Why do planning applications take so long in Malta?

Perit Matthew James MerciecaArchitect & Civil Engineer

Building & DesignReviewed: 26 August 2026

The short answer

Largely because of how the application is put together. Treat it as ticking a box to secure a right to develop, without properly designing the building and how it will be used, and you invite far more questions and a longer process. Design the building first, then turn those needs into the application.

The box-ticking trap

Matthew locates the delay in how the application is conceived. "If we think of a planning application as ticking a box to get my legal right to develop, and therefore we do not sufficiently plan the design of the building — how it's going to be used by people, the amenity to those people, how it fits within the town, how it fits within its context — then most likely you're going to be asked many more questions. Most likely your application process is going to elongate."

Design first, then apply

His prescription reverses the usual order. "I would suggest, at the very least, get a proper building designed. Get architecture designed. Have the right considerations that are going to serve the users and consider the community, and then transform those needs into a planning application, and submit it." The application is the last step, not the first.

Why a thin application invites scrutiny

Submitting for the sake of a permit produces the opposite of speed. "Submitting an application for the sake of getting a permit will trigger questions, and will trigger an elongated process, as the authority tries to verify that what you're trying to develop has some sort of value." He adds the reason the scrutiny exists at all: "many people try to hide away facts from their application to try and get it to move faster. Usually it happens the opposite."

What this means if you are buying

For a buyer planning works, the practical consequence is that the timeline is partly yours to control, and it is decided before anything is submitted. It also raises the question of what actually needs a permit in the first place, and — where work has already been done — which kind of application applies.

Sources

Perit Matthew James Mercieca — Yitaku Asks video (box-ticking applications elongate; design the building first and transform those needs into the application)
Development Planning Act, Chapter 552 — development applications and the Planning Authority's determination process
Professional judgement — Perit Mercieca, MJM|DA