Buy Sustainable Property Scheme 2026

Overview

The Buy Sustainable Property Scheme 2026 pays buyers of energy-efficient residential properties up to €9,000 over three years, in support of the Building and Construction Authority's push toward greener building practices in Malta and Gozo. It applies to properties bought from 1 October 2025 onward, with the size of the grant set by how far the property's energy performance exceeds the minimum standard.

Who This Is For

Unlike most of the other schemes in this database, this one does not require the buyer to live in the property themselves. The conditions only require that the property be residential and meet the energy criteria; nothing ties the grant to owner-occupation. That makes it relevant both to someone buying their own energy-efficient home and to an investor buying an energy-efficient property to let out.

Eligibility

The applicant must be a Maltese or EU citizen, with EU citizens needing to satisfy any additional criteria set by the relevant Authority or the Office of the Prime Minister. For married couples or civil unions who are not legally separated, at least one applicant must be Maltese or an EU citizen. The property must have a signed deed of acquisition dated on or after 1 October 2025, and must have been built or renovated in line with the Minimum Energy Performance Requirements (Technical Document F) that were in force at the time of that construction or renovation. It must not have any stand-alone fossil-fuel-powered boiler installed, and it must be a residential property, not any other use.

What It Offers

Two grant tiers are available, though a property and a beneficiary can each only receive one of them:

• A property with a Net Zero or better Energy Performance Certificate rating (0 kWh/m² a year) qualifies for €9,000, paid as €3,000 a year for three years.
• A property with an EPC rating at least 20% better than the Minimum Energy Performance Requirements for its building type qualifies for €4,500, paid as €1,500 a year for three years.

The 20%-better threshold depends on the type of building. For a fully detached villa or bungalow with solar potential, that means 8 kWh/m² a year or less; without solar potential, the bar for the same buildings is 40. A terraced house needs 12 with solar potential or 40 without; a semi-detached villa needs 8 with solar potential or 32 without; a mid-floor flat needs 24 with solar potential or 40 without; a top-floor flat or maisonette needs 24 with solar potential or 54 without; and a ground-floor maisonette needs 52 either way.

Submitting more than one application for the same property, or as the same beneficiary, means withdrawing all but one or being disqualified from the scheme entirely.

Applying

Applications opened on 17 March 2026 and are made online through the BCA's webform, only after the deed of acquisition has been signed. Registering requires an Asset Rating Energy Performance Certificate along with the other supporting documents the scheme calls for, and the application has to be fully completed to move forward. Initial applications for this cycle are due by September 2026; the scheme's own wording ties this to "the year 2026 following the signing of the deed," which reads a little ambiguously about how a future cohort's deadline would be calculated if the scheme runs beyond this cycle, so that's worth checking directly with the BCA if it becomes relevant. Late submissions are not accepted.

Applications go through a board review that checks compliance with the energy performance criteria, and approval is explicitly described as subject to the Authority's available funds, so meeting every eligibility requirement does not by itself guarantee a grant. Successful applicants are asked to enter into an agreement with the Authority before payments begin. From then on, the beneficiary has to reconfirm, and update if necessary, their bank account details by September each year to receive the next instalment; missing that deadline forfeits that year's payment. The BCA can inspect a benefiting property at any reasonable time and can require access and supporting documentation to confirm ongoing compliance.

What Can End the Grant

Selling or otherwise transferring the property to a third party stops the remaining instalments immediately; the scheme's FAQ clarifies that any instalments already paid do not need to be refunded, since the grant is tied to the property rather than the person, though the Conditions document itself doesn't state this explicitly. If a couple who bought the property together separates, and one of them keeps the property, the remaining grant continues to the person who kept it. Beneficiaries who intend to transfer the property before the three years are up are asked to tell the BCA as soon as the promise of sale is signed.

Submitting false or incorrect information carries a fine the Authority sets at its discretion, a five-year disqualification from every BCA scheme, forfeiture of the benefit, and possible criminal proceedings. Abandoning an application partway through means it is treated as withdrawn, with any expenses or deposits already incurred not recoverable. The BCA retains a general right to refuse any application, and can amend the scheme, even retroactively, or close it to new applications earlier than announced, at its own discretion.

Source & Verification

This summary draws on the Buy Sustainable Property Scheme 2026 Conditions document and its accompanying FAQs, both published by the Building and Construction Authority, together with the Authority's own scheme page. Cross checked clause by clause and last verified on 8 August 2026. The Conditions and FAQ documents were supplied directly rather than fetched from a separately verified public PDF link, so if a canonical PDF URL is needed for the Attachment Links field, it's worth locating on the BCA site.

• Scheme page: https://bca.gov.mt/open-schemes/buy-sustainable-property-scheme-2026/

Disclaimer: This information is provided for general awareness only and does not constitute financial or legal advice. Schemes are reviewed and amended periodically, so availability, amounts, deadlines and eligibility criteria may have changed since this page was last verified. Always confirm current details on the official scheme page before applying or making any decision.