted.
The rules above are for individuals. Acquisition by bodies of persons follows separate rules. Buying through a company to get around a restriction does not work as people expect.
The rest of the process
A Maltese purchase runs through a notary, who carries out the searches, drafts the promise of sale and registers the final deed. A deposit is normally paid on the promise of sale, with the balance at the final deed some months later. Stamp duty, notarial fees and any agency commission sit on top of the price. Reduced rates and exemptions apply in some cases, including for first-time buyers and for property in Gozo and urban conservation areas.
Minimum purchase values apply where a permit is required. They are revised over time.
The notary is not optional in Malta and their searches protect you from a defective title, an unpaid ground rent or an unpermitted alteration. Appoint your own rather than relying on the seller’s or the agent’s. This page explains who may buy. It is not advice on a particular purchase. A property transaction here needs a lawyer as well as a notary.
Permit conditions, the application itself and the current minimum values are published by the Malta Tax and Customs Administration, which administers Chapter 246.