As first-time buyers struggle to afford even a modest apartment, too much of Malta's housing assistance arrives late, or applies only to properties they cannot find.

Everywhere you look lately, there seems to be another article or announcement reminding young people in Malta of the grants available to help them buy a home. Ten thousand euros for first-time buyers. Stamp duty savings. Deposit assistance. Equity sharing. Environmental incentives.

Judging by the headlines, you might think buying a first home has never been easier. Ask a young couple actually searching for one, however, and you are likely to hear a very different story.

For many, the ambition is no longer a house with a garden. It is a reasonably sized, habitable two-bedroom apartment. Even that can feel out of reach. So here is the question missing from much of the publicity: what use is a grant if you cannot afford the property needed to claim it?

A €250,000 ceiling in a market that has moved on

Consider the Housing Authority's 10% Deposit Scheme. It helps buyers aged 21 to 39 who qualify for a home loan but cannot fund the deposit. The Authority covers the interest on a separate bank loan for that deposit. That is useful, but the deposit is not a gift: the buyer must repay the principal over 25 years, alongside the mortgage.

Then comes the condition that makes me question how closely policymakers are following the market. The property cannot cost more than €250,000. The ordinary limit under the Equity Sharing Scheme is also €250,000.

When was the last time those setting these thresholds tried finding a decent two-bedroom apartment for that amount? Yes, properties are advertised below €250,000. But finding one that is reasonably sized, habitable, in a practical location and does not require considerable additional spending is a different matter.

These are not just anecdotes. In its 2025 Annual Report, the Housing Authority recorded an average apartment purchase price of €269,746 among First-Time Buyer Scheme applicants. For maisonettes, the figure was €299,006. These figures describe a particular group of buyers, not the entire market. Nonetheless, both averages exceed the limits of schemes supposedly helping people overcome financing difficulties.

In 2025, when the Deposit Scheme's ceiling was €225,000, it received 122 applications. By year-end, 49 approved applicants were still searching for a property; 54 had signed a promise of sale and only three had signed their final deed. The cap has since risen to €250,000, but is that enough?

The question is not whether anyone has benefited. Some clearly have. It is how many ordinary buyers are shut out before they can even apply, simply because they cannot find a suitable home within the price cap.

Help arrives after the buyer has done the hard part

The much-publicised €10,000 First-Time Buyer Grant has another problem: timing. It is paid as €1,000 a year over ten years, after the property has already been purchased. That works out to roughly €83 a month on average, though the money arrives annually.

Meanwhile, the couple struggling to save for a deposit needs that money now. They need a mortgage approved now. They need to meet notarial and transaction costs now. A payment spread over the next decade may make life slightly easier once they are homeowners. It does little to get them through the front door.

The first-time buyer stamp duty exemption is more immediate, offering savings of up to €10,000 on a qualifying purchase. That is a genuine benefit. But a €300,000 apartment still costs €300,000. The bank will still ask whether you can afford it.

Finishing grants create a similar contradiction. The Grant on First Residence can provide up to €5,824, plus €1,165 for certain older properties, against qualifying works supported by fiscal receipts. In other words, the purchaser generally has to find the money for the works before receiving the assistance.

Too often, these schemes help you only after you have demonstrated that you can already afford the very costs they are meant to ease.

Green grants do not solve a first-home crisis

The Buy Sustainable Property Scheme has offered up to €9,000 over three years for homes with the required energy performance. Promoting greener buildings is sensible. But this is not the same as making ordinary housing affordable.

Think of a couple whose budget barely stretches to a two-bedroom flat in a block. They may not own the roof. They cannot redesign the building's insulation, orientation or shared systems. Whether their apartment qualifies could depend largely on the developer's choices, not theirs.

The grant is welcome for buyers who can purchase a qualifying home. For young people struggling to buy any home, however, it risks being another attractive headline with little practical relevance.

Are grants helping buyers - or sellers?

There is a bigger economic problem. The NSO reports that Malta's residential property price index rose by 6.9% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with a year earlier; its apartment index rose by 7.4%.

Apply the 6.9% rise illustratively to a €300,000 property, and the increase is €20,700 in a year. That is more than the combined headline value of the €10,000 buyer grant and a €10,000 stamp duty saving. One of those benefits, remember, takes ten years to receive.

And what happens when the government increases buyer assistance without enough extra homes coming onto the market? Sellers and developers know what buyers can afford. Where supply is tight, part of the subsidy can be absorbed into higher prices. It would be wrong to claim that every €10,000 grant automatically produces a €10,000 price rise. But the risk is real: money intended to help the buyer can end up rewarding the seller.

That is why simply announcing larger grants cannot be a substitute for addressing the cost and availability of housing.

More publicity, but what outcomes?

The Housing Authority's accounts show advertising expenditure of €610,496 in 2025, up from €221,380 in 2024 - an increase of around 176%. That represents its overall advertising, not necessarily this particular housing-grant campaign or payments for individual newspaper articles.

There is nothing wrong with telling people about assistance. But surely we should be as interested in whether the policies work as we are in how widely they are promoted.

One example is the Social Loan Scheme. It offers up to €140,000 in financing for a qualifying habitable property. In all of 2025, the Housing Authority recorded just one new application, classified as withdrawn, invalid or postponed. Existing beneficiaries still received support, but new take-up of that size should prompt serious questions about the scheme's relevance in today's market.

We need to know how many households bought homes who otherwise could not have done so. How many applicants were prevented from using schemes by unrealistic price caps? How many received the headline amounts? And are grants actually improving affordability, or is their value being overtaken by price increases?

I am not arguing that assistance should be abolished. Several schemes provide genuine relief, and the households benefiting from them should not be dismissed. But good intentions and impressive grant announcements are not measures of success.

A young couple does not need another headline promising thousands of euros. They need a realistic chance of buying a modest home after years of studying, working and saving.

Until affordability itself becomes the priority, Malta can keep announcing more grants and spending more money promoting them. We should not mistake that activity for progress.

Nigel Puli is a Certified Public Accountant based in Malta. He writes in his personal capacity.