Holiday property registrations doubled in seven years

There are almost 4,000 short-let or holiday premises registered with the Malta Tourism Authority, information tabled in parliament shows

6 May 2020, 10:03am
by Kurt Sansone

1 min read

There are almost 4,000 properties registered with the tourism regulator for tourism rental purposes

Tourism growth over the past few years was also reflected in the doubling of holiday homes registered with the Malta Tourism Authority, figures released in parliament show.

The MTA had licenced 3,992 short-let properties or holiday premises by the end of April, almost double the number registered in 2013.

The figures were presented in parliament by Tourism Minister Julia Farrugia Portelli in response to a question by Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo.

Bartolo asked for the number of registrations of Airbnb properties, however it transpires that the MTA does not collate the information according to individual online platforms but has an overarching licencing system for short-let or holiday premises.

The figures tabled in parliament show yearly increases in the number of MTA licenced private properties for tourism purposes.

However, according to tourism operators, the official figures for these private rentals are believed to be far below the actual number of properties advertised on platforms like Airbnb.

Last summer, the MTA was in talks with online platforms to have them advertise only those properties officially recognised by the authority. However, while agreement was reached with Booking.com, talks were hitting a brick wall with Airbnb.

Kurt Sansone is Executive Editor of MaltaToday. He was formerly deputy editor of MaltaTod...