Smaller houses: 30% of post-2016 dwellings have less than four rooms

The Census figures reveal that 16,680 out of the 55,572 dwellings constructed after 2016 have three rooms or less.

These smaller dwellings account for 30% of all houses constructed after 2016, up from 23% constructed in the previous five years and from just 10% of constructed in the first decade of the century.

The definition of a room used by the National Statistics Office includes bedrooms, dining rooms, living rooms, habitable rooms in cellar/basement, kitchens, and study rooms. Kitchenettes, verandas, corridors, washrooms, bathrooms, box rooms, garages, halls, and rooms used solely for business purposes are not included.

The Census found a total of 34,705 occupied dwellings, which have less than four rooms with 48% constructed after 2016.

Moreover, the average number of rooms contained in Maltese dwellings constructed after 2016 has decreased to 4.4 from 4.7 for those constructed in the preceding five years.

Dwellings constructed between 2001 and 2010 had an average of 5.4 rooms while dwellings constructed between 1981 and 2000 had 6.1 rooms.

The reduction in the number of rooms reflects the increased number of apartments, which now account for 48.4% of all new residences up from 32% in the 2011 Census.

The decrease in the number of rooms contained in the average Maltese household  corresponds to an increase in the number of households inhabited by a single individual. These doubled from 34,637 in 2011 to 70,123 in 2021.

Just over a quarter of all houses occupied by a single person had three rooms or less.

But the Census also reveals that there are 7,323 dwellings with less than four rooms in which more than three persons are living. These include 1,359 households of five members or more.

In total 4,624 houses of different sizes host more than five inhabitants, up from 3,781 ten years ago.

Moreover, 56% of houses containing less than four rooms are rented as furnished dwellings.

The increase in the percentage of dwellings with less than four rooms is more pronounced in the North Harbour region, which includes Malta’s most densely populated areas including Sliema, Gzira, Msida, Birkirkara and Qormi.  In this region 8,519 out of 22,199 dwellings constructed after 2016 or 38.4% of all new dwellings had four rooms or less.

Nearly 50% of  all occupied residences had either five or six rooms as was the case in 2011. The Census report attributes the decrease in the average number of rooms to a greater percentage of dwellings which either have four or fewer rooms.