Malta permanent residence through a property purchase: the fee you never get back is due before you have to buy

The administrative fee is non-refundable by law, and a quarter of it is due within a month of applying, before any decision. The home, the one payment that stays yours, can wait: the rules give you eight months from approval in principle to show the title.

Buying first is a risk the rules do not ask you to take: after a refusal you keep a Maltese home with no residence attached, and the regulations make the agency's decisions final, with no appeal. Even approval in principle is not the certificate: none is issued until every condition is met.

The order the regulations set

1. Through an agent licensed by Residency Malta, you apply with an undertaking to buy or rent, and proof of capital assets, part of them financial. A qualifying home you have bought may count towards them.
2. Within one month, the first quarter of the administrative fee, or the agency may refuse the file at once.
3. Within two months of approval in principle, the rest, plus any dependants' fees.
4. Within eight months of it: the contribution, the title to the home, the donation and health insurance.

What stays yours, and on what terms

You hold the home, and your capital assets, for five years from the day the certificate is issued; after that you must still own or rent a home in Malta or Gozo.

When the fees changed mid-application

In July 2025 the administrative fee and the buyers' contribution both rose, and the amending regulations applied the new amounts to applications filed after 1 January 2025 that were still open.

Who is paid what

To Residency Malta:

• The government fee shown above: the administrative fee, the contribution and the residence card for you.
• A fee for each dependent adult child, parent or grandparent (none for a spouse, a child under 18 or a disabled adult child), and a card for each family member.

To others: the donation, to a registered Maltese voluntary organisation, and the fees of the licensed agent, the estate agent and the notary.

Questions for the agent:

1. Will the file go in before I sign for a home, and when is the first quarter due?
2. Which assets will you show for the capital test, and does the home count?
3. If the agency refuses, or the fees change while my file is open, what happens to the fees already paid to you and to the agency?
4. Who answers the agency's yearly checks in the first five years, and is that in your fee?

An agent's engagement letter or fee quote goes through the box above: answer yes at its top, and it is read line by line against the published rules and the prices firms on file publish for this route. No paperwork yet? Answer no and enter the price of the home you plan to buy. The check compares a document or a figure with the published rules, and does not look at your application or advise on it; for advice on your own case, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.

General information, not legal advice.