Notices published in Government Gazette No. 21,008 of 17th February 2023

Property Acquisition Grant Scheme 2023

1. Title and aim of the Scheme

The Property Acquisition Grant is intended for people who acquired their first residential property after 1st January 2022. This grant, which will amount to ten thousand Euros (€10,000) will be given over a period of ten (10) years to applicant who has acquired a property whose value is less than five hundred thousand Euro (€500,000). The grant will be given once a year through payments of one thousand Euro (€1,000) each.

With this scheme, the Housing Authority will be helping these young people in the first crucial years of their important investment and also encouraging them to become homeowners.

2. Definition of terms

Throughout the Notice unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) “Advert" means Advert which appears in the Government Gazette of the 17th February, 2023;

(b) “applicant" means a person who applies under this scheme and when application is made by two applicants jointly, shall include all applicants in solidum;

(c) “the Authority" means the Housing Authority established by Article 3 of the Housing Authority Act, (Cap 261);

(d) the word “bank" has the same definition given to it in the Act of Commercial Banking (Act No XV of 1994);

(e) the word “beneficiary" means every person who benefits under this Advert;

(f) “First Time Buyers" means an applicant who has acquired a residence as stipulated in Duty on Documents and Transfers Act, Subsidiary Legislation 364.12, Legal Notice 240 of 2020 and Legal Notice 277 of 2021;

In this scheme, the singular shall import the plural and the masculine shall import the feminine.

3. Condtions of the scheme

(a) Under this Scheme the grant will amount to ten thousand Euro (€10,000) spread over a period of ten (10) years. The amount of one thousand Euro (€1,000) per annum will be issued by the Housing Authority in favour of the applicants;

(b) In case of couple who acquire their property together and in solidum, and the property is not the first purchased property of one of the applicants, then the grant will be that of five thousand (€5,000), that is five hundred (€500) per annum for ten (10) years;

(c) The property must have been purchased through a bank home loan;

(d) In the event of closure of loan account for any reason, the grant will be suspended immediately, and no further payments will be issued;

(e) Except for deeds signed in 2022, applicants must submit their application until March of the year following the signing of the deed, that is:-

applicants who signed their deed in the year 2023, must submit the application by March 2024; and

applicants who signed their deed in the year 2024, must submit the application by March 2025 and so on;

However applicants who signed the deed in the 2022 must submit their application until May 2023.

The payment under this scheme is made once a year, that is, in June of each year.

(f) The value of the property should not exceed five hundred thousand Euro (€500,000);

(g) The property that qualifies under the scheme must be used and occupied by the applicants exclusively as their ordinary residence;

(h) The annual grant of one thousand Euro (€1,000) will be deposited into the applicant's bank account. The bank account should be the account from which the monthly loan repayment is issued;

(i) In the case of a couple who acquired the property together and in solidum, they must submit a joint bank account in their name in order to have their grant deposited in same joint account;

(j) Every year before a payment is issued, the applicants bind themselves to submit by March, an original bank statement of their loan account as requested by the Housing Authority so that the following payment may be approved;

(k) In the event that applicants submit their application after the date stipulated in clause 3(e), they will lose the grant of one thousand Euros (€1,000) for each year of late submission of application.

4. Method of application

(a) A person who qualifies under this Scheme shall submit an application on the prescribed form at the offices of the Housing Authority 22 Pietro Floriani Street Floriana, Malta and from the Housing Authority branch 25 Enrico Mizzi Street, Victoria, Gozo or online from the Housing Authority website;

(b) The application must be submitted after the signing of the deed;

(c) The Housing Authority retains the right to close the scheme when it deems fit and this through a notice in the Government Gazette.

5. Validity of the application

To be valid the application must satisfy the following requirements:-

(a) the application must be made on the prescribed form and must be duly and completely filled;

(b) the application must be signed by all applicants;

(c) the application must be accompanied with all necessary documents;

6. Qualifications to apply

On the date of publication of this Advert in the Government Gazette, the applicants should in all circumstances satisfy the following criteria:-

(a) applicants are Maltese Citizens and citizens of the EU. EU Citizens must be acquiring their first residence and must satisfy the criteria issued by any Authority and/or by the Office of the Prime Minister. In the case of married couples/two persons who have entered into a Civil Union and who are not legally separated, one of the couple must be Maltese Citizen;

(b) the purchased property qualifies as the first residence of one of the applicants as stipulated in Duty on Documents and Transfers Act, Subsidiary Legislation 364.12, Legal Notice 240 of 2020 and Legal Notice 277 of 2021 and in the Inland Revenue guidelines on the definition of “first time buyers" on the website (https://cfr.gov.mt/en/inlandrevenue/legal-technical/Documents/Guidelines%20FTB.pdf).

7. Disqualification

Persons shall not qualify to make an application under this scheme if:-

(a) The deed of acquisition was signed before 1st January, 2022;

(b) The property purchased was not the first property acquired by the applicant and this as stipulated in Duty on Documents and Transfers Act, Subsidiary Legislation 364.12, Legal Notice 240 of 2020 and Legal Notice 277 of 2021;

(c) The property was not purchased through a bank loan (home loan);

(d) The value of the property exceeds the amount of five hundred thousand Euro (€500,000).

8. Loss of Grant

The Grant is suspended immediately in case the property is transferred to third parties. In the case of a couple acquiring the property together and their marriage or relationship is terminated and one of the couple decides to retain the property, then the remaining grant, will continue to be given to the applicant who kept the property in its entirety.

9. Transfer of property

In case the beneficiaries want to transfer to the third parties the property acquired before the end of the ten (10) years from application under this scheme, they must inform the Housing Authority of this upon signing of the Promise of Sale and this so that the Housing Authority can stop the grant approved under this scheme.

10. Information

The Authority may require the applicants to sign and confirm any declaration in any form, even under oath, it may consider necessary for the carrying out of this Scheme.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to contact any government department/entities for the processing/verification of the application and therefore the applicants give their consent to such collection of information.

11. Penalty for false information

If at any time, it results that applicants have made a false declaration or given incorrect information/documents for the purposes of any application, without prejudice to any penalty for which they may have become liable under any other law, applicants shall be liable to the payment to the Authority, of a fine which the Authority deems fit . They will also be disqualified for a period of five (5) years from benefiting from any scheme made with the approval of the Minister responsible for Housing, and shall forfeit the right to any benefit under this Scheme.

Incorrect or false declaration/documents may also lead the applicant to the commencement of criminal procedures against him.

12. Administrative charges and abandoned applications

(a) Each application for assistance under this Scheme shall be lodged to the Authority and such application shall not be accepted unless accompanied by an one-time payment of twenty five Euros (€25) as an administrative charges and together with all the necessary documents. These charges are not refunded to applicant for any reason whatsoever.

(b) Where any applicant under this Scheme stops the processing of the application, the application shall be deemed to have been abandoned and any expenses and deposits incurred by the applicants in connection with their application, shall not be recoverable by the applicants whether or not their application is successful.

13. Right of refusal

Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing provisions of this Scheme, the Authority shall have the right to refuse any application.

14. Duration of scheme

This Scheme shall remain in force for a period of twelve (12) months from the date of its publication in the Government Gazette, and shall be automatically renewed for further periods of one year each unless a Notice to the contrary is published in the Government Gazette indicating that the scheme has been withdrawn.

15. Interpretation

In case the Maltese text differs from the English text, the Maltese text will prevail.

16. Amendment of scheme

The Authority shall have the right to make any amendments to this Scheme by publication of the said amendments in the Government Gazette. Such amendments may be made applicable retroactively. No amendments shall subject the Authority to an action for damages or any other legal action.

Social Welfare Service providers Gaz 17.2.pdf

Update to the 2018 Basemap

The Planning Authority notifies that it is undertaking an update to the 2018 Basemap. To this extent it will be carrying out surveys by means of drones in the following localitiy on the respective date:

Iklin – 27th February till 31st March, 2023

Any queries should be directed to the following email address (geomatics@pa.org.mt).

Tenders awarded lists Gaz 17.2.pdf

Parking Suspension

The Ħal Għargħur Local Council notifies that a Carnival activity is going to be held on Monday, 20th February, 2023.

Parking is prohibited on Monday, 20th February, 2023 from 7.00 p.m. till 9.00 p.m.

The event is going to take place at Misraħ il-Knisja, Triq San Nikola, Triq l-Oratorju, Triq Karmnu Zarb and Triq il-Kbira.

Traffic Suspension

The Ħal Għargħur Local Council notifies that on Monday, 20th February, 2023, from 9.30 a.m. till 5.00 p.m., Triq l-Indipendenza will be closed for traffic.

Locality Meeting

The Msida Local Council would like to invite the Msida residents whose name appears in the current Msida Local Council electoral register to attend a meeting, which is going to be held on Monday, 27th February, 2023, at 5.30 p.m. at the above address.

During this meeting, information will be provided about the Imsida Creek Project where residents will have the chance to ask questions or put forward suggestions related to the subject.

Those who are interested in attending the meeting are kindly requested to present their Identity Card upon entry.

Annual Locality Meeting

The Fgura Local Council notifies that all Fgura residents, whose names appear in the Local Council electoral register, are invited to attend the Local Council Locality meeting which will take place on Friday, 17th March, 2023, at 6.45 p.m., in the Local Council building in Fgura.

During this meeting, the Local Council's work account during the previous year will be given.

Afterwards residents will be invited to bring forward their suggestions and complaints.