Grant on First Residence

Overview

Buying a first home is one expense. Making it liveable is another, and it is the one that tends to be underestimated. Plastering, wiring, plumbing, tiling, doors and bathrooms add up quickly, and they arrive after the deposit and the deed have already been paid for. The Grant on First Residence reimburses part of that cost against the fiscal receipts an owner has already collected.

It also covers a situation people rarely think of as a first home purchase at all. Owners of a first residence who need to build additional rooms or alter the property because their family has grown are entitled to apply under the same scheme.

Who This Is For

This is a scheme for people building, finishing or rehabilitating a first home they intend to live in. Investment purchases fall outside it.

Eligibility

The scheme casts a fairly wide net on who counts as an applicant. It covers single people over 18, single people with a physical or intellectual disability or a history of chronic mental illness, married or engaged couples applying jointly, single parents including those separated, annulled or divorced who have custody, and widows or widowers with unmarried children still living with them.

Applicants must be Maltese or EU citizens, with at least one Maltese or EU citizen in a married couple, and EU citizens must be acquiring their first residence and meeting the additional conditions set by the relevant authorities. Everyone must have lived in Malta for at least eighteen of the twenty four months before applying.

Legally separated applicants acquiring a first residence after separation can qualify, with one exception worth checking before applying: anyone who, alone or with a former spouse, already benefited from an earlier VAT refund scheme run by the Housing Authority or the Department for Social Accommodation is excluded.

What It Offers

The maximum grant is €5,824, with a further €1,165 available where the works involve rehabilitating or reconstructing a property that was already built and ready for habitation at least fifteen years before the application is submitted. That threshold moves with the calendar rather than sitting on a fixed year, so a property qualifies once it turns fifteen and stops being restricted to any particular construction date. The grant only applies to work carried out from 1 January 1999 onwards, and it is paid in two instalments calculated as a percentage of the taxable value shown on fiscal receipts, at 13.04 per cent for work completed by the end of 2003 and 15.254 per cent for work completed from 2004.

For a new dwelling constructed or completed after 1 January 1999, the first instalment covers construction work such as excavation, foundations, masonry, concrete and related fees, up to €3,028, and the second covers finishing work including plastering, painting, electrics, plumbing, tiles, marble, internal and external doors, windows and bathrooms, up to €2,796.

For rehabilitation or reconstruction of a property that meets the fifteen year threshold, the first instalment covers demolition where applicable, reconstruction and extension work up to €3,727, and the second covers the same finishing categories up to €3,262.

Applying

The two instalments are tied to construction stages rather than dates. The first is paid once the building reaches shell form, the second once finishing work is fully complete, and both require the Authority to be satisfied that the claimed expenditure was genuinely incurred and is covered by fiscal receipts issued in the applicants' names. The claim for the second instalment must include an architect's certificate.

Applications, along with original fiscal receipts and the documents listed on the form, are handed in personally at the Housing Authority's offices at 22 Pietro Floriani Street in Floriana or its Gozo branch at 25 Enrico Mizzi Street in Victoria, during normal office hours. Unlike most Housing Authority schemes, the published Terms and Conditions do not specify an administrative charge.

Living With The Conditions

After receiving the second instalment, the applicant has two years to move in, and must then live there continuously as their ordinary residence for five years, with that five year period falling inside seven years of the second instalment request.

The same applicants cannot claim twice for the same works. If the property is sold, a new owner cannot claim for further work within five years of the original applicant's first claim, which prevents the grant following a property through successive owners.

What Can Require Repayment

Failing to meet any condition of the scheme, including the occupancy requirement, means refunding the full amount already received rather than a proportion of it. Couples are jointly and severally liable for that refund, and the obligation stands for up to five years from the point the Authority learns of the breach.

There is one humane exception written into the terms. Where beneficiaries can no longer live together during those five years because they have signed a contract of separation or annulment, the Authority has discretion not to require repayment.

Source & Verification

This summary draws on the Housing Authority's Grant on First Residence page and its full Terms and Conditions, cross checked clause by clause and last verified on 4 August 2026.

• Scheme page: https://housingauthority.gov.mt/scheme/grant-on-first-residence-scheme/
• Terms and Conditions (PDF): https://housingauthority.gov.mt/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/GFR-Conditions-English-2026.pdf

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 Housing Authority scheme page before applying or making any decision.