This is one of two stories about two vastly different Mediterranean communities struggling with overtourism produced through the collaborative project Senza Segnale, involving journalists from Malta and Italy. One focuses on a lively city and tourist destination – Palermo – but this one is about my suburban hometown of Swieqi, a place with little to offer tourists yet deeply impacted by tourism nevertheless. Published in collaboration with Newsbook.

The Suburbanites’ Protest

A few dozen people who gathered in Swieqi on the last Sunday of August ensured that Malta joined tourist destinations across southern Europe in protesting against overtourism last year, though the choice of venue may seem strange to outside eyes.

Swieqi, which emerged as a fast-growing suburb of neighbouring St Julians in the 1960s, is far from a tourist destination. Home to over 15,000 people, it has no beaches, no notable attractions, few venues for socialising. Two hotels were torn down years ago, and the only collective accommodation left are an aparthotel and two guesthouses with around 80 rooms among them, with planning policies that effectively preclude the development of new ones.

Calling Swieqi boring is not unreasonable, but it is centrally located on a small island and is widely considered a desirable place to live. And boring means quiet; or at least it used to.

The Holiday Flat Loophole

But Swieqi’s restrictions on touristic development have been rendered worthless by a phenomenon that has transformed tourism: a sharp rise in holiday rentals, fuelled by rise of Airbnb and other online platforms making them readily accessible to travellers across globe.

It is a phenomenon that caught authorities unprepared, as Swieqi itself shows: while it is mostly designated as a “residential priority area” in which tourist accommodation is prohibited, holiday rentals are still treated as ordinary residences under Maltese planning law.

Any home can thus be turned into licensed “holiday premises,” circumventing policies drawn up before a flood of tourist rentals could have been foreseen.

A complex of holiday flats on Swieqi Road is but one example of this anomaly: it was built after a planned guesthouse was refused a permit as it was deemed unsuited to a residential area.

This road has become a hotspot for holiday rentals as it leads straight to Malta’s main nightlife district of Paceville: an underpass beneath the Regional Road, one of Malta’s main roads, is all that separates the two.

Many listings emphasise the proximity to Paceville: some do not even mention Swieqi at all.

Worse than Barcelona

Official statistics present an unenviable scenario for Malta and Swieqi: the proportion of tourist rentals is markedly higher than in the city notable for fighting back.

Barcelona, home to nearly 1.7 million people – roughly three times Malta’s population – had just over 10,000 licensed tourist flats in 2024, when its mayor confirmed they would be banned for good by 2029.

The number of licensed holiday premises in Malta reached 7,649 by the start of February, and Swieqi – home to 2.7% of the national population – hosts 5% of them, with 386 licensed premises providing 2,079 bed spaces.

Actual numbers may well be considerably higher when unlicensed premises are taken into account: an exercise carried out last summer identified 432 active Swieqi listings on Airbnb alone.

Malta thus has more than twice as many short-term rentals per capita – and Swieqi roughly four times as many – as Barcelona, despite national tourist numbers that still fall far short of what the city receives.

No Slow Season

Malta’s tourism numbers are growing rapidly, as is the case with many other Mediterranean destinations, facilitated by low-cost flights and holiday rentals which have helped make travel more accessible.

Tourist numbers had been stable for around two decades until the early 2010s, with Malta welcoming a little more than 1 million tourists a year, but have risen dramatically since.

Malta welcomed more than 2 million tourists in 2017, and the 3 million mark was surpassed in 2024, with 3.56 million travellers. That record was surpassed by November 2025, and the country may well have surpassed the 4 million mark by the end of the year: three times as many as it had received just 15 years prior.

Consequently, while tourism in Malta remains seasonal, peaking in summer, one cannot really speak of a “slow” season anymore.

No less than 200,000 people visited Malta in February 2025, in what is historically the slowest month of the year.

Given these figures, it is perhaps unsurprising that all Swieqi residents I spoke to suggested that the situation took a marked turn for the worse around a decade ago.

“It doesn’t end now: it’s slightly less intense, but it’s continuous,” Arnold Cassola, who organised the August protest in which he decried Swieqi’s transformation into “Paceville’s daytime dormitory,” explains. “You could plan around July and August before, but it’s not like that anymore.”

Noise disturbances are a regular complaint, whether through house parties from partygoers walking to or from their flat, often while drunk or intoxicated. This foot traffic often leads to other nuisances, including vandalism and the odd fight. Garbage is another chronic concern: the waste generated in tourist rentals is often brought out at inappropriate times, and often remains uncollected for days. 

The Council’s Crusade

Given the chance, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat would likely follow Barcelona’s lead and ban short-term rentals outright: a proposal by the council he leads would effectively do so. But Maltese local councils have no authority to do anything of the sort on their own.

The lack of powers – limited since they were created in 1993, and reduced further over time – is an evident source of frustration for Muscat, not least since the local council bears the brunt of complaints it cannot directly address. Tourist accommodation licensing is under the Malta Tourism Authority, and local councils can no longer set waste collection schedules after a single national schedule was introduced.

What they can do is speak up, express their concerns and present proposals, and while the local council has done so, it is futile if the authorities prove unwilling to respond. This is laid bare by a document Muscat provides: a letter prepared for a meeting the council held with the minister for tourism a full decade ago, on February 2016.

In that letter, Muscat highlighted that the number of short-lets had “mushroomed” in Swieqi, causing its inhabitants stress “in the form of noise disturbances, sometimes vandalism and even cleanliness,” and pleaded for regulations that would make it possible to maintain order and address abuse.

But this plea went unheard, with Muscat observing that if short-lets were mushrooming then, “now they’re spreading like wildfire.”

It went a step further last year, presenting no fewer than 12 proposals, including requiring tourist rentals to be classified more accurately as commercial properties. The council also called for a moratorium on new licenses until carrying capacity studies are conducted and for strict limits to be set on the number of tourist rentals in every Maltese locality.

The Protest Organiser

Few people have lived in Swieqi as long as Cassola, an academic and veteran politician who presently chairs the political party Momentum: his family had moved to what was then a nascent suburb in 1972, when he was a teenager. He moved back to his late parents’ home a few years ago, after spending much of his life in a nearby apartment, a move which gives him some space from short-lets, in contrast to his former apartment.

But it’s still very close to Paceville, and his street sees considerable foot traffic accordingly.

Beyond countless incidents of drunk partygoers urinating at his doorstep, he’s had a car mirror broken no less than three times.

Through his Facebook page “Arnold’s Citizen Watch,” he regularly airs the grievances of people from around the country, so it is perhaps unsurprising that he is involved in his hometown’s struggle against overtourism.

His efforts have included launching a parliamentary petition calling for urgent action on the “misuse of tourist rentals in residential areas,” which attracted 2,373 signatures, but he felt a protest was necessary as summer arrived and tempers flared.

In part, Cassola was inspired by growing community activism in Swieqi and beyond: he made a point of inviting residents’ groups from other areas similarly bearing the brunt of overtourism. But the protest was also organised in response to growing anger and in a bid to pre-empt plans for more disruptive actions, which he feared would backfire, including a proposed protest which would have dumped rubbish bags outside the prime minister’s office to highlight Swieqi’s own garbage crisis.

The Former Minister Claiming Maladministration

Another prominent community voice which emerged in the summer was Evarist Bartolo, a government minister between 2013 and 2022 as part of the governing Labour Party and a Swieqi resident for over 30 years. A former journalist and lecturer in journalism – my thesis supervisor, as it happens – Bartolo has now drawn the curtain on his political career, but like Cassola, maintains an active presence on Facebook, regularly sharing his reflections. He readily endorsed the protest, and while was unable to attend it, prepared a message which was read out on his behalf.

As far as Swieqi residents are concerned, Bartolo and I can both count ourselves lucky: neither of us are particularly affected by holiday rentals, even though his home is closer to Paceville than mine. Still, he is regularly approached by fellow residents hoping he could be their voice, often Labour supporters in what is a stronghold of the Nationalist Party, which has enjoyed a strong majority at the council since its inception.

Bartolo has no compunction about calling out his former colleagues in government as the stories pour in. He is adamant that the authorities have been guilty of maladministration in managing tourist rentals, and has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate accordingly.

As one example, he takes aim at the very structure of Malta’s tourism authority, which has the dual – and seemingly conflicting – role of regulating and promoting the tourism industry, with much of its budget funding the latter aim.

Bartolo observes that other tourist destinations have shown that it was possible to act decisively against overtourism: some may even have gone too far in their opinion. But in Malta, the authorities continued ignoring the issue at their peril.

“If I were them, I would worry about allowing an irresponsible sector to harm the reputation of tourism,” he insisted. “Because hostility to tourism will only increase.”

Suffering in Silence

A common thread emerges in my interviews with three of Swieqi’s most prominent political figures: a reluctance by many residents to go public with their concerns. Even August’s protest attracted a modest crowd of around 80 people, though that may in part reflect political bickering which ultimately saw the local council sit it out. Cassola hailed these numbers as a “very good result” nevertheless, noting that Swieqi was still unaccustomed to community activism.

Muscat, on his part, had highlighted that many residents were “suffering in silence,” and in September, the local council provided the community with another opportunity to speak up through a meeting with the community policing team responsible for the area. 

With dozens of people turning up, turnout was good as far as Maltese community meetings go, and the crowd had a lot to say. But it emerged that just eight police reports had been filed for tourism-related disturbances during the year.

“We know how serious the situation is,” Inspector Gabby Gatt, who manages the community police teams in Swieqi and a number of other localities, assured the residents present. “But we do not receive enough reports to substantiate it.”

As the meeting progressed, however, and as one resident after another spoke up, a clear pattern emerged: the resources the police could or wanted to allocate were nowhere near what residents were hoping for.

And an incident shared by Gatt highlighted that landlords have little incentive to ensure their guests are good neighbours: one informed about his rowdy guests celebrated that he could now claim their deposit.

Enter the Pressure Group

The community police were not alone in encouraging residents to file reports: the same message is emphasised in “Swieqi Pressure Group.” Though just a group chat on WhatsApp, as its moderators make clear, in a locality that lacks a residents’ association of its own it may come closest to filling that gap for now.

It was established only last May: Cassola had observed that this took place amid rising tempers.

Martin and Steve (not their real names) confirm as much when we meet, but Martin recounts that the direct trigger was an incident which occurred near his home: a male tourist who took a naked morning stroll, aggressively confronting a number of residents along the way. A photo of this incident made the rounds on social media and was even featured in local press: Martin witnessed it in person.

“Things were already bothering me, then there was this case… the very next day it was done,” he said.

The authorities did respond once the incident went viral, even if Martin was less than encourage by the outcome: a suspended sentence after the tourist admitted to charges including harassment and public indecency. This, he stressed, would have no bearing on someone who does not actually live in the country.

The two men firmly rejected the suggestion that the community’s issues centred around numerous low-level offences which could not be considered a police priority, despite the inconvenience they may cause.

“There is a perceived sense of threat within the community, especially among the elderly and the young,” Steve observes. “I won’t say that people are afraid to leave their homes all the time, but the fear is there.” 

Martin readily concurs, emphasising his fears about the safety of his two daughters, both in their twenties.

An Inadequate Response, By Design

The interview with ethe two men took place the day after the community police meeting, and confirmed that their suggested remedy had its limitations, as Steve found out when he reported a loud flat party keeping his family awake the night before his son took an exam.

“I go out, literally screaming, file a report, but they keep going,” he notes. “By the time the police arrive an hour later, they are knocked out, and there’s nothing to report.”

The meeting saw Cassola repeatedly challenge the police’s insistence on reports: they could and did act on their own initiative when they saw fit. He recalled another incident involving a naked tourist, one filmed riding a motorcycle through Malta’s streets and was later identified, prosecuted, and fined after the footage went viral.

Various residents made clear their reluctance to follow through with a report publicly, including by testifying in court: not least since it would mean facing off against the business interests behind the holiday rentals. Neither they nor Cassola swayed police from insisting on the necessity of doing so, however.

Bartolo viewed this insistence cynically, deeming it a deliberate tactic.

“They insist you must show up and testify deliberately, to make you give up,” he observes. “Why are we expecting ordinary individuals to step up? Why don’t the authorities do anything to strike a balance and protect the public?”

‘Collateral Damage’

In this context, the residents’ dealings – or lack thereof – with police and other authorities highlight that Swieqi’s struggles were not an issue of residents versus tourists, but of a community burdened by a business that often profited at their expense. The link between short-term rentals and Malta’s politically-influential construction industry is not missed by anyone I spoke to.

“The government is closing an eye… to let people turn a profit,” Martin muses. “And we are just collateral damage.”

He suggests a simple remedy – “if you’re not capable of handling your clients, close it down” – but it is not an approach the authorities are exactly known for where business interests are involved.

Muscat’s own assessment is that the state’s failings were not a matter of incompetence, but betrayed an unwillingness to act.

“You’re under pressure… and you have to stand up to it,” he notes. “But they give in.”

And as our interview draws to a close, he warns things can get much worse.

Profiteering Over Everything

“Developers have become dangerously strong, you have no idea,” he maintains. “They view us as mere ants, and they don’t know how to invest in anything else.” 

The present short-let craze was a natural consequence of this, the mayor maintains: they became the most profitable use of an apartment. Consequently, in a country where apartments are often sold before a permit is even issued, there are now projects that are not being advertised for sale at all, including a large apartment block being built a short distance away from the local council offices that could by itself increase Swieqi’s stock of licensed holiday rentals by nearly a third.

“Spain was exactly in the same situation Malta is in now before the 2008 crisis,” he observes. “The economy was thriving, but it was all built on property. And what do we invest in? Property, property, property, property…”

Bartolo expresses similar sentiments as he rails against an attitude that prioritises profiteering over all else, and warns that change is unlikely when Malta’s main political parties are financially dependent on businesses.

“The scales will always be tipped in favour of the donors,” he muses. And as Muscat had done, Bartolo warns this may have dire consequences down the line.

“I worry that we’re being very short-sighted, because we’ve always scraped through,” he observes. “So we remain on the brink.”

The Government Responds

With the interviews taking place as summer was drawing to a close, it was perhaps inevitable that they betrayed a general sense of pessimism about the future of the community.

“If the authorities fail to take proper steps, it will be more of the same,” Bartolo maintained. “And so far I’m not seeing any political will.”

The others shared similar sentiments amid expectations that the growth holiday rentals would remain unchecked, though Cassola did temper this pessimism as he hailed the fact that Swieqi residents were finally finding their voice.

And by the end of summer, their voice had reached its intended audience.

In September, the government picked Swieqi and Valletta for a pilot project which aimed to develop community solutions to the problems caused by overtourism. And in November, this was followed up by proposed regulations which would make it possible to restrict short-lets to designated areas and require tourist rentals to display a 24-hour contact number which aggrieved residents could complain to. 

A month-long public consultation finished in December, though the regulations are yet to become law, and the number of holiday rentals in Swieqi and in Malta has only grown since then.

A Hopeful Future?

The proposed regulations still fall considerably short of the local council’s demand, with no caps on numbers, no indication that existing rentals would be affected and no commitment that any designated zones would be drawn up. And in a country that has long struggled with enforcing regulations, their implementation still relies on the political will Bartolo failed to see among his former cabinet colleagues.

Bartolo’s response as I sought to find out whether the government’s gestures had given my interviewees new hopes was succinct: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,”

Muscat was hopeful: “there is no reason why (the situation) should not improve… God forbid that it does not improve drastically.” But the mayor emphasises the need to do more, not least closing the planning loophole that enabled Swieqi’s transformation into Paceville’s dormitory and a capacity study, whilst warning that the challenge will be even greater this year.

The others do not share his optimism, with Cassola viewing the proposals cynically as “lip service to gain votes, since elections are approaching.” Any sign of progress, he maintains, could only be determined after the next election – which must take place by 2027 – takes place.

Steve and Martin, meanwhile, see little cause for celebration since even winter has not brought them peace: it’s still bad now, only better than summer.

Noise, disturbances, garbage accumulation and drug use continue unabated.

Neither are yet to see any political will to change things: “if there was, things would have moved in the right direction,” Steve muses, while Martin reiterates that the interest of those profiting at the community’s expense were still being put first.

This scepticism does not appear unwarranted, given that a previous proposal to require apartment owners to obtain approval from their condominium neighbours before licensing it as a holiday rentals was ditched early last year: tourism minister Ian Borg deemed it unfair on those who invested in short-lets. Instead, Borg pledged to enforce the rules to ensure neighbourly respect.

As Swieqi can attest, that proved to be a broken promise, one that casts a shadow on the latest pledges. But it also led to a community still struggling to define its identity to find its voice and be heard, across the political spectrum: the next step, perhaps, will be to ensure it is actually listened to.

This investigation is part of Senza Segnale, a collaborative project that reconnects news deserts in the Mediterranean.

Senza Segnale is a project by Amphora Media and IrpiMedia; in collaboration with Fada, Facta, Indip, Infonodes, Centro di Giornalismo Permanente; in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.

• Tourism has more than doubled in a decade. Now at 3.5 million a year, or an average of 62,000 extra people per day.
• Today, there are more than 9,300 active listings on Airbnb.
• Short-term rentals now make up a third of the tourist accommodation market.
• The market generates an estimated €47 million over a year.
• Sliema’s Airbnb market is the largest, worth €7.3 million, followed by St Julian’s (€5 million) and St Paul’s Bay (€3.8 million).
• In Valletta alone, 1 in 6 homes is part of the tourism market. In tourism hotspots, like Sliema, Gżira and others, that number is now at 1 in 10.
• Nearly 200 clusters where multiple short-lets are concentrated in a single building or street.
• Four main arteries in Sliema, Tower Road, The Strand, Triq Robert Arrigo, and Triq Manwel Dimech, host 401 Airbnb listings.
• Local councils report mounting complaints over waste, noise, vandalism, and safety, while revenues eclipse budgets.

Malta now boasts more than 9,300 active listings on Airbnb alone, a figure that underscores just how deeply short-term rentals have reshaped the island’s housing landscape, with some localities carrying a disproportionate share of the burden.

Amphora Media’s latest investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fuelling growing tensions within residential communities.

Malta’s tourism, one of the seven priority sectors promoted by the government, has doubled in a decade. The number of visitors has soared from around 1.6 million in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2024, equivalent to an extra 62,000 people in the country every day.

Accommodating this surge has pushed thousands to convert private residences into tourist lets. According to NSO, in 2024, the number of tourists staying in ‘other rental accommodation’, under which short-lets fall, exceeded a million.

It now accounts for 33% of the total market, and the figure is growing. The number of tourists staying at hotels and other collective accommodation has also increased over the period, but their share has dropped by 10% over the last five years.

The market can be highly lucrative. Inside Airbnb data reveals that Malta-based listings generate an estimated €47.3 million annually.

Yet, most of the money fails to reach the localities and communities.

For example, estimates based on Inside Airbnb’s data show that the Airbnb market in Sliema, one of the localities overburdened by tourism, generates an estimated revenue of over €7.3 million – dwarfing the 2024 Sliema local council’s annual budget of around €1.6 million. The 2024 budget for local councils was €48.4 million across 68 localities.

The strain is being felt at the community level. 

From waste to noise complaints, alleged vandalism and fears over public safety, frustrations are mounting, with residents in Swieqi even taking to the streets in protest.

“Malta has a reputation abroad as a place where everyone does what they want – everyone smokes cannabis, everyone breaks things – that’s the reputation Malta has,” says St Julian’s mayor Guido Dalli.

“[Short lets are] the most difficult thing, not only in Marsaskala, but around Malta,” Marsaskala mayor Mario Calleja told Amphora. In 2022, his local council was receiving 16 weekly complaints about rubbish on average. 

“And why do we have these mishaps? The owners of these apartments do not inform tourists of the proper days to dispose of waste. They just take it out on whatever day. This is the most common problem for local councils.”

In response to parliamentary questions about Airbnbs disrespecting municipal waste collection schedules, Owen Bonnici, in charge of local government, replied with promises to distribute information stickers and increase enforcement.

Swieqi: A residential neighbourhood transformed

“If residents are happy, tourists will come,” says veteran hospitality expert Marie Avellino. But protests, petitions and media reporting about locals’ grievances show that for many locals, mingling with tourists is less than a happy experience.

Even the government’s tourism 2021-2030 strategy acknowledges that the “signs of uneasiness by local residents having to cohabit with tourists accommodated in residential apartment blocks or similar” is one of the ‘areas of concern’ 

Swieqi, once a quiet residential suburb neighbouring St Julian’s, has morphed into a hotspot for short-term rentals, a byproduct of its proximity to Paceville, Malta’s nightlife capital, which has gained notoriety online for clips of rowdy tourist behaviour. 

Over a third of Swieqi listings mention Paceville in their description. Some listings even warn that the proximity to Paceville makes the place unsuitable for families and older people.

Airbnb did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions about these developments.

Our analysis shows 432 active Airbnb listings in Swieqi, accounting for approximately 6% of all livable residences in the area. That figure excludes other platforms such as Booking.com, for which we could not obtain comparable data. 

Davcar Developments Ltd, whose brand is Holiday Letting Malta, is a major player, with 80 active listings, 62 in Swieqi. 360 Group comes next with 24 properties in Swieqi, but their estimated revenues are the largest, approaching €99,000 in Swieqi alone.

Cross-checking the numbers with Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) records suggests that, by conservative estimates, more than 9% of Swieqi rentals are unlicensed.

In August, weeks before a protest over the issue took place, an activist who asked to be called JC reached out to Booking.com and Airbnb to complain about suspicious listings and the negative impact of short-lets.

In response to our questions, Booking.com said, “In the very rare instance that we are made aware of any unlawful behaviour taking place at a property listed on our site – including house parties – we investigate thoroughly, cooperate with local authorities or law enforcement, and when necessary block the customer account from our platform.”

“We also have a solid process in place for authorities to report any concerns, taking swift action to remove properties if they are found not to be operating in compliance with local laws.”

MTA did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Valletta: built by gentlemen, housed for short lets

The rise of short-term rentals has reshaped neighbourhoods while directly draining the supply of homes available to residents.

Historically, tourist accommodation in Malta concentrated along the coast, as tour operators channelled their sun-seeking clients for standard-length holidays at beachside hotels.

However, in 2006, low-cost airlines began operating in Malta, attracting city break seekers. To keep up with the demand, short-term rentals have soared, now comprising a third of the market.

In Valletta, Malta’s state and cultural capital, nearly 570 properties are listed on Airbnb, meaning around one in six liveable homes in the city is now part of the tourism market.

According to official statistics, Valletta is in second place in terms of tourism intensity, with its effective population in 2023 nearly doubling.

This is mainly driven by tourists. Census data shows that as of 2023, Valletta has just over 5,000 residents, smaller than what it was in 2013. A fifth of them are over 70 years of age.

The five largest operators have 130 listings among them.

VREM Ltd has the largest portfolio in Valletta, with an estimated annual revenue of around €108,000 from the city. Valletta Vintage emerged as the highest earner, estimated to generate over €324,000 per year with just 10 listings.

The combined revenue of the top 10 earners from Airbnb exceeds the 2024 allocation to the Valletta local council from the central government.

“The private sector is proliferating in residential zones, which is clashing with the community,” says Valletta resident Billy McBee, who founded Residenti Beltin and unsuccessfully ran for the last local elections with this movement.

“I remember a time when we used to have good quality tourists. I mean, very respectful ones, they used to leave tips, they used to go for retail, but the quality kind, you know, they never gave any problems to anyone. Nowadays, you get horrible quality tourists.”

“Waste management is quite an issue. If the private sector truly honours the private collection, then there wouldn’t be any problem. But during summer, you’ve got pests, cockroaches, rats, smells, and liquids. These are really, literally getting out of hand,” he says.

In 2024, 44 waste contraventions were issued in Valletta, and three resulted in court cases. Valletta’s budget for waste disposal and refuse collection was €120,000 in 2024.

We asked 12 major operators about their approach to licensing, neighbourhood disturbance policy, and waste management. None of them replied.

“You have nightlife, without ensuring enforcement,” McBee continued. “They [policymakers] keep adding so many things to the pot, which is now boiling. People are getting fed up. Valletta is not managing its infrastructure, like energy, electrical waste management, drainage system, and traffic.”

MTA did not reply to questions about licensing so many short lets in Valletta.

Sliema, St Julian’s, Gżira and St Paul’s Bay: Localities overwhelmed

Swieqi and Valletta, however, are far from the worst affected. Sliema tops the list with 1,268 Airbnb properties, followed by St Paul’s Bay with 1,007 and St Julian’s with 947. The next highest concentrations are in Gżira (684) and Valletta (569).

In Gżira, Sliema and St Julian’s, roughly one in ten liveable homes is now listed on Airbnb.

Estimates from Inside Airbnb data show that Sliema’s Airbnb market is the largest, worth €7.3 million. Airbnb listings are estimated to generate around €5 million in St Julian’s and €3.8 million in St Paul’s Bay.

The numbers also reveal heavy clustering. In nearly 200 cases, multiple listings are concentrated within the same location, suggesting that operators may run residential buildings as de facto hotels, but with fewer regulations or oversight than traditional accommodation providers must follow.

St Julian’s, Sliema and St Paul’s Bay top that list with 69, 68, and 68 listings in such clusters, respectively.

The concentration of short-term rentals is starkest at street level. In Sliema alone, four main arteries, Tower Road, The Strand, Triq Robert Arrigo and Triq Manwel Dimech, account for 401 listings between them.

Tower Road tops the national list with 145 Airbnbs, followed by The Strand with 114. Similar patterns emerge elsewhere: Triq d’Argens in Gżira hosts 70, while St Julian’s has three streets, Ġorġ Borġ Olivier, St George and Triq Spinola, each exceeding 50 listings.

Gżira Mayor Neville Chetcuti warns that, similar to Valletta, there is a larger transformation of his locality set in action.

“It’s an ageing population in Gżira. There aren’t many young people, obviously, because every place is being demolished and rebuilt into hotels or flats or guesthouses. So they move out of here, and the number keeps going down,” he told Amphora Media.

A Battle on Two Fronts: Poor Enforcement In Communities Facing Overtourism And Overpopulation

Many localities facing the burden of over-tourism are facing challenges from a ballooning population, despite significant gaps in enforcement.

St Julian’s and Swieqi fall under the same police district, yet between 2013 and 2025, the number of officers assigned there fell by four despite the locality being under “very high risk” of crime. This decline comes despite a sharp rise in demand: police reports in the district increased by 2,670, from 5,937 in 2020 to 8,607 in 2024.

Meanwhile, across Malta, the number of noise complaint reports has increased over the years, climbing from 341 in 2021 to 473 in 2024. 

Nowhere is the strain felt more than in Paceville. Despite being Malta’s nightlife hub, notorious on social media for clips of drunken brawls, vandalism and public urination, it has no police station of its own.

Instead, the St Julian’s station and Swieqi officers serve as first points of contact for those requiring police intervention in the area.

The government has refused to disclose exactly how many officers are deployed in Paceville. Replying to a parliamentary question in May, Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said only that numbers “vary according to the need and particular circumstances”, noting that patrols there include district and community police as well as the Rapid Intervention Unit.

He also promised that a CCTV network for Paceville would finally be operational by next summer.

Valletta, which has become its own entertainment hub in the years before and following V18, faces similar shortages. Police numbers in its district fell by 32 between 2013 and 2025, even as incident reports to the police rose by 797 between 2020 and 2024.

Sliema, Gżira and Msida, grouped together in Police District 7, are also under strain. The district, which combines dense residential areas with heavy tourist inflows, has 67 officers in total. 

With a total population of 49,000, that means there’s one officer for every 731 residents. According to Euronews, the EU had an average of 341 police officers per 100,000 people, or one officer every 293 residents.

In response to parliamentary questions about Airbnbs disrespecting municipal waste collection schedules, Owen Bonnici, in charge of local government, replied with promises to increase enforcement for those disposing of waste on the wrong day.

“I’m not saying Maltese don’t litter, because they do as well, but the majority for sure are tourists. Especially those in short lets, they’re the ones who cause the most problems,” Gżira mayor Neville Chetcuti told Amphora Media.

Tourism researcher Avellino cautions against blaming tourists for the waste problem when the door-to-door collection system confuses them. 

“Imagine that as a tourist, I don’t know what to do with the garbage bag. I walk along the streets and see garbage bags outside. ‘Ah, that’s what people do there! Okay, I will do the same.’ And they think they’re doing a good thing,” she said.

Tourism’s growth “places stress on key resources”, Deloitte acknowledged in a carrying capacity study, published in 2022. “Already at 2019 tourism levels, tourists’ and residents’ satisfaction were impacted by excess volume,” the study’s authors noted.

“Key issues impacting both residents and tourists (to varying degrees) include traffic, littering, waste management, poor urban environment (overcrowding, overdevelopment and uglification) and the lack of authenticity of experience,” Deloitte noted. In response to the negative effects, there are increasing calls to calculate touristic locations’ carrying capacity again. 

Avellino warns that this may not be a silver bullet.

“Carrying capacity changes. It’s not like you’ve got an apartment with three bedrooms, therefore the carrying capacity of that apartment is six persons.”

She says that coming up with an objective figure of how much tourism the islands can sustain is very difficult, and even if it could be done, it may upset some:

“Governments and politicians traditionally went by volume. So if the carrying capacity exercise had to be done – and it’s very complex to do it – and all of a sudden the carrying capacity, for example, turns out to be two million tourists – it hurts them.”

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.

• Listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually. 
• Nearly one-third of Malta’s estimated €47 million annual Airbnb revenue is collected by just 63 hosts. 
• The top three operators alone collect around €3.7 million each year.
• Malta’s short-let sector is dominated by property management firms and developers managing hundreds of listings.
• Leading operators include 360 Group (650+ listings, generating €1.7m revenue), Buena Vista Holidays (300+ listings, €950k revenue), and ShortletsMalta Ltd (79 listings, €520k+ revenue).
• Companies like Zzzing and GetawaysMalta manage dozens of short-lets in concentrated areas.

When most people think of short-term rentals, often called “Airbnbs” after the company that popularised the model, they imagine a friend or relative renting out a spare room or apartment for extra cash. In reality, the industry is dominated by property managers who control hundreds of listings. Their portfolios generate hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, in revenue each year.

Amphora Media’s latest investigation, carried out with support from Journalismfund Europe and in collaboration with Centro di Giornalismo Permanente, analysed data collected from Airbnb and provided by an activist-led platform, Inside Airbnb, to offer a closer look at a booming industry reshaping Malta’s tourism accommodation sector and fueling growing tensions within residential communities.

Airbnb claims that the “vast majority of Hosts are regular people” and around “three quarters of EU Hosts share only one listing”.  According to Airbnb data, listings based in Malta generate an estimated €47 million annually. 

Nearly a third of the  €47 million generated goes to just 63 hosts; 23 of whom each earn more than €200,000 a year. Hosts are the public-facing entities (individuals or businesses) that communicate with customers.

The top 3 earn an estimated €3.7 million in annual revenue. Inside Airbnb does not have information on listing ownership. The revenues collected from Airbnb are shared between the owners and property managers.

This only scratches the surface. Similar data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not currently accessible. A quick search on their website shows there are at least 3,745 listings in Malta under the “entire homes & apartments”, “holiday homes”, or “villas” banner.

“Matthew ThreeSixty Estates” and its six other profiles top the list of “Airbnb Hosts”, with more than 650 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of over €1.7 million. The profiles are tied to 360 Group LTD, a Malta-registered company owned by Matthew Zammit, whose most recently published accounts date back to 2020.

360 Group operates across several areas of the short-term rental market. According to the 360 website, services include property management, where owners hand over day-to-day responsibilities in exchange for a fee; subletting, which guarantees owners a fixed monthly payment under a long-term contract while the company uses the property for short-term lets; and a development arm. “Earn more. Stress less” is the company’s pitch to owners.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, another property management company offering services similar to 360 Group, which is owned by Aaron and Paula Xuereb, ranks second with over 300 listings and an estimated annual portfolio revenue of nearly €950,000.

It operates on Airbnb under two profiles. ‘Buena Vista Holidays Malta’, which is registered under Buena Vista Holidays Ltd, and ‘Paola’, registered under ‘Paula Xuereb Management Services’, which provides no company number and cannot be found on Malta Business Registry.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

The third-highest estimated earner is ShortletsMalta Ltd, owned by Franco Grech and Ralph Vella. 

The firm, which brands itself as “one of Malta’s foremost developers of luxury residential apartments, homes and properties,” has moved into the short-term rental market. With 79 listings on Airbnb, it is estimated to generate more than €520,000 annually from this portfolio.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

‘Gwennoline’ and ‘Ryan’, who appear on behalf of Gobnb Ltd, a Maltese company owned by Ryan Seguna, Fabiano Bugelli and Roderick Bartolo, have the third most listings on Airbnb. Together, they manage 117 listings with an estimated annual portfolio revenue of more than €468,000.

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Zzzing, another property management outfit, has 115 listings and their portfolio is estimated to generate over €260,600 a year. Zzzing promises its clients to take care of licensing.

Run by VH Company Ltd, owned by Edward Cauchi, Bikram Arora and Jonathan Sammut, Amphora Media’s analysis of the data shows that Zzzing operates several Airbnb clusters: multiple short-let accommodations in a single location, sometimes covering multiple apartments in a residential block. It tops the list in this category.

Amphora Media’s analysis, which mapped listings by geolocation, found that Zzzing ran 36 listings across 10 different clusters. Zzzing also has a significant presence on other platforms such as Booking.com, where it manages 116 properties. 

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

GetawaysMalta, a host listed under an individual operator, Neville Galea, also operates significant clusters.According to the data, GetawaysMalta and GetawaysMalta Neville operate 87 listings across two profiles, generating an estimated revenue of €204,000 per year. Analysis shows that 32 of Getaways’ listings are spread across 8 locations. 

To comply with EU law, Airbnb requires hosts to declare themselves as an individual or a company. Individual profiles should only be created for hosts whose primary activity is not short-term lets.

As a host, Galea (a.k.a. GetawaysMalta Neville) and GetawaysMalta are registered as individuals despite Airbnb’s listed criteria stating that anyone whose main activity is short-lets, including solo traders, should register as a business. Galea’s listings come with a warning for guests, “Consumer protection laws don’t apply to reservations hosted by individuals”. 

AirBnB did not reply to our questions about commercial hosts registering as individuals.

GetawaysMalta’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Some cases highlight serious gaps in Airbnb’s regulatory oversight. 

One host, ‘Fabian,’ claims his properties are managed by SF Properties, but lists an invalid company number and cannot be traced on the Malta Business Registry despite identifying as a company in Malta. His 112 listings are estimated to generate around €110,000 annually. 

The company’s representatives did not reply to Amphora Media’s questions.

Data from Booking.com, another major player in the sector, is not yet accessible through similar scraping.

However, upcoming EU legislation will require the platform to share such information with governments, a crucial step, given that our investigation found that 19% of short-term rental accommodations on the islands of Malta operate without a license from the Malta Tourism Authority.

Speaking to Amphora Media, tourism researcher Marie Avellino explained:

“If you’re running a business … or you are commercially managing lots of apartments… whoever is managing it has to address how they are going to cater for the collection of garbage – like you manage how the sheets are going to be washed, how the apartment is going to be cleaned. They charge very good money for managing. (…) So this has to be integrated into the contract””.

Short-let managers “need to realise what harm is happening”, and when it does, customers will not return, she says.

“If people come to the island and they think it’s dirty, full of rubbish and so on, they won’t come. [Managers] might not realise it, or they’re just thinking about what money they’re going to get now.”

MEP Kim van Sparrentak (member of the Dutch Greens) led the development of the new EU law on mandatory data sharing between platforms and local authorities. Commenting on the Amphora Media investigation into enforcement gaps, she said, “The European rules that oblige Airbnb and other platforms to share data can help local and national authorities to enforce the rules can be a real game changer once these enter into force next year. Everything however starts with the political will to combat over-tourism and ensure that housing is for people, nor for profit.”

This investigation was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.