Malta construction report, a data driven approach

The Bank’s study asks firms to describe conditions inside their own businesses: margins, regulatory friction, competition for tenders, confidence about the months ahead. It notes that with only a few dozen responses in any given quarter, its readings should be treated with caution.

None of that is visible in administrative data, which records something narrower: what was lodged, what was decided, what was signed and what was registered. The two therefore answer different questions, and a disagreement between a survey reading and a count is not by itself evidence that either is wrong. It is more useful to ask which of the two is measuring the thing being claimed.

Every figure below is drawn either from the Planning Authority’s public register or from the National Statistics Office.

Volumes peaked in 2018, fell through 2019–2021, and have since settled into a narrow band:

2018peak

11,167

2022

7,992

2023

8,397

2024

8,207

2025

8,323

The first five months of 2026 brought in 3,577 applications, two fewer than the same period of 2025. The comparison stops at May because an application reaches the register only once it has been validated, which leaves the most recent months persistently understated.

Extending the year on the same seasonal pattern gives roughly 8,245 applications for 2026, within a range of 8,015 to 8,418. That is the lighter segment of the 2026 bar, and it is a projection rather than a record. It assumes January to May remains a stable share of annual intake, which it has been, holding between 42.5% and 44.6% from 2022 to 2025. On that assumption 2026 falls inside the same band as the four years preceding it.

The limitation of this measure is worth stating plainly. The register counts applications, not buildings, and a permit granted in 2022 may be built this year, in 2029, or never. A flat application count is therefore consistent with construction rising, falling or holding steady, and cannot on its own establish which.

Declared values move in the same direction. The average per deed:

2024

€280,243

2025

€300,682

2026 to May

€319,037

The more notable feature is the consistency rather than the level. Year-on-year growth in the index has not left the 5.3% to 7.6% range since 2022, a stretch long enough for a sharper acceleration or a slowdown to have registered.

The recent readings sit well inside that long-run range:

2022

95.4%

2023

93.7%

2024

94.8%

2025

94.0%

2026 YTDto 31 Jul

95.6%

Nothing in the period the report covers resembles a tightening.

The Authority issued 10,388 decisions in 2025, against roughly 7,400 in each of the three preceding years. That is about 40% more, and more decisions than applications received in the same year, a pattern that usually indicates a backlog being cleared rather than a change in approach. 2019 shows the same shape. 2026 is running at 4,555 decisions to 31 July.

Times of Malta reported that Planning Minister Jonathan Attard said the Authority had cut its application backlog by 40% after modernising operations. That figure is the minister’s, as reported there; it measures the stock of undecided applications, not the rise in decisions issued that the register records for 2025.

An approval rate captures only the final answer, which limits what can be read into its stability. Slower validation, heavier information requests, conditions attached at the point of grant, or a harder path for one class of proposal would all leave it unchanged. What the register does establish is narrower: applications are not being refused more often than before, and decisions are not, in aggregate, taking longer to issue.

Final deeds went from 12,598 in 2024 to 13,351 in 2025, and January to May 2026 stands at 5,689 against 5,395 a year earlier. Promise-of-sale agreements, which typically run months ahead of completion, went from 13,579 to 14,568 and are at 6,595 year to date against 6,171.

Promise-of-sale volumes sit above final deeds in every period, which is expected given the sequence, but the gap has widened through 2025 and 2026. More agreements are being signed in a given window than complete within it. That is consistent with individual transactions taking longer to reach the deed while the overall count continues to rise, although the monthly series on its own cannot separate the two effects.

The rest of the report concerns conditions inside the firms themselves, which a survey of operators is well placed to establish and a public register is not. We take no view on those findings.

Sources and scope:

• Planning applications. Full development applications (PA-type) only, counted by the date the application was received rather than the date it was decided. Decisions are counted by the date they were issued.
• Transactions and prices. The NSO’s monthly final-deed and promise-of-sale releases, its quarterly property price index and its declared values. Declared values are published at national level only, so no locality breakdown is available.

What these figures do not capture:

• Applications reach the register only after validation, so the two most recent months always undercount. Year-to-date comparisons here therefore run January to May on both sides.
• NSO figures from January 2026 onwards are provisional and subject to revision.
• The approval rate covers applications that reached a grant or a refusal. It carries no information about conditions imposed, time to decision, or proposals modified before determination.
• Deed counts measure sales that completed, which is not the same as demand.

Times of Malta is cited above for Planning Minister Jonathan Attard’s statement that the Authority had cut its application backlog by 40% after modernising operations. The ministerial figure is not a count we can read from the register.