Retiring to Malta: three routes, every figure from the schedule

The MPRP's current money schedule is the amending notice's First Schedule, and it reads: a non-refundable administration fee of €60,000 for the main applicant — €15,000 within one month of application, the remaining €45,000 within two months of the Letter of Approval in Principle — plus €7,500 per chargeable dependant; and a contribution of €37,000, now identical whether the qualifying property is owned or rented, payable within eight months of the Letter of Approval. A €2,000 donation to a registered voluntary organisation completes the fixed costs.

The property floors have moved with successive amendments — the agency's August 2024 summary sheet listed rent from €10,000–12,000 a year and purchase from €300,000–350,000 by region, held five years — and the capital test in the agency's FAQs asks for €500,000 in assets, at least €150,000 of them financial, monitored annually. Treat the agency's live schedule and a licensed agent (applications must go through one) as the governing word on the current property numbers.

Source: Legal Notice 146 of 2025, First Schedule — MPRP fees and contributions, read 5 September 2026.

Source: Residency Malta Agency, MPRP summary sheet (August 2024), read 5 September 2026.

Malta writes the health-insurance requirement into the programme itself: the summary sheet requires cover for risks in Malta and other European countries for the main applicant and all dependants, and the agency's FAQs quantify it — minimum cover of €30,000 a year, covering full expenses for Malta, with separate travel cover expected for Schengen trips, and an indicative premium range of €250–750 per person by age. An annually renewable international policy is precisely the instrument this clause describes.

Beside the MPRP sit two special tax statuses that are often confused with residence routes: the Malta Retirement Programme (pension-income holders; board seats allowed only in non-executive form; status lost if presence in Malta averages under ninety days a year over five) and the Global Residence Programme (non-EU nationals on their own means, local work possible only after a separate permit; insurance must cover all risks across the EU as covered for Maltese nationals). Both are tax statuses layered on residence — not immigration shortcuts.

Source: Residency Malta Agency, MPRP FAQs v2.6.1, read 5 September 2026.

Malta's proposition is bluntly financial: English-speaking, EU-member, warm — and priced in schedules rather than income bars. Unlike Spain or Portugal, the MPRP grants permanent residence directly, with no annual-renewal treadmill; unlike both, it prices entry in the tens of thousands before a property is touched. The Malta hub carries the island's insurance rules; the comparison sets Malta against the income-bar countries. For the cover the programme itself demands, a specialist can price the clause exactly:

Check a policy against the rule