Malta's adult children must be attached to their parents more than any other nation in the world. If you believe Robert Abela, 90% of Maltese young adults own a property. Yet they're so fond of their mummy and daddy that 95% of them still choose to live with their parents, leaving their very expensive properties vacant.

Robert Abela must live in his own planet if he thinks nine out of every 10 young adults in Malta own property. He categorically told LovinMalta that 90% of all those below 35 years own their accommodation.   That's not just utterly false, it's just silly. Everybody living in this country knows, to use Labour's favourite jibe, that's fake news.  In straight language it's a lie so huge it's hilarious.

Of all European countries Malta has the highest rate of adult children still living with their parents. 95% of adults under 29 are still in their parental home. For comparison it's 2% in Finland

The EU agency for the improvement of living and working conditions (Eurofound) issued a report just months ago showing that even amongst those between 25 and 34 who are fully employed, 49% still live with their parents. That's one of the highest levels in Europe. The report concluded that's because of "the obstacles that high living and housing costs present on the pathways of young people to independence".

An Espirimi Housing report published in November 2025 showed that across all age groups just 51.6% fully own their homes.  Another 24.6% share ownership with somebody else.  Amongst 16 to 24 year olds just 9.2% own a property.  In the 25 to 34 year age group 42.3% do. That's light years from Abela's 90% claim.

National Statistics Office figures paint a worse picture. Just 66.4% of properties are owned by their residents.  Many of those properties aren't really 'owned' - there are still substantial loans outstanding on them. When it comes to single person households, just 50% owned the property they live in. For younger adults figures are substantially worse.

Abela's claim isn't just false, it's completely delusional.  It's not just wrong it's so wide off the mark it's plain ridiculous.

Labour is fond of mocking Alex Borg for purportedly having no clue about statistics.  Yet here is Robert Abela, the Prime Minister, with unlimited access to national data and taxpayer-funded experts, and still he puts his foot in something of such importance.

People don't need official statistics to see through Abela's fiction. I have 3 adult children - none of them own their own home. That applies to the adult children of many of my colleagues too. Most of our younger work colleagues don't own their own property either. Those who do owe it to donations from their parents.

Abela is so totally detached from reality that he makes the most ridiculously false public statements. His latest irresponsible claim touches a subject that is a sore point for many - it's a worry for parents and a seriously frustrating struggle for young adults.

Many just dismissed Abela's comment as another of his ludicrous claims in the league of "we are the best in Europe", "traffic is just a perception", or that everything is "state-of-the-art" when our roads are littered with pot-holes, flood at the first rain, power is out with the first heat wave and where you can expect to wait 12 hours to get seen at the emergency department.

For those who believed Abela, it must be pretty galling. If practically every young person under 35 owns their own property, as Abela claims, how come none of our adult children do?  Young people must think, if all their friends are home-owners why am I the only one struggling to get on the property ladder?  Am I the only one holding two jobs and still unable to secure a loan?

Abela's wild claim clashes head on with reality.  His stunning and humiliating blunder demonstrates one of two possibilities.

Maybe he has no clue about basic mathematics or elementary statistics. The study he quoted referred to households. It showed that out of those households where young adults live, 90% are owned by the residents. That doesn't mean that 90% of young adults own their property - 95% of young adults still live with their parents. It means that only a proportion of those 5%, who don't live with their parents, actually own their property.  The central bank was compelled to issue a news release pointing out the factually incorrect misinterpretation.

Abela's embarrassing error also indicates he's got no clue what young people are going through.  Abela must be living in a different planet if he didn't even stop and question that total mangling of the facts. Anybody with a rudimentary link to reality would have thought, this can't be right. And save himself the humiliation.

Or maybe Abela knew his 90% ownership claim was entirely false but decided to make it anyway. Abela probably thinks we're all just dumb, they'll believe anything I say. 

Abela feels he can get away with anything, that he won't be challenged with factual reality.  And even if he's challenged his media machine, his TVM, his taxpayer-funded adverts will quickly convince the populace that he's right and anybody who dares dispute his claims is a traitor, a Labour-hater or just negative. His propaganda will turn the amateur who can't make heads or tails of basic statistics into the genius of the Mediterranean, the economics guru of the European Union.

The saddest part of this tragic tale is that this man rules the country. If he truly believes 90% of young adults own their property then for him young people don't have a problem buying property. He's hardly going to lose sleep over home ownership if he believes our younger generations have it so good.

You can't blame him. It's difficult for somebody born into such privilege, whose had a red carpet rolled out for him, to even recognise, let alone understand the daily struggles of the common citizen. If you've managed to acquire a Marsascala penthouse with garage, a Xewkija farmhouse and a sprawling Zejtun villa before you've turned 40, while running a luxury yacht, it's no surprise you're utterly convinced 90% of young Maltese adults are property-owners. But then, you shouldn't be the socialist Prime Minister of the country.