Investment migration — the rule, as checked 05.10.2026

Citizenship closed by the Court of Justice; permanent residence remains, and is not the same thing as SDA status

Citizenship by investment is closed. The Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union held in Case C-181/23, Commission v Malta, on 29 April 2025 that “a Member State cannot grant its nationality — and indeed European citizenship — in exchange for predetermined payments or investments, as this essentially amounts to rendering the acquisition of nationality a mere commercial transaction.” Malta deleted the route: Legal Notice 159 of 2025 struck Part IV and regulations 15–19 from S.L. 188.06 in their entirety, and the surviving regulation 5(2) leaves only exceptional service to, exceptional contribution to, or exceptional interest of the Republic. No investment, property-purchase or contribution threshold remains. A property purchase in Malta cannot lead to Maltese citizenship.

The Malta Permanent Residence Programme is separate and still live: S.L. 217.26, administered by Residency Malta Agency, requiring a qualifying property purchased at a minimum value of EUR 375,000 or rented at a minimum annual rent of EUR 14,000, plus an administrative fee, a government contribution and a donation. It grants the right to stay and reside permanently, and the Agency itself states it “is distinct from the separate legislative provisions governing citizenship”. The threshold applies anywhere in Malta or Gozo, inside a Special Designated Area or outside one.

Special Designated Areas are a property-law exemption and nothing else. The Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, Chapter 246 of the Laws of Malta, defines one at article 2 as “a zone described in the First Schedule and such other zone as the Minister may from time to time by order in the Gazette add to such schedule”, and disapplies the permit requirement at article 5(1)(b) for “the acquisition of immovable property by any person, wherever resident, in a special designated area.” Twenty-seven zones are listed. Each is created by its own Legal Notice in the S.L. 246.x series and designates ground “bordered in red in the Land Registry Plan annexed to this Order” — so SDA status attaches to a mapped parcel, not to a brand or a building, which is why Portomaso and the Pender Place / Mercury House site each appear three times in the Schedule, their extensions separately designated.

What the exemption actually does: no AIP permit is required, and the ordinary bar on a second acquisition does not apply — the Malta Tax and Customs Administration states that outside an SDA “a permit will not be granted if applicant has already acquired immovable property in Malta”, and that in an SDA “individuals may purchase their second property… without the need to apply for a permit”. The widely repeated formulation that a buyer may acquire as many units as they wish is the estate agents' and not the government's; the statute sets no numerical cap and the government's own text goes as far as the second property.

Where the sources disagree

The closure is dated 29 April 2025 (the Court's judgment) by some sources and July 2025 by others (the repealing instrument). Two different instruments are also named for the repeal — Act XXI of 2025 in force 24 July 2025, and Legal Notice 159 of 2025 published 29 July 2025, which struck Part IV from the subsidiary regulations. The register carries both and resolves neither: an Act and a Legal Notice are different things and both may be true.

Total MPRP cost is quoted from about EUR 150,000, EUR 169,000 (rental route) and EUR 475,000 all-in (purchase route) — different routes, usually quoted without saying which.

Sources

legislation.mt — Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, Chapter 246 of the Laws of Malta, articles 2 and 5(1)(b) and the First Schedule of 27 zones — https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/246/eng · curia.europa.eu — Court of Justice of the European Union, press release CP 52/25 on Case C-181/23 Commission v Malta, Grand Chamber, 29 April 2025 — https://curia.europa.eu/site/upload/docs/application/pdf/2025-04/cp250052en.pdf · legislation.mt — S.L. 188.06, now the Granting of Citizenship by Naturalisation on the basis of Merit Regulations, as amended by Legal Notice 159 of 2025 deleting Part IV and regulations 15–19 — https://legislation.mt/eli/sl/188.6/eng · residencymalta.gov.mt — the Agency's own legal framework for the Malta Permanent Residence Programme, S.L. 217.26 — https://residencymalta.gov.mt/legal-framework-mprp-2/ · mtca.gov.mt — Malta Tax and Customs Administration, conditions for buying immovable property, including the second-property position inside and outside an SDA

This jurisdiction in the register

4 records, 4 with a published page. Each record carries the facts this rule turns on — entry price, seller, and where the rule distinguishes them, first sale, fractional sale, construction status, tenure — each dated and sourced.

The register publishes the rule and the facts; it does not say whether any purchase qualifies. Eligibility attaches to a sale, not to a building, and the register is not immigration counsel. All jurisdictions →