This news release presents provisional data on residential property sale transactions based on the date of registration with the tax authority.
Final deeds of sale
December 2022
In December 2022, the number of final deeds of sale relating to residential property amounted to 1,003, a 28.8 per cent decrease when compared to those registered a year earlier (Table 1a). The value of these deeds totalled €225.1 million, 28.5 per cent lower than the corresponding value recorded in December 2021 (Table 2a).
In the month under review, 916, or 91.3 per cent, of the total final deeds of sale involved individual buyers (households), with companies accounting for virtually all the rest (Table 1b). The value of the deeds involving individual buyers (households) amounted to €186.3 million, equivalent to 82.8 per cent of the total value (Table 2b).
Q4/2022
In the fourth quarter of 2022, 3,738 final deeds of sale were registered (Table 1a), an annual decrease of 4.1 per cent (Table 3). The value of the deeds registered during this period went up by 0.1 per cent over the same quarter of the previous year and amounted to €859.3 million (Table 2a).
With regard to the region the property is situated in, the highest numbers of final deeds of sale were recorded in the two regions of Għawdex, and Birkirkara, Il-Gżira, L-Imsida, Ta’ Xbiex and San Ġwann, at 600 and 467, respectively. The lowest numbers of deeds were noted in the region of Il-Birgu, L-Isla, Bormla and Il-Kalkara, and the region of Ħ’Attard, Ħal Balzan, L-Iklin and Ħal Lija. In these regions, 82 and 101 deeds were recorded, respectively. The highest annual increase was registered in the Il-Birgu, L-Isla, Bormla and Il-Kalkara region, at 43.9 per cent. The second highest increase was noted in the region of Birkirkara, Il-Gżira, L-Imsida, Ta’ Xbiex and San Ġwann, an 8.4 per cent rise when compared to the previous year. In contrast, the largest annual decreases were observed in the two regions of Ħ’Attard, Ħal Balzan, L-Iklin and Ħal Lija, and Il-Mosta and In-Naxxar, with declines of 21.1 per cent and 20.1 per cent, respectively (Table 3).
Promise of sale agreements
December 2022
In December 2022, 1,002 promise of sale agreements relating to residential property were registered, equivalent to a 55.9 per cent decrease over the previous year (Table 4a). Individual potential buyers (households) accounted for 901, or 89.9 per cent of the total agreements, while the rest mainly involved companies (Table 4b).
Q4/2022
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of promise of sale agreements reached 3,357 (Table 4a), representing an annual decrease of 27.2 per cent (Table 5).
The largest numbers of promise of sale agreements corresponded to residential properties situated in the two regions of Birkirkara, Il-Gżira, L-Imsida, Ta’ Xbiex and San Ġwann, and Għawdex, totalling 454 and 416, respectively. The lowest numbers were noted in the regions of Il-Birgu, L-Isla, Bormla and Il-Kalkara, and Ħ’Attard, Ħal Balzan, L-Iklin and Ħal Lija. The first-mentioned region accounted for 83 agreements and the second for 107 agreements. The region of Il-Birgu, L-Isla, Bormla and Il-Kalkara saw the only annual increase in promise of sale agreements, with a rise of 3.8 per cent. On the other hand, the highest annual decreases were observed in the two regions of Ħ’Attard, Ħal Balzan, L-Iklin and Ħal Lija, and Għawdex, which recorded drops of 35.5 per cent and 35.3 per cent, respectively (Table 5).
Chart 1. Registered final deeds of sale
Quarterly
No Data Found
Additional Tables and Charts
Methodological Notes
- This news release presents data on property transactions based on final deeds of sale and promise of sale agreements (‘konvenji’) registered with the tax authority. The qualifier ‘period of registration’ common to the tables refers to such registration. Basing the data on the period when the final deed of sale or promise of sale agreement is registered with the tax authority, rather than when it is signed, is considered to produce more timely information.
- The scope of this release follows the classification of the administrative data source, and includes only those transactions classified as ‘residential’ by the source. The data presented covers the following property types: airspace, boathouse, bungalow, farmhouse, flat/apartment, garage, garden, house, maisonette, penthouse, plot of land, semi-detached villa, terraced house, ‘terran’, urban tenement, and villa.
- Excluded are transactions classified as ‘commercial’, comprising business premises and warehouse/storeroom, and those classified as ‘other’, a category that incorporates car space, field, grave and redemption of ground rent, amongst others.
- Therefore, deeds/agreements relating to land for residential purposes (‘plot of land’) are included, while those pertaining to land for non-residential purposes (‘field’) are not.
- Only deeds/agreements relating to the sale of property, which also includes sale by auction (‘subasta’) and sale after assignment of rights, are considered. Therefore, donations and exchanges, amongst others, are not included.
- In the light of notes 2, 3, 4 and 5, this release must be viewed as a sub-set of all the property transactions and activities registered with the tax authority that take place during a given period.
- In some cases, more than one property is listed under the same final deed of sale or promise of sale agreement. This release reports the number of registered final deeds of sale and promise of sale agreements, and not the number of properties falling under these deeds/agreements.
- The residential property transactions considered are not limited to individuals (households), but may also involve other economic agents. Besides individuals, the administrative data source distinguishes between companies, authorities and bodies of persons.
- The regions incorporating localities in Tables 3 and 5 correspond to the location of the property which has been or shall be purchased, not to the place of residence of the buyer or seller.
- To achieve consistency, the methodological concepts used are aligned to the extent possible with the House Price Index concepts.
- Users are reminded of several factors which might inhibit comparability between data on final deeds of sale and promise of sale agreements. These differences include: a) the time lag between promise of sale agreements and final deeds of sale; b) certain property being sold without a promise of sale agreement; and c) some promise of sale agreements falling through before the final contract is signed.
- Data is provisional and subject to revisions, which may arise following updates in the source data.
- More information relating to this news release may be accessed at Classification of Regions based on Property Prices.
A longer quarterly time series is available in Annexes A and B in the Excel version of this news release, available at: 201/2022.
- References to this news release are to be cited appropriately.
- A detailed news release calendar is available online.
- The number of final deeds of sale relating to residential property amounted to 1,003 during December 2022, a decrease of 406 deeds when compared to those registered a year earlier.
- During December 2022, 1,002 promise of sale agreements relating to residential property were registered, a decrease of 1,271 agreements over the same period last year.
