Selling an inherited property in Malta

Before an inherited property can be sold, the inheritance itself has to be formalised: a declaration of transfer causa mortis, made by notarial deed and registered, recording that the property passed from the deceased to the heirs. The notary handles the searches (wills, the Public Registry) and the deed; the heirs' job is to appear, agree, and pay the duty.

Duty on documents and transfers applies to what each heir receives, generally at 5% of the property's value, with reliefs in defined cases, notably for the home the deceased actually lived in and for transfers within close family. The reliefs move with policy and turn on facts about residence and relationship, so treat the notary's computation as the answer rather than any table you find online, including this one.

Delay is expensive twice over: interest and penalties accrue on late declarations, and no buyer can take title from heirs who have not completed one. If a sale is even possible in your family's future, do the declaration now.

When heirs later sell, Malta's property transfers tax applies in a specific way. For property inherited after 25 November 1992, the tax is 12% of the difference between the sale price and the value declared in the causa mortis declaration. For property inherited on or before that date, it is 7% of the sale price.

Read the post-1992 rule again, because it is the one heirs stumble on: the value you declare at the declaration stage becomes the base the 12% is measured against. An honest, professionally supported valuation at declaration time is not just correct, it is what stops a paper gain being taxed later. This is a conversation to have with the notary before the deed, not after the sale.

Inherited Maltese property is typically owned by all the heirs in undivided shares, and a sale needs every co-owner on the deed. Where everyone agrees, the sale is ordinary. Where they do not, the routes are: one heir buys the others out, the property is partitioned where it physically can be, or, where agreement genuinely cannot be reached, the courts can order the property sold by licitation, a court-run auction, and divide the proceeds.

The practical advice hiding in that legal structure: an early, independent, data-backed valuation is the cheapest peace-keeping tool a family has. Most co-heir disputes are really disagreements about the number, and a neutral number settles them before positions harden.

Once the declaration is done and the co-owners are aligned, an inherited sale is a normal sale: EPC, honest pricing against locality data, the konvenju, the final deed. The one inheritance-specific habit worth keeping is documentary: bring the declaration deed to the notary at konvenju stage, because the buyer's notary will search for it anyway.

There is no deadline forcing a quick sale, so let the data set the price, not the emotional need to be done. If the family does want speed, the fast-sale guide covers what speed honestly costs.

This guide describes the position in August 2026 and is general information, not advice on your succession. The duty rules are the Duty on Documents and Transfers Act (Cap. 364 of the Laws of Malta); the 12% and 7% transfer-tax treatment of inherited property is the Commissioner for Revenue's property transfers regime; succession and co-ownership are the Civil Code (Cap. 16). Rates and reliefs change and individual facts decide which apply: a notary's computation on your actual deed is the figure to rely on.