Solar on an apartment block roof in Malta: who owns it, who consents.

Can you put solar on a Maltese apartment block roof?

Sometimes. The 2026 RES scheme does not exclude apartments, but it requires you to hold the roof as owner, emphyteuta or long leaseholder with more than five years remaining, plus the consent of the other owners. In most blocks the roof is not yours alone, so consent is the obstacle, not the hardware.

The scheme is written around an applicant and a residential property. It never says “house”. What it does say is that the applicant must have the right tenure and, where others hold rights over the same roof, their agreement. That is a paperwork problem. It is workable in a small block of three or four cooperative owners. It gets hard in a twelve unit block where two flats are let and one owner lives abroad.

Who owns the roof of a Maltese apartment block?

Often nobody alone. The roof is frequently held in common between the flat owners, though some deeds assign exclusive use to the penthouse or keep rights with the developer. The RES guidelines do not settle this. Your deed and Maltese condominium law do. Ask a notary before you spend anything.

We are not going to summarise Maltese condominium law on this page. Getting it slightly wrong could cost you thousands. For the grant, the question is narrower than the legal one: can you show REWS you hold the property under an accepted tenure, and can you produce the consent of the other owners.

What tenure does the 2026 RES grant require?

Three routes qualify: full ownership, emphyteusis, or a long lease with more than the durability period remaining, which means more than five years. Long leaseholders also need the owner’s consent. A joint owner may apply on behalf of the other joint owners with their agreement. The applicant must be resident in Malta and 18 or over.

Situation	Position under the 2026 RES scheme
You own the flat, roof rights shared with other owners	Eligible tenure, but you need the other owners’ consent
You are a joint owner	You may apply for the others, with their agreement
Emphyteuta	Eligible tenure
Long lease with more than 5 years left	Eligible, plus the owner’s consent
Long lease with 3 years left	Not eligible, tenure is shorter than the durability period
Flat let on a commercial basis	Excluded, even if the tenant’s use is residential
Communal residence run by a body with no economic activity	The organisation may apply
Anyone in the household got a similar grant since 2010	Ineligible
Existing PV still inside a feed-in tariff guaranteed period	Not eligible until that allocation has expired

Can one owner apply for the whole block?

A joint owner may apply on behalf of the others with their agreement. That is the mechanism that makes a shared roof workable. One named applicant, one Part A, the other owners agreeing. The scheme does not describe a majority vote, so treat it as needing everyone whose consent your deed requires.

Order matters. Part A must be submitted before purchase and installation, and REWS advises applicants not to enter a binding contractual commitment or pay any money, including a deposit, before the grant offer letter arrives. A committee that signs with an installer to keep things moving can lose the grant for the whole block.

Can a block of flats apply as an organisation?

Yes, in one case. Organisations not carrying out an economic activity may apply for communal residences. That covers a residents’ body running a shared building rather than a business. It does not cover a company letting flats. Where the block is run commercially, the business use exclusion applies instead.

Does the grant still work if some flats are rented out?

Not for the let ones. The scheme excludes property used principally for business purposes, and it names the letting of property on a commercial basis, even where the tenant’s use of the property is residential. “Domestic use” expressly excludes use by landlords or developers. An owner occupier in the same block is a separate applicant.

This is where most apartment block projects stop. A roof shared between four owner occupiers and two buy to let owners is not one eligible property. The landlords cannot claim, so their share of a shared system has to be funded and settled outside the grant, in writing, before anyone orders equipment.

How much of the roof is actually usable?

Less than the drawing suggests. A Maltese block roof carries water tanks, solar water heaters, air conditioning condensers, aerials, lift motor rooms, chimneys and washing lines, most of them belonging to individual flats. Shading from those objects and from taller neighbouring buildings cuts the array further. Measure the shadow free area before pricing anything.

Two questions usually decide it. Who has the right to move a tank or a condenser that is in the way, and who pays. The RES guidelines answer neither. Settle both in the same written agreement that records consent.

How much is the grant worth on an apartment sized system?

Small systems are limited by the per kWp cap, not the per system cap. The grant is 65% of eligible cost, capped at €3,000 per system and €645 per kWp, whichever binds first. Divide 3,000 by 645 and the crossover is 4.651 kWp. Below that, kWp is what limits you.

System size	Per kWp cap at €645	Per system cap	Cap that binds
1.5 kWp	€967.50	€3,000	€967.50
2 kWp	€1,290	€3,000	€1,290
3 kWp	€1,935	€3,000	€1,935
4 kWp	€2,580	€3,000	€2,580
4.651 kWp	€3,000	€3,000	Either, this is the crossover
6 kWp	€3,870	€3,000	€3,000

The 65% test runs alongside both caps and the lowest figure wins. Illustrative worked example at 5 kWp with €6,250 of eligible cost: 65% is €4,062.50, the kWp cap is 5 x 645 = €3,225, the system cap is €3,000. The lowest binds, so the grant is €3,000 and the household pays €3,250. The €6,250 is an example figure, not a market price. We have not verified installed costs in Malta and will not print one until we have.

Eligible cost is VAT inclusive and covers modules, inverters, the support frame, battery storage equipment, interface modules, other materials and works, and certification. Discounts and offers in cash or in kind, extended warranty beyond the standard 10 year warranty, and import duty on overseas purchases are deducted first. You must not claim any tax rebate, deduction or input VAT credit on the same expenditure. VAT on residential solar in Malta is 18%. There is no reduced rate, and any advert claiming 0% or 5% is wrong.

Can a block add batteries to an existing shared system?

Not with a grant. Battery storage is funded at 75% of eligible battery cost, capped at €6,000 per system and €600 per kWh, but only when bundled with a new PV system and a hybrid inverter. On 13 July 2026 REWS stopped accepting Part A applications for battery only and hybrid inverter retrofits.

Part A form V2, reference REWS/254/v2-07-07/26, now carries only two tick boxes. The maximum combined household grant is therefore €9,000, being €3,000 plus €6,000. That combined figure is our arithmetic, not a number printed by REWS.

What order should a block do this in?

Read the deed. Get a notary’s view on the roof and on whose consent is needed. Agree in writing with the other owners, including who moves the tanks. Survey the shadow free area. Submit Part A. Wait for the offer letter before paying anyone. Then install, commission and file Part B.

REWS has no processing period established at law, but a complete application generally takes about five weeks. The grant offer letter is valid for eight months, covering installation, commissioning and Part B, with extensions only in duly justified cases outside the applicant’s control. Slow neighbours are unlikely to qualify, which is another reason to finish the consents before you apply.

We are still verifying the current feed-in tariff rates against the statutory instrument, so we are not publishing an export rate or a payback period here yet. This page will be updated once that is checked. Dawl does not install anything.