Half of Malta’s homeowners are mortgage-free, new survey shows

According to an EU-SILC annual panel survey on 2023 which gathers information on the income and living conditions of private households in Malta and Gozo, 50 per cent of homeowners were outright owners. This means they either never had a mortgage on their main dwelling or have fully repaid their debt.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) published this data on Monday (today).

Additionally, 64.9 per cent of inhabited dwellings in Malta and Gozo were either apartments or maisonettes, while 30.8 per cent were semi-detached or terraced houses. The results show that the largest proportion of main dwellings (36.4 per cent) consisted of five rooms. This was followed by 20.6 per cent of main dwellings with four rooms, and a further 20.5 per cent with six rooms.

Home ownership was the most common type of tenure status in 2023, with 72.1 per cent of all households owning their main dwelling. A higher share of homeowners was registered among households with dependent children, standing at 77 per cent, compared to 70.4 per cent among households without dependent children. A different trend was noted among rented main dwellings, where 25.3 per cent of households without dependent children were tenants, compared to 20.4 per cent of households with dependent children.

Furthermore, 2.4 per cent of those living in private households resided in overcrowded conditions. The overcrowding rate is determined by the number of rooms available in a household relative to its size and demographics.

A study published on 11th October by Eurostat found that Malta had one of the lowest rates of housing difficulties among those at risk of poverty or social exclusion within the EU. Denmark, Finland, and France had the highest rates, while the lowest were observed in Poland, Italy, and Hungary.