According to the latest NSO EU-SILC 2025 statistics, Malta’s home ownership rate continued to decline while the country’s housing stock kept shifting toward apartment-style living. The survey found that 4.7% of persons living in private households were living in overcrowded dwellings, up by one percentage point from EU-SILC 2024. Home ownership remained the most common tenure status, but fell to 65.9% of all households in 2025. Among Maltese households specifically, the ownership rate was much higher, at 84.6%.
The latest figures continue to reflect Malta’s growing housing affordability problem and the structural shift toward renting, particularly among non-Maltese residents and households without dependent children. Households with dependent children were more likely to own their home, with an ownership rate of 75.9%, compared with 62.2% among households without dependent children.
The data also confirms that private living spaces are increasingly concentrated in apartments and maisonettes, which accounted for 67.0% of all inhabited dwellings in Malta and Gozo in 2025. Semi-detached and terraced houses accounted for 30.0%. The largest share of main dwellings, 36.2%, contained five rooms, followed by four-room dwellings at 23.1% and six-room dwellings at 20.0%.
Housing costs also remained a significant burden. The NSO found that 24.3% of persons living in private households considered housing costs to be a heavy burden, while 52.8% described them as a slight burden. Only 22.9% said housing costs were not a burden at all. Among persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion, 34.0% considered housing costs a heavy burden.
The statistics also highlight deteriorating living conditions beyond affordability. Pollution, grime and other environmental problems were reported as housing concerns by 35.7% of the population, while 34.2% reported noise from neighbours or the street as a major problem.
The EU-SILC 2025 survey was based on interviews with 4,317 households, comprising 10,070 residents.
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