"90% of under-35s own their own homes."

The claim in context

Prime Minister Robert Abela has repeatedly used the figure "90% of under-35s own their own homes" as evidence that despite high property prices, young Maltese remain on the property ladder. The number does exist in the data — but only when the denominator is restricted in a way the headline does not disclose.

What the SILC data actually shows

The most authoritative source for Maltese home-ownership figures is the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), conducted annually by the National Statistics Office. The 2024 release shows under-35 home ownership has fallen to 67.4%, down from 73.2% three years earlier:

The 90–91% figure exists, but only when the calculation is restricted to Maltese-headed under-35 households — excluding the 10.5% of the survey sample that is now headed by foreign residents, who are overwhelmingly locked out of property ownership. As a sweeping headline statistic it cherry-picks a subset and obscures a falling overall trend.

Bottom line

The 90% number is real but partial. The full-population figure is 67% and falling. Quoting the restricted figure as if it described all under-35s in Malta is misleading by methodology, not by arithmetic.