Three hundred thirty foreign citizens applied for the Maltese citizenship between June 2017 and June 2018. This number is 47 applications less than the results during the previous one year. Meanwhile, the applicants are still overwhelmingly male, only 21% of the candidates for the Maltese citizenship through the investment program were women. Most of the applicants arrived from Europe (141) and Asia (107) The number of applicants from Africa (30) is the same as the combined number of the submitted applications form the Gulf region and the Middle East (30). Moreover, 18 candidates arrived from the Americas and four from Oceania. Only 21 foreigners of the 330 had dual citizenship. Another interesting issue is the number of dependants. The 330 prospects submitted the data of 808 dependants to bring with them to live in Malta (242 spouses, 398 children and 177 adult dependants.) The average number of dependants to move to Malta was 2,47 per applicant. The Maltese Individual Investor Programme has the highest number of not approved applications among similar passport schemes. 25% of the candidates, 75 applicants could not obtain the EU Member State's citizenship through investment. This is a sharp increase compared to the previous twelve months, the number of unapproved applications was only 15% and the average of all the years of IIP is also only 19,5%. According to the statistics of the Office of the Regulator (ORIIP), the majority of the rejected applications arrived from Europe, followed by Asia. During the examined period, 266 foreigners have successfully obtained the Maltese citizenship. In the previous period, 386 citizenship certificates were granted. Since the launch of the programme, in total, there have been 833 successful primary applicants. As the Maltese government established a cap for the program, the regulations are stating that the number of successful applicants cannot exceed 1,800 during the effective time of the Maltese Individual Investor Programme. It means that they reached only a little bit more than 46% of the pre-established target since the introduction of the passport scheme in 2013. The level of education among the primary applicants for the Maltese passport through investment is very high. 76% have PhD or Masters degree. Interestingly, only 20 candidate was older than 65 years. One of the essential requisites of the Maltere Individual Investor Programme is that the applicants must either purchase real estate (for min 300,000 euros) or lease one for a minimum annual rental fee of 16,000 euros. Interestingly, only 9% of the candidates decided to buy property. Meanwhile, the applicants rented 241 homes. Since the launch of the programme, the new Maltese citizens bought 105 residential properties and leased 724. The most popular localities are Sliema and St Julians, as always, 72% of the successful applicants decided to live in the most frequented zones of Malta. The value of the purchased properties is significantly higher than the required minimum 350,000 euros; the average price was 1,184,020 euros. Discus Holdings is an official agent of the Maltese citizenship and residency by investment programs. Please, click here to contact us for a consultation!

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