Almost 40% of households in Malta reside in terraced houses, with less than 30% living in flats and penthouses, according to the findings of the latest Household Budgetary Survey.
The study, published by the National Statisics Office this week, shows that 38.3% of households live in terraced houses, 28.8% live in tenements/maisonettes, and 27.7% live in flats/penthouses.
The remaining 5.2% live in semi/fully-detached houses or other dwelling types
Households living in semi/fully-detached houses registered the highest average annual expenditure, amounting to €33,936 in 2015. Households living in flats/penthouses or tenements/maisonettes spent slightly less than the national average, which stood at €22,346 in 2015. On the other hand, households in terraced houses spent just above the national average line.
The study also found that 14.6% of households who did not have dependent children had a secondary dwelling, while 13.9% of households with dependent children owned a secondary dwelling.
Out of the total number of private households, 116,800 (70.9%) were owners of their main dwelling, regardless of whether or not they had pending mortgage payments.
On the other hand, 27,147 households (16.5%) were paying rent on their main dwelling.
The remaining households (12.7%) were living in a dwelling with an alternative arrangement.
Over 75% of households with mortgages on their main dwelling were young households, where the reference person was under 45 years of age.
On the other hand, the largest share of homeowners without a mortgage had a reference person aged 45 and over (85.1 per cent).
Expenditure
Households that owned their main dwelling had an average yearly expenditure of €23,665
Those renting a property spent on average €6,000 less.
Households spent an average of 19% of their disposable income on food and non-alcoholic beverages.
A higher share of households in possession of their main dwelling either owned or paid rent on a garage, when compared to other household types.
In particular, more than half of such households had at least one garage in 2015.
Regional
In 2015, the Northern Harbour remained the district with the largest number of households residing in it (51,035 households). Gozo and Comino remained the district with the least number of households residing in it (12,195 households).
On average, households residing in the Western district spent the most in 2015; about €3,400 more than the national average. Households residing in the Southern Harbour spent the least, almost €3,500 less than the national average.
Income and savings
The majority (76%) of disposable income received by households in 2015 was sourced from employment, whereas the remainder (24%) was received from other sources, such as social benefits, allowances, and interests and dividends.
In general, households where the reference person was male tended to earn more. In absolute terms, the gap between the averages for male and female reference persons has narrowed from €8,500 in 2008 to €6,558 in 2015, albeit remaining almost stable in percentage terms.
The HBS estimates that, on average households saved €4,263 in 2015.
This is a significant increase (by 3.5%/€1,208) over 2008 levels.
“Nevertheless, one should take into consideration that the average disposable income and the average expenditure have increased by 28.3% and 14.1% respectively in 2015.”
It was observed that households whose reference person was aged between 55 and 64 generated the highest amount of savings (€6,686), despite not being the group of households who had the highest income.