Holiday Lets vs Long Lets in Malta: The Full Comparison

Every Maltese landlord eventually runs the fantasy arithmetic: "my flat rents long-term at €1,400 — on Airbnb at €120 a night that's €3,600 a month!" The fantasy ignores occupancy, management, licensing, and seasonality. The reality is closer than the gross numbers suggest — and the right answer depends mostly on where the property is and who you are.

Let us run the same apartment both ways.

The test case

A modern, well-furnished two-bedroom in the Sliema/Gzira belt, worth ~€500,000, long-letting at €1,700/month.

Route 1: Long let

• Gross: €20,400/year
• Letting fee (half month + VAT every ~2 years): −€500/year
• Maintenance & repairs: −€1,500
• Vacancy (3 weeks/2 years): −€600
• Insurance: −€350
• Net before tax: ~€17,450
• Tax at the 15% flat rate on gross: −€3,060
• Net after tax: ~€14,400. Owner hours: ~10/year.

Route 2: Holiday let

Realistic Sliema-area numbers: average achieved nightly rate ~€110 across the year (€150–€180 summer, €70–€90 winter), annual occupancy ~65% for a well-run unit.

• Gross: ~€26,100/year
• Channel fees (Airbnb/Booking ~15% blended): −€3,900
• Cleaning & laundry (guest-paid partly, host cost residual): −€1,800
• Utilities, wifi, consumables (host pays, summer A/C hurts): −€2,600
• Licensing (MTA), insurance uplift, periodic inspection: −€500
• Extra wear, replacements, repainting cycle: −€2,000
• Net before management: ~€15,300
• Professional management (20–25% of gross) if you are not doing 10+ hours/week yourself: −€5,700
• Net after management, before tax: ~€9,600 — or ~€15,300 self-managed
• Tax: short-let income is business income (registration, VAT regime at scale, progressive rates or company structure) — figure effective 15–25% depending on setup.
• Net after tax: roughly €7,500–€8,500 managed, €12,000–€13,000 self-managed. Owner hours self-managed: 400+/year.

The honest verdict

On a prime-area property, a managed holiday let earns less than a long let once everything is counted. Self-managed, it earns slightly less to slightly more — for the equivalent of a part-time job.

So why does anyone do it? Because the comparison flips in specific cases:

Where holiday lets genuinely win:

• Seafront/touristic zones with weak long-let demand relative to price — Bugibba, Qawra, St Paul's Bay, Marsalforn and Xlendi in Gozo, Marsaskala's front. Long-let rents there cap around €1,200–€1,300, while summer short-let rates match Sliema's. The gross uplift is proportionally far larger.
• Properties with personal-use value. If you want your Gozo farmhouse for August and Christmas anyway, short-letting the rest beats leaving it empty; long lets cannot give you the keys back.
• Unique stock — pools, views, character — where nightly rates escape the commodity band entirely.

Where long lets win:

• The university–hospital corridor and office-commuter belts (Msida, San Gwann, Birkirkara): deep year-round tenant demand, minimal seasonality, lower wear.
• Any owner who values their evenings. The hidden cost of short-letting is that it is hospitality work, not investment.

Regulatory state of play

Short lets require MTA licensing (holiday premises), display of the licence number in adverts, and compliance with health & safety standards. Condominium rules increasingly matter: blocks can and do restrict short-letting through their condominium regulations, and enforcement has tightened. Before buying for short-let purposes, verify (a) the building's condominium rules, (b) the licence pathway for that property type. Our Airbnb rules guide covers the licensing detail.

Watch this space politically: short-let regulation keeps tightening across Southern Europe, and Malta's housing debate increasingly references it. Underwrite any purchase so that the long-let fallback still works — that number is your true floor.

The decision rule

Buy the property that works as a long let in its locality (check live comparable rents on Darna); treat short-let upside as an option, not the thesis. If the deal only works at 70% Airbnb occupancy, it does not work.