St. Paul’s Bay was the most sought-after locality in the rental property market in 2022 having the highest number of newly-registered private residential leases with 7,017 contracts, followed by Sliema (3,807) and Msida (2,984). It also transpires that the bulk of the tenants who applied for the Government subsidy scheme, fell within the cohort of those whose annual rental expense varied between €7,001 and €9,000 rent per year (€584 to €750 monthly), followed by those who paid between €5,001 and €7,000 (€417 to €584 monthly). A total of 4,154 tenants benefited from this scheme which in 2022 cost €8.4 million.

These statistics were divulged in the 2022 Housing Authority annual report, which gives a rather comprehensive outlook of this sector which underwent a major reform in 2020 with the introduction of the obligatory registration of private residential lease with this Authority. The report also shows that it also appears that the Gżira (2,661) and St Julian’s (2,313) were also popular in rental property market. Furthermore, Marsaskala, Birkirkara and Swieqi were also on demand with more than 1,500 residential leases. In Gozo, the most popular localities were Żebbuġ which includes Marsalforn and Victoria.

Over 35,000 contracts registered in 2022

In 2022 a total of 36,438 contracts were submitted of which – after the necessary checks were carried out to ensure that they comply with the law – 33,913 were activated. In most cases (29,375) the leases were long (a year or more) while there were 5,261 shared space leases that is when renting a separate space in an apartment or building, with shared amenities such as kitchen and bathrooms.

There were 709 rejected contracts as they did not fall under this particular law which does not apply to commercial leases, ground rents, pre-1995 leases and leases for touristic purposes. Moreover, there were 1,816 contracts whereby the Authority requested some changes be made. Given that some contracts were agreed in 2022, but submitted this year, the total number of registered leases in 2022 rises to 35,098. This brings the overall total of active rental contracts since the 2020 reform law to 45,908.

In 2022, 20,943 contracts were renewed – 2,232 agreed upon between the parties – while 18,711 were renewed automatically in line with the law which provides for such measure whenever the landlord fails to give notice three months prior to the contract’s expiration. By the end of December, 4,288 were terminated by the parties.

A total of 20,691 registrations were stopped prematurely of which 57 percent was done by mutual agreement, 28 percent without notice from the tenant, and 3 percent of the cases whereby the landlord notified the tenant he would not be renewing the rent.

In 2022, 295 abuse reports were filed from third parties while 84 were closed. Pending cases still being investigated or in the process of being brought before the Criminal Court amount to 211.