The cost of renting a home in Malta rose by 41% over the past decade, more than twice the European average, according to new data published by Eurostat on Friday.

According to the study, rental prices around Europe rose by 17% since 2015. Going further back, it now costs 25% more to rent a home than it did in 2010, the figures show.

Rent prices in Malta and the EU rose at a similar rate between 2010 and 2020 but then diverged, with prices in Malta rising much more sharply than the continent’s average.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Malta’s rental prices shot up by a staggering 32% in just three years, according to Eurostat. During the same period, the average rental prices around Europe only increased by a modest 8%.

In practice, the cost of renting a home in Malta has increased by 61% since 2010.

Nevertheless, Malta is far from the country with the steepest increases, with rental prices in Estonia rising by a staggering 208%, those in Lithuania by 177% and in Ireland by 108%.

The cost of buying, rather than renting, a home has risen even further, Eurostat figures show.

In 2010, house prices in Malta were comfortably below the EU average, the study shows.

Things changed over the next 15 years, with house prices in Malta having risen by 80%, compared to just 53% in Europe.

Again, Malta’s rise pales in comparison to those of Estonia (228%), Lithuania (179%) and Hungary (231%).

Rise in construction costs since the pandemic

While purchase and rental prices in Malta have outpaced those in most other EU countries, the study suggests that the same cannot be said when it comes to building a house.

Construction costs to build a residential building have risen by 56 percentage points since 2010, roughly in line with the rest of Europe.

The cost of building shot up dramatically since the pandemic, rising by a third both in Malta and across Europe.

Nevertheless, Malta also remains one of the most affordable countries in Europe when it comes to housing costs such as electricity, water and gas, the figures suggest, aided by the ongoing subsidies on energy prices.

And across Europe, only the Cypriots spend less of their disposable income on housing costs than the Maltese (12.5%).

Spacious homes, low overcrowding

Residents in Malta are also the most likely to live in spacious homes, with an average of 2.2 rooms per person, more than anywhere else in Europe.

Just 4.4% of people in Malta are believed to be living in an overcrowded home, the second-lowest across the bloc. Nevertheless, Malta’s overcrowding rate registered a sharp rise in 2024, doubling from the previous year’s 2.4%.

And despite the country’s rising emissions, the Maltese are also among the greenest when it comes to heating and cooling their homes. People in Malta generate just 77kg per person in emissions, second only to Sweden’sÂ