Property prices have kept rising at a rather alarming rate even in 2025 fuelling further concerns from an affordability perspective.

Data published by the National Statistics Office shows that between January and March of this year the Residential Property Price Index (RPPI) reached 169.09 – a rise of 5.7% when compared to the corresponding period of 2024. In layman’s terms this means that a property which in 2015 cost €100,000 has gone up to €169,090 in 2025. The RPPI includes prices of apartments, maisonettes and houses altogether.

A deeper analysis of the data shows that the Apartments Price Index (which also includes penthouses) stood at 168.67 – an increase of 5.3% in just a year. Hence a flat which at the start of 2024 was priced at €250,000 rose to €263,000 in just a year.

As for the Maisonettes Price Index, this stood at 162.06 – 6.2% higher than the first quarter of 2024. In this case a maisonette which was priced at €400,000 in 2024 rose to €424,000 by the start of this year.

From a wider perspective property prices have been increasing by more than 6% for the last two years following a slight dip during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NSO statistics are based on around 1,400 property transactions provided by the tax authority.

In a study conducted by UHM Voice of the Workers earlier this year it transpired that the affordability of property in the Maltese Islands has been consistently in decline for the last 50 years. However, the situation took a turn for the worse in the last decade. The timing suggests that one of the causes could be the sudden population spike over the same period which was seen Malta’s population by 100,000 up to 545,000.

This was subsequently confirmed in a comprehensive report published by Grant Thornton and Dhalia.