Malta's Planning Authority approved 12,325 new residential units in 2025, a 41% jump on the previous year and the third-highest annual total in the authority's recorded history.

The figure places 2025 behind only the peak construction years of 2018 and 2019. It also caps a decade of sharply accelerating activity: between 2016 and 2025, the authority greenlit 96,194 dwelling units, more than double the 43,912 approved across the nine years from 2007 to 2015. The annual average over the most recent decade stands at more than 9,600 homes, against roughly 4,900 per year in the earlier period.

One of the more striking elements of the 2025 data is the rise in approvals outside development zones, known as ODZ land. The authority approved 226 dwelling units in ODZ areas, more than doubling the 104 recorded in 2024 and setting a new high in the dataset. Most cases involve the conversion of farmhouses or older rural buildings under existing rural policy rather than new builds on open countryside. ODZ units represent just 1.8% of total approvals, but that share is up from 1.2% in 2024 and a considerable distance from the 0.1% low recorded in 2011.

Approvals on previously undeveloped greenfield sites within development zones also climbed, reaching 2,703 units compared with 1,649 in the prior year. Greenfield development accounted for 21.9% of 2025 approvals. The remaining 78.1%, totalling 9,622 units, involved brownfield redevelopment, replacement, or conversion of existing structures. Despite the year-on-year rise, greenfield's share remains well below its 2012 peak of 36.2%, pointing to a continued lean towards urban regeneration over undeveloped land.

The authority also recorded its highest ever annual tally of dwelling conversions, with 2,781 units approved across the full 19-year dataset.

Apartments and penthouses dominated the approvals mix at 10,745 units. Maisonettes contributed a further 1,076, while just 350 terraced houses received the go-ahead, underlining the continued shift towards higher-density residential development as Malta's construction sector carries considerable momentum into the second half of the decade.