What are the minimum standards for a short let property in Malta?
A bedroom must be at least 9 square metres for one person and a further 4 square metres for every additional person, with a minimum internal width of 2.75 metres. Air conditioning capable of both cooling and heating is required. Bunk beds are prohibited, sleeping accommodation in living areas is prohibited, and basement and underground bedrooms are prohibited. Occupancy is capped at two persons per bedroom approved by the Planning Authority and ten persons per unit, unless the unit has independent access from a public road. These standards sit in the Sixth Schedule to the Tourism Accommodation Regulations, 2026, Legal Notice 92 of 2026, subsidiary legislation 409.24, in force 15 June 2026. Two of them are not retrospective, and that is the part most owners get wrong.
The 9 square metre rule is triggered by when you bought, not by what you own.
The bedroom size standard applies where the contract of sale was entered into after 15 June 2026, unless a promise of sale was entered into before that date. It is a purchase date test. Two identical apartments in the same block can sit on opposite sides of it: the one bought in 2024 is unaffected, the one bought in September 2026 has to measure its bedrooms.
This is the single most useful thing to know about the 2026 standards and almost nobody states it. If you already own the property, the floor area and the internal width are not your problem. If you are buying now, they are, and they change what the property can earn before you have signed anything, because they decide how many guests each bedroom may legally hold.
The air conditioning requirement works differently. It applies to everyone, but existing units have until 15 June 2028. Every other standard in the Sixth Schedule applies now, and existing licence holders have to demonstrate compliance when they renew.
What the Sixth Schedule requires, and what it costs to comply.
| Standard | What it requires | When it applies | What it costs to fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom floor area | At least 9 square metres for one person, plus 4 square metres for each additional person, so 13 square metres for a room sleeping two | Contracts of sale entered into after 15 June 2026, unless the promise of sale predates it | Not fixable by spending money. It decides how many guests a room may hold |
| Bedroom internal width | Minimum internal width of 2.75 metres | Same purchase date test as the floor area | Not fixable |
| Air conditioning | Capable of cooling and heating | Now for new units, and from 15 June 2028 for existing ones | Roughly 600 to 1,500 euro per split unit supplied and installed in Malta, and 3,000 to 6,000 euro or more for a multi room installation |
| Bunk beds | Prohibited | 15 June 2026 | Removal, plus the sleeping places you lose |
| Sleeping in living areas | Prohibited, which removes the sofa bed as a sleeping place | 15 June 2026 | Usually two sleeping places off the listing |
| Basement and underground bedrooms | Prohibited | 15 June 2026 | Not fixable |
| Occupancy | Two persons per Planning Authority approved bedroom, and ten persons per unit unless the unit has independent access from a public road | 15 June 2026 | Nothing to install. It caps the listing |
| Kitchen | Forced ventilation, cooking facilities, a fire extinguisher, a fire blanket, a gas detector where applicable and a smoke detector | 15 June 2026 | The detection and suppression items are low cost. Forced ventilation depends on the kitchen |
| Bathrooms | Ratios, facilities and fittings are regulated | 15 June 2026 | The published summaries do not give the figures, so confirm the ratio with MTA licensing before you plan works |
| Other provisions | Wi-Fi, first aid provisions, emergency lighting, fire safety, guest information, and maintenance and cleaning obligations | 15 June 2026 | Low, and most of it should already be in the property |
| Energy performance certificate | Displayed visibly inside the unit | 15 June 2026 | The cost of the certificate |
Standards as at 15 October 2026 under the Sixth Schedule to the Tourism Accommodation Regulations, 2026. The euro figures for air conditioning are indicative Maltese market prices for supply and installation, not regulated amounts. This is general information and not legal or architectural advice on a specific property.
Measure the bedrooms before you make an offer.
The rule compounds. One person needs 9 square metres. Two people need 13. Three people need 17. Combined with the cap of two persons per approved bedroom, the practical threshold for every double bedroom in a property bought after 15 June 2026 is 13 square metres of floor area and 2.75 metres of internal width. A room that fails either test sleeps one.
Take a three bedroom apartment with bedrooms of 14, 13 and 11 square metres, all wide enough. It sleeps five, not six. The eleven square metre room is a single. That is not a furnishing decision you can design your way around, and it is not visible in a listing photograph or in an agent's floor plan, which is why it has to be measured before the promise of sale rather than discovered at the licensing inspection.
The commercial consequence is larger than one bed. On the booking platforms, guest count is a filter rather than a preference. A party of six searching for Malta in August does not see a property that sleeps five, however good it is. The difference between five and six is not a marginal rate adjustment, it is a different search result set.
The same logic applies to the planning permit. The cap is two persons per bedroom approved by the Planning Authority, not per room that currently contains a bed. If the permit shows two bedrooms and the property has three, the third one does not count, and the occupancy drops with it.
Air conditioning has to heat, and in Malta heating is the winter rate.
The Sixth Schedule requires air conditioning capable of both cooling and heating. Most of the Maltese coverage of this reported it as an air conditioning mandate, which is how it was read in April 2026, and treated it as a summer compliance cost. That is the wrong way round.
Across the 22 listings we had live and bookable for the full twelve months to August 2026, occupancy in January was 72.3 percent at an average daily rate of 61.70 euro. In August, occupancy was 91.1 percent at 155.70 euro. Occupancy across the year moved by a factor of 1.29. Rate moved by a factor of 2.52. The beds fill in winter. The money is lost on price.
A cold apartment in January does not sit empty in Malta. It gets booked at a discount, and then it collects a review that mentions the cold, and the discount becomes structural. Heating is what lets you hold a rate through the months when demand exists but the property has to compete on comfort rather than on sunshine.
The numbers make the compliance argument redundant. Those five cold months, November to March, produced roughly 7,730 euro of gross accommodation revenue per key across our cohort. A split unit supplied and installed in Malta runs about 600 to 1,500 euro, which is between 8 and 19 percent of a single winter on one key. An owner with a 2028 deadline and an unheated bedroom is not facing a regulatory cost. They are two years late on an obvious one.
Portfolio figures from our own management reporting, 22 listings live and bookable for the full twelve months September 2025 to August 2026. Gross accommodation revenue before platform commission, nightly rate only. The cohort includes individual guest house rooms, so a key is not always a whole apartment.
Three things we will not state as fact.
The bathroom provisions. The Sixth Schedule regulates bathroom ratios, facilities and fittings. No published source we could check reproduces the figures, and the consolidated text of subsidiary legislation 409.24 is served as a PDF we could not read. So we can tell you the requirement exists and that it is assessed at inspection, and we cannot tell you the ratio. If you are planning works around bathroom count, get it in writing from MTA licensing on +356 2291 5000 first.
The exact trigger date for the bedroom standard. Two legal updates from the same firm give the test as a contract of sale entered into after 15 June 2026, with an exemption where the promise of sale predates it. One other summary gives 15 April 2026, the publication date of the legal notice, for the same standard. The difference matters only if your deed falls between the two dates, and in that case your notary should confirm which applies before you rely on either.
The licence fee. The MTA page refers fees to subsidiary legislation 409.05 without listing them. Figures of 130 euro per unit per year in Malta and 104 euro in Gozo appear in third party guides, and we have not been able to confirm them against the schedule, so treat them as indicative only.
Straight answers.
What are the minimum bedroom sizes for a short let in Malta?
A bedroom must be at least 9 square metres for one person, with a further 4 square metres for every additional person, and it must have a minimum internal width of 2.75 metres. A room sleeping two therefore needs 13 square metres. These figures come from the Sixth Schedule to the Tourism Accommodation Regulations, 2026, Legal Notice 92 of 2026, subsidiary legislation 409.24, in force 15 June 2026. Combined with the separate cap of two persons per bedroom approved by the Planning Authority, 13 square metres and 2.75 metres of width is the practical threshold for every double bedroom in an affected property.
Does the 9 square metre bedroom rule apply to a property I already own?
Probably not. The bedroom size standard applies where the contract of sale was entered into after 15 June 2026, unless a promise of sale was entered into before that date. It is a purchase date test rather than a property test, so two identical apartments in the same block can fall on opposite sides of it. If you bought before that date, the floor area and the internal width do not apply to you. If you are buying now, they do, and they should be measured before the promise of sale rather than discovered at the licensing inspection.
Is air conditioning mandatory for short lets in Malta?
Yes. The Sixth Schedule requires air conditioning capable of both cooling and heating. For units that already exist, the requirement enters into force after 15 June 2028, so there is a transitional period. New units have no such grace. The heating half of the requirement is the one owners underestimate, because winter occupancy in Malta is high and the revenue is lost on rate rather than on demand, so an unheated property discounts rather than sits empty.
Are bunk beds and sofa beds allowed in a Malta short let?
No. The Sixth Schedule prohibits bunk beds, and it prohibits sleeping accommodation in living areas, which removes the sofa bed as a sleeping place. Basement and underground bedrooms are prohibited as well. These are not subject to the purchase date test that applies to the bedroom measurements, so they apply to existing properties, and an existing licence holder has to demonstrate compliance with them on renewal. In practice this takes sleeping places off listings that were advertising a sofa bed as a berth.
How many guests can a licensed short let in Malta sleep?
Two persons per bedroom approved by the Planning Authority, with an overall cap of ten persons per unit unless the unit has independent access from a public road. The planning permit governs, not the current layout, so a room that is used as a bedroom but is not approved as one does not count towards the total. Where the bedroom size standard also applies, a room smaller than 13 square metres or narrower than 2.75 metres internally sleeps one rather than two, which lowers the cap further.
What do I have to do if my MTA licence predates the 2026 standards?
Existing licences remain valid, but holders must demonstrate compliance with the new standards and conditions when they apply to renew. In practice that means the prohibitions and the operational requirements apply to you now, the air conditioning requirement applies from 15 June 2028, and the bedroom measurements apply only if your contract of sale was entered into after 15 June 2026. The sensible order is to fix the cheap items first, which are the kitchen detection and suppression equipment, the first aid provisions, the emergency lighting, the guest information and the energy performance certificate on display, and to plan the heating before 2028 rather than in 2028.
Sources
- Malta Tourism Authority, short-let rented accommodation licensing
- Malta Tourism Authority, Tourism Accommodation Regulations 2026
- Legal Notice 92 of 2026, Tourism Accommodation Regulations, 2026
- Mamo TCV Advocates, legal update on the Sixth Schedule standards
- Promethean, the 2026 licensing framework and the air conditioning transitional period
- Check Your Traders, indicative Maltese air conditioning installation costs, 2026
Last reviewed 15 October 2026. This page is general information, not legal or architectural advice. Have an architect measure the rooms and read the planning permit before you commit to a property.
Send us the address and we will measure the property against the 2026 standards.
Before we take a property on we read the planning permit, check the approved bedroom count against the rooms that actually exist, and tell you what the occupancy cap will be once the licence issues. If the standards cap the property below what the agent told you it sleeps, you should know that before the promise of sale, not after.