New research by The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation has confirmed with data what was previously known anecdotally: many golden visa buyers do not reside in Malta, but leave a footprint nonetheless.

The research report, Malta’s Golden Visas: What problem are they solving and who benefits?, shows that, in many areas, the scheme is forcing low-to-medium income renters to compete for housing with wealthier visa buyers.

Residency by investment, known as golden visa, is an opportunity for non-EU nationals to secure unlimited travel in the EU for themselves and their families. For receiving countries like Malta, selling golden visas attracts investment to the public coffers and to selected sectors of the economy.

Some countries direct golden visa buyers to invest into nursery homes, universities, or start-ups. In Malta, the property sector gets the major boost. Malta golden visa buyers get a discount of sorts if they rent or buy property in Gozo or the south of Malta and most have jumped at the opportunity to buy their visa as cheaply as possible.

Visa buyers who choose to rent fork out at least €12,000 per year – just over the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Swieqi. But that threshold drops to €10,000 if they rent in South Malta or Gozo.

Out of over 2,500 applications analysed by the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, only 67 applicants chose to purchase a property. Only four applicants chose to purchase property in Gozo; three of them in the Fort Chambray complex.

If all of Malta’s golden visa buyers actually lived in the country, in areas where they are concentrated they would constitute sizeable minorities. In total, Żebbug (Gozo), which includes Marsalforn, gained at least 440 residents (visa buyers and their dependent family members, added to their application), and Munxar (which includes Xlendi) gained at least 190.

This would make 17% and 14% of these towns’ population, respectively. Between the two latest censuses (2011 and 2021), Żebbuġ (Gozo) recorded the second-steepest growth in population and in population density.

Nearly nine in ten of all Malta golden visa buyers are from China, but according to the 2021 census data, there were only just over 2,700 Chinese nationals residing in the country.

These figures include migrant workers, spouses of Maltese or EU nationals and other residents. The numbers of Chinese residents captured by the census are much lower than the number of golden visa buyers (applicants and their dependents).

In the data analysed by the Foundation, around 5,200 Chinese nationals bought golden visas in Malta between 2016 and 2021.

The research report delves into the set-up and workings of the golden visa scheme, maps out conflicts of interest and revolving door cases along the way, and investigates the impact of this property-focused residency scheme on the ground.

It shows how, unlike in most European countries, Malta’s golden visa scheme was not set up to respond to a crisis and it is not clear what problem it is solving.

Read the full report here.

Photo by Joanna Demarco for The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation

What do you make of the findings from this report?