A Central Bank study has raised doubts about the number of landlords claiming to the authorities to be renting their properties for less than €500 monthly.

The study trawled through close to 9,000 rental adverts on Facebook’s marketplace and compared it to the Housing Authority’s rent register.

It found that while only 1% of the properties advertised on Facebook were going for less than €500 monthly, 14% of the rental contracts registered with the authority show rental rates of less than €500.

Landlords are obliged to register their rental contracts with the authority.

The study conceded that there are differences between the Facebook and authority’s datasets, as, for example, the authority’s register includes renewed leases, which tend to maintain price stability.

However, the study concluded that the discrepancies between the prices being advertised on Facebook and those registered with the authority, particularly on the lower end of the scale, warrant further investigation.

The study also found a strong upward pressure on rents during the first half of 2023, which is consistent with the strong demand for rental properties.

Slightly less than half of all adverts on Facebook are within the €1,000-€1,500 per month range.

The share of adverts with a rental price of between €751 and €1,000 stood at 16%, while, at the lower end of the scale, only around 3% of listings were advertised at €750 or less.

Prices of rental properties on Facebook Marketplace... Graphic: Central Bank

...versus prices of rental properties registered with the Housing Authority. Graphic: Housing Authority

On the higher end of the rent market, 8% of adverts have a monthly rent exceeding €2,500. Most of the latter properties are located in Sliema, St Julian’s and Swieqi.

Apartments form the bulk of properties advertised on Facebook, coming in at 69% of all listings, followed by penthouses at 14% and maisonettes at 6%.

The majority of advertised properties consist of three-bedroom (44%) and two-bedroom (37%) dwellings while 63% of these properties are advertised as having two bathrooms.

Slightly more than half of these properties are found in the northern harbour region, which includes places like Sliema, St Julian’s and Gżira.

Only 2% are advertised in Gozo. The most common localities are Sliema (13%), St Julian’s (10%), St Paul’s Bay (8%), Swieqi (8%) and Gżira (5%).

Slightly less than one in five adverts on Facebook marketplace are posted by real estate agents, the study said.

How rental property locations differ on Facebook versus the Housing Authority register.

A separate housing authority study published in July shows Sliema topped the list of most expensive rentals, with a two-bedroom apartment setting tenants back an average €1,218 per month last year. That’s an increase of just over €160 from the average price in 2021.

On the other end of the scale, Munxar, in Gozo is the cheapest place to rent, with the average rent of a two-bed dwelling at €495, up from €400 in 2021.