Residency by Investment
Malta.
Two Programs, Two Different Lives.
A start-up permit from €25,000 that expects you to move to Malta and run the business there — or permanent residence, granted for life, from around €212,000. Both are EU. Both are Schengen. The price is the least of the differences between them.
Two Doors Into the Union. Choose the Right One.
Malta runs a start-up residency permit and a permanent residence program side by side, and calls both residency by investment. One costs €25,000 and expects you to live there. The other is granted for life and expects you to hold property. Picking on headline price alone gets this wrong.
Two Routes, One Residency
One is built around a business you run in Malta, the other around property you hold there. Both end in a Maltese permit.
Schengen — 90 Days in Any 180
Visa-free access to the Schengen Area for three months in any six-month period.
Permanent Residence, for Life
Granted for life under the MPRP. ID cards renew every five years, with biometrics retaken after the first five.
Four Generations, Both Sides
Spouse or partner, children, and parents and grandparents of any age, from either side of the family.
A Route to Naturalisation
Citizenship can be applied for after five years of permanent residence. When those five years start depends on the program.
Healthcare and Education
Premium healthcare and education across the EU, once the residence permit is issued.
Live, Work and Do Business
An indefinite right to live, work and run a business in an EU member state.
Tax Residency at 183 Days
Available after 183 days a year in the country. Whether it helps you is a question for tax counsel.
Where the Two Programs Part Company
Only one of them has a light stay requirement. The Permanent Residence Program does not ask you to relocate. The Start-Up Residency Program does: founders and co-founders must be physically present in Malta, reside there, conduct the business there and pay tax there. The €25,000 buys a permit on the condition that you move — which for many applicants is the whole point, and for others is the reason to look at the other program.
The five years to naturalisation do not start at the same moment. Maltese citizenship by naturalisation follows five years of permanent residence. The Permanent Residence Program grants that at issue, so the clock starts straight away. The Start-Up Residency Program reaches permanent residence at year five — a three-year permit and a five-year renewal — so the same clock finishes around year ten. Ask us to map the timeline against your own plans before you commit to either.
Your Entire Journey, In One Panel
From eligibility to permit issuance — and the five-year renewal after it — the Bayat Group panel keeps every document, decision and milestone in one place, guided by Pathinnova AI and reviewed by our legal team.
Two Programs. Priced Nothing Alike.
Choose a program in Article I and the whole sheet changes with it. These are separate regimes with separate fee schedules, not two variants of one — so nothing below is shared between them.
Non-binding estimate
Malta runs these two side by side. They share a country and very little else.
Property held five years, plus a government contribution, an administrative fee and a donation to a registered Maltese NGO.
Malta publishes both the thresholds and the fee schedule in euros, so unlike Greece and Portugal these do add up to a single figure.
Applicants must show capital assets of at least EUR 500,000, of which at least EUR 150,000 in financial assets — or EUR 650,000, of which at least EUR 75,000 in financial assets. This is wealth you evidence, not money you transfer. It is deliberately excluded from every figure below, and it should never be added to one.
Leasing is the lower total and the higher cost. Buying commits EUR 375,000 but recovers it in property and carries the lower government contribution; leasing recovers nothing, and five years of rent at EUR 14,000 plus the higher contribution comes to roughly EUR 182,000 gone against EUR 82,000 on the purchase route. The source does not draw that comparison, so we do. Rent is shown across the five-year retention the property is tied to rather than per year, so the total means something. On the start-up program the employment licence is charged per founder or co-founder rather than per person, since dependants do not hold one; confirm the count for your own case. A core employee route also exists, requiring a minimum gross salary of EUR 30,000 a year rather than a capital investment. Medical insurance, translations, notary services and other legal and processing fees are additional on both programs. Figures are indicative, non-binding, and confirmed during due diligence.
Six Steps to Maltese Residency
Select a step to see what happens — and note which two of them carry a payment deadline.
Internal Due Diligence and Qualification Assessment
Bayat Group's compliance team conducts an internal due diligence check — a background security screening of the applicant, preparation of KYC (Know Your Client) documentation, and a qualification assessment. Malta asks applicants to be fit and proper: a clean criminal record, no international sanctions, and no residence or citizenship application previously refused by Malta or one of its partner countries.
Talk It Through. Then Begin.
Our concierge answers your Malta questions in minutes — starting with which of the two programs you should actually be looking at — and when you are ready, it opens your application right where the conversation ends.
Sending opens your secure Bayat Group account, where an advisor picks the thread up.
Assessed against your own circumstances, in about five minutes.
- It asks about your circumstances, not your paperwork
- It names the trade-offs before you commit to a route
- It ends with the programs you actually qualify for
A scripted example. Your own assessment is private, and takes about five minutes.
Assessment
An adviser that reads your circumstances, then the rulebook.
40+ official programs, each with its own arithmetic. The assessment maps those rules to your situation in a short conversation and tells you where you actually stand.
- It asks about you, not about paperworkWhere your family is going, what your work needs, what you would not give up. Navigating the rules is our business, not your burden.
- Clear, unbiased reasoningWhen options pull in different directions, it calls out the compromise, detailing what each path costs you before you decide.
- A shortlist tailored to youNo generic marketing. Just the programs your profile actually unlocks, with realistic timelines and capital commitments.
Step one of three
Where should we send your code?
One address, one five-digit code. No password to invent, and nothing sent to you that you did not ask for.
Step two of three
Check your email
We sent a 5-digit code to . It expires shortly, so it is worth doing now.
Setting up your assessment…
One moment.