Renting in Malta — a tenant's guide to your rights

Renting in Malta changed significantly with the Private Residential Leases Act (Chapter 604), which came into force on 1 January 2020. It applies to private residential leases entered into or renewed from that date and, for the first time, set clear minimum standards across the market.

The Act’s headline requirements:

• Every private residential lease must be in writing.
• The landlord must register the lease with the Housing Authority.
• Minimum lease lengths and notice rules apply, depending on the type of let.
• Rent increases during a lease are capped and limited in frequency.
• The deposit must be declared in the registered contract and is refundable.

Together these rules make tenancies more predictable. The sections below cover each in turn. New to the terminology? The Malta property glossary explains the key terms.

Registration is central to the Act. The landlord must register the lease with the Housing Authority within 30 days of it commencing (extended from 10 days by a 2024 amendment). Registration creates an official record of the key terms — the rent, the duration, the deposit and the parties — which protects both sides if a dispute arises later.

An unregistered lease is null and void, and a landlord who fails to register faces penalties (a fine running into thousands of euro). Crucially for you as a tenant: if the landlord doesn’t register, you can register the lease yourself at the landlord’s expense and recover the cost from the rent. As a tenant you should:

• Make sure you receive a written contract you both sign.
• Ask for confirmation that the lease has been registered.
• Keep a copy of the contract and any registration reference.

The Act distinguishes between types of let:

• Long private residential leases — the standard arrangement, for a minimum of one year. You can withdraw before the end of the term once an initial lock-in period has passed: 6 months for a lease under 2 years, 9 months for 2 to under 3 years, or 12 months for 3 years or more — then giving 1, 2 or 3 months’ written notice respectively. Withdraw before the lock-in ends and the landlord may keep up to one month’s rent from your deposit.
• Short private residential leases — a separate, capped category for specific situations such as students, people working on a defined project, or non-residents not seeking a primary home. Different rules on duration and notice apply.

Those figures apply to the original term; renewals can carry their own lock-in. Read the duration and notice clauses carefully before signing, and always give any notice in writing (by registered letter), keeping proof of when you sent it.

One of the Act’s most important protections is on rent increases. For a long private residential lease, a landlord generally cannot raise the rent whenever they like. Instead:

• The rent can be revised at most once a year, and only if the contract expressly provides for it.
• Any increase is tied to the Property Price Index published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and may never exceed 5% of the previous rent — so it’s whichever is lower, with 5% as a hard ceiling. A fall in the index doesn’t reduce your rent.
• The cap binds renewals and contracts of two years or longer; very short new contracts currently have no statutory increase limit.
• The increase mechanism must be written into the registered contract.

This means you can budget with reasonable confidence over the life of the lease. Check that your contract states exactly how and when the rent can change, and to keep an eye on the wider market, see our Malta rental market stats.

Contrary to a common belief, the Act does not set a maximum deposit and does not scale it by lease length — the amount is freely agreed between you and the landlord, with one month’s rent being the usual figure in practice (a deposit isn’t even legally compulsory). What the law does require is that the deposit be declared in the registered contract (stated as zero if none is taken). It’s held against damage and unpaid rent and is refundable at the end of the lease, less any legitimate deductions; if you withdraw early before the lock-in period, the landlord may keep up to one month’s rent from it.

Proposals to have deposits held under a formal scheme (rather than directly by the landlord) have been floated but not enacted, so for now the landlord holds it. Before you pay:

• Confirm the deposit amount and that it’s declared in the contract.
• Agree in writing how and when it will be returned.
• Document the property’s condition at move-in (photos, an inventory).

For the full upfront picture including the deposit, first month and any agency fee, see the cost of renting guide.

The Act established dedicated channels for resolving private residential-lease disputes, intended to be faster and more accessible than ordinary litigation. Your strongest protection is good record-keeping:

• Insist on a written, registered contract.
• Keep copies of the contract, receipts, the inventory and all correspondence.
• Raise issues in writing so there’s a clear trail.

If you can’t resolve a problem directly, the Housing Authority is the first port of call for guidance on the process. This guide is a plain overview, not legal advice — for anything contentious or high-value, take professional advice on your specific situation.