14/08/2024
LATEST FIGURES FROM THE LOCAL RENTAL MARKTET IN Q1 2024
"According to the latest Quarterly Review Report of Q1 of the Central Bank of Malta, only 10% of tenants in Malta are Maltese with the rest being foreigners. 17% are EU nationals and 73% are third-country nationals.
64% of tenants are males at an average age of 37 years with 91% of tenants working full-time in the labour force. Only 29% of tenants have a tertiary education.
40% of tenants are sharing their rental with roommates that are not family members.
74% of the tenants have a rental contract of just one year.
The median rent being paid by tenants is €650 per month. 44% of tenants are paying between €600 and €899 in rent. Around 39% are paying less than €600 per month while the remaining 18% are paying more than €900. Around 15% of tenants receive housing benefits from the government.
In examining the data on landlords in Malta, the headline indicator is that practically all landlords are Maltese (97%), with only 2% coming from other EU countries and 1% being thirdcountry nationals (TCN).
The average number of rental properties owned by a landlord stood at 2.7 properties. Landlords who owned only one rental property amounted to 42% (see Table 1). One in five landlords (23%) had two properties while 13% had three properties rented out. A further 6% had four properties. The share of landlords with five or more properties stood at only 13%. Between them, this 13% of landlords managed 43% of all properties rented. As would be expected, older landlords managed a greater number of properties than the younger cohorts. In fact, landlords over 50 years of age managed almost 65% of rental properties indicating that they have a greater share of the rental market.
In terms of districts, over 40% of tenants live in the Northern Harbour region. Between them, Sliema, St Julian’s and Msida absorb around 20% of tenants. One in four tenants resided in the Northern region, with St Paul’s Bay occupying the top position for the locality hosting the largest number of tenants. The latter is broadly consistent with the analysis of the spatial distribution of rental contracts across the Maltese Islands (Housing Authority, 2023).
Tenants are predominantly foreign, young, with relatively higher education. Nine out of ten tenants are active in the labour market. For tenants, the experience is characterised by sharing residence with others and a tendency to move around properties. A third of the respondents are prepared to leave the island shortly, while a third have intentions to settle in Malta and purchase their own property.
On the other hand, landlords are mainly Maltese. They are older than tenants and than the Maltese population on average, and a third of them are retired. Eight out of ten landlords own fewer than five properties, and four out of ten own only one. Indeed, rental income serves as a supplement to their main income for four out of five landlords.
Tenants are more satisfied than landlords with the services offered by the Housing Authority and estate agents. Similarly, tenants expressed more satisfaction than landlords with the way their rights are protected. Nonetheless, many landlords seem satisfied with their current status, and while most of them indicated no desire to invest further in the rental market, the majority expressed no desire to shift out of the market (both to sell their properties or to shift into short lets). Furthermore, most of them indicated a willingness to renew present contracts."
