How Many People Can Legally Live in a Rented Home in Malta?

Two people per bedroom, up to a maximum of ten in any single property. Since 1 September 2024, Malta caps how many residents a leased dwelling can legally hold, and the Housing Authority will not register a lease that breaches it. Cramming a sixth flatmate into a two-bedroom apartment is not just a bad idea anymore - it is a compliance problem for the landlord.

The rule: two residents per bedroom, capped at ten

The Limitation of the Number of Residents who may occupy a Leased Dwelling House Regulations, made under the Private Residential Leases Act (Cap. 604), ties the maximum headcount to the number of bedrooms:

• One bedroom - two residents.
• Two bedrooms - four residents.
• Three bedrooms - six residents.
• Four bedrooms (at least two bathrooms required) - eight residents.
• Five bedrooms (at least two bathrooms required) - ten residents.
• Six or more bedrooms - still capped at ten residents, with additional oversight from the Housing Authority.

Four and five-bedroom properties carry an extra condition: at least two bathrooms, on top of the bedroom-based headcount. A five-bedroom house with a single bathroom does not get to claim the ten-resident allowance just because it has the bedrooms.

In practice: a three-bedroom apartment in Sliema shared by six students is exactly at the legal limit, and adding a seventh sharer - even in a spare box room - puts the lease outside what the Housing Authority will register. A five-bedroom townhouse with only one bathroom is capped lower than its bedroom count suggests, until a second bathroom is added.

Who counts as a "resident" - and the family exception

The cap applies to tenants and residents alike - Cap. 604 treats both under the same headcount, so a lease naming two tenants who then bring in three more flatmates as declared residents is judged against the same bedroom-based limit as a lease with five tenants on the contract.

There is one carve-out: family. Article 2 of Cap. 604 defines a lessee to include "the lessee's spouse, civil union partner, cohabitant, or a member of their family up to the second degree, whether direct or collateral". The Housing Authority applies this definition flexibly when a household includes close relatives, but is explicit that the exception exists to cover genuine family living arrangements, not to work around the cap for a group of unrelated flatmates.

How the cap feeds into registration

Number of residents is not a side detail - it is now part of what a landlord declares when registering a lease. The Housing Authority requires a signed self-declaration stating the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a statement that does not accurately reflect the property's actual features counts as a false declaration under Article 22 of Cap. 604, with the consequences that implies. Getting the bedroom count wrong on the declaration is not a paperwork slip - it is a legal statement the landlord is on the hook for.

This sits alongside the rest of what has to be ready before registering a lease - see how many days you have to register a rental contract in Malta for the thirty-day deadline and the documents the Housing Authority expects alongside the declaration.

What if the household grows after signing?

The Housing Authority has addressed this directly: a two-bedroom apartment let to four tenants, where one tenant later has a baby, technically breaches the occupancy limit the moment the child is born - the regulation counts residents, not just adults on the lease. The Authority's guidance treats this as an exceptional case to work out between landlord and tenant ahead of time, rather than an automatic ground for termination, but it is a reminder that the cap is a live constraint, not a one-time check at signing.

Checking who you are letting to

The same September 2024 amendments gave landlords access to the Housing Authority's Register of Defaulters: anyone negotiating a lease can ask whether the other party is listed, and get a yes or no answer through the Authority's portal. It only covers leases signed from 1 September 2024 onward, so it will not surface older disputes, but it is one more check worth running alongside the rest of a tenant vetting checklist before agreeing on how many people will actually be living in the property.

Why this matters for shared student lets

The cap lands hardest on exactly the kind of household that becomes common every September, when students and young professionals arrive and split a lease three, four or five ways to keep the rent per head down. A group chasing a cheap five-bedroom house to fit eight or nine people onto one contract will find the Housing Authority simply will not register it once the count runs past the bedroom-based limit - worth checking before a group commits to a property, not after signing.

Why this exists

Before the 2024 amendments, occupancy in rented homes was governed by general Planning Authority rules that capped most residences at six occupants regardless of size, unless they were family - a rule that let six people share a one-bedroom flat while blocking a legitimate seven-person household in a five-bedroom house. The bedroom-based formula replaced that flat cap with one that scales with the property, which is also why larger properties now need the extra bathroom to qualify for the higher headcount.

The rule in short

• Maximum residents = two per bedroom, capped at ten overall, in force since 1 September 2024.
• Four and five-bedroom properties need at least two bathrooms to claim the eight or ten-resident allowance.
• The count looks at bedroom number, not bedroom size, and treats tenants and other declared residents the same way.
• Close family, as defined in Article 2 of Cap. 604, is exempt from being counted against the cap.
• Declaring the wrong bedroom or bathroom count at registration is a false declaration under Article 22, not a harmless rounding error.