Malta property guide
Malta: provisional duty on a promise of sale
The Malta Tax and Customs Administration says the buyer pays 1 percent provisional duty when a promise of sale is presented within 21 days, on the higher of the market price and the transfer value. Its example prints final duty at 5 percent and says exemptions can change the result. A public-registry search is a different document.
By MMYP TECHNOLOGIES (OPC) PRIVATE LIMITED, operator of MarkMyProperty. Head office: Delhi NCR, India. Updated . This page does not score listings.
Coverage: Malta. The Malta Tax and Customs Administration page on buying property, retrieved on 2 November 2026. The 5 percent figure is the figure in that page’s example. This is not the public-registry search guide.
The search is stamp duty on a promise of sale
On 2 November 2026, the Malta Tax and Customs Administration page Buying Property was retrieved. It says a transfer of property in Malta is subject to the Income Tax Act (Cap. 123) and the Duty on Documents Act. The seller pays capital transfer taxes on a transfer of property located in Malta, and the buyer pays stamp duty. It says the tax and the stamp duty depend on several factors, including the relationship between the buyer and the seller, whether the transfer is subject to exemptions, and whether it benefits from an incentive available at the time of the transfer.
The same page says that once a promise of sale is signed, it is presented to the Property Tax Directorate of the Office of the Commissioner for Tax and Customs within 21 days. At that stage the purchaser pays a provisional duty of 1 percent, based on the market price or the transfer value in the contract, whichever is higher. Its example uses a market price of 200,000 euro and a transfer value of 180,000 euro, and prints final stamp duty at 5 percent as 10,000 euro and provisional stamp duty at 1 percent as 2,000 euro. A receipt confirms that the notary submitted a copy of the promise of sale and that the buyer paid the provisional duty.
A later valuation can raise the duty
The page says that, although valuations are carried out professionally, they remain subjective, and that the law allows a 15 percent tolerance between the declared value and the market value established by the department’s architect. If the difference is more than 15 percent, the department issues a claim to the buyer and to the seller on the difference. For the buyer, the claim includes the duty due together with additional duty, which the page says is equivalent to 20 percent of the duty due, calculated on the value added by the architect at the applicable rate. If the claim is not paid, the transferee pays interest at 0.75 percent for every 30 days or part of that period, starting after three months from notification of the original assessment. The page does not print every exemption or incentive.
MarkMyProperty is operated by MMYP TECHNOLOGIES (OPC) PRIVATE LIMITED. Head office: Delhi NCR, India. It charges no platform brokerage commission. A pin, a user-drawn outline, or a contact reveal does not establish title or ownership.
Those sentences are that administration page. They are not the public-registry search guide, which was not rewritten. A pin or a contact reveal does not establish title, and the contract price is not the duty base when the market price is higher. This page does not set out a payment.
Sources and further reading
Frequently asked questions
What provisional duty does the page state?
1 percent, paid by the purchaser when the promise of sale is presented within 21 days, on the higher of the market price and the transfer value.
Where does 5 percent appear?
In the page’s example, as final stamp duty of 10,000 euro on a market price of 200,000 euro. The page also says exemptions and incentives can change the tax and the duty.
Does a pin on a Malta listing replace the public registry or this duty?
No. A pin, an outline, or a contact reveal does not establish title or ownership.