Portomaso
St Julian's. Launched 1996, about 490 apartments, a 130-berth marina — and the tower that was Malta's tallest until Mercury took it.
The developer publishes its own numbers in a financial filing, which is the strongest kind of source this register gets. Spinola Development Company, of the Tumas Group, launched the complex in 1996 and calls it one of the largest single private real-estate developments undertaken in the Maltese Islands. Its 2020 financial analysis summary states that the company has completed circa 490 apartments within the Portomaso complex including the Laguna units — of which 44 are the premium Laguna apartments, 40 delivered in the 2018 financial year. A sales brochure elsewhere says 420 and completion in 1999; the developer's later and higher figure includes the Laguna extension, which is why both can be true of different dates.
The marina has been in operation since 1999 with approximately 130 berths, and the Hilton Malta, a five-star hotel of 413 rooms, stands inside the complex. The Portomaso Business Tower — 97.54 metres, 23 floors, opened 2001, by Edward Bencini & Associates — was the tallest building in Malta until Mercury Tower, which this register also holds, took the title at 112 metres.
Why the special designation appears three times for one address. Portomaso Development was designated by Legal Notice 137 of 1999, and its Extensions I and II are separate entries in the First Schedule with their own orders. Each order designates ground bordered in red on a Land Registry plan, so the exemption follows the parcel and not the development's name: a buyer at Portomaso is buying inside one of three designations, and which one is a question about the plot.
Malta's Special Designated Areas are a property-law exemption under the Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, Chapter 246: article 5(1)(b) disapplies the permit requirement for “the acquisition of immovable property by any person, wherever resident, in a special designated area.” It confers no immigration status. Since the Court of Justice's ruling of 29 April 2025 and Legal Notice 159 of 2025, no property purchase in Malta leads to Maltese citizenship; the Permanent Residence Programme's EUR 375,000 threshold is separate and applies anywhere in Malta or Gozo, SDA or not.
Who it is not for
Not for a buyer who reads the brochure's 420 apartments and completion in 1999 as the whole development: the developer's own filing counts about 490 and the Laguna units were delivered in 2018.
Sources
- legislation.mt (Immovable Property (Acquisition by Non-Residents) Act, Chapter 246 of the Laws of Malta — article 2 defining a special designated area and article 5(1)(b) disapplying the permit requirement for ‘the acquisition of immovable property by any person, wherever resident, in a special designated area’; First Schedule listing twenty-seven zones — https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/246/eng)
- curia.europa.eu (Court of Justice of the European Union, press release CP 52/25, Case C-181/23 Commission v Malta, Grand Chamber, 29 April 2025: ‘A Member State cannot grant its nationality – and indeed European citizenship – in exchange for predetermined payments or investments, as this essentially amounts to rendering the acquisition of nationality a mere commercial transaction.’ — https://curia.europa.eu/site/upload/docs/application/pdf/2025-04/cp250052en.pdf)
- tumas.com (Spinola Development Company's financial analysis summary, 2020: the complex launched by SDC in 1996 and described as one of the largest single private real-estate developments undertaken in the Maltese Islands; circa 490 apartments completed including the Laguna units; 44 premium Laguna residential units with 40 delivered in FY2018; the marina in operation since 1999 with approximately 130 berths; the Hilton Malta, a five-star 413-room hotel — https://tumas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FAS-2020-Final-dd-19.08.2020-1.pdf)
- skyscrapercenter.com (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat: Portomaso Business Tower, 97.54 m, 23 floors, opened 2001 — https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/portomaso-business-tower/9062)
- remax-malta.com (agent: property prices starting at EUR 250,000, no upper bound published — https://remax-malta.com/portomaso)
- maltainvest.mt 20.02.2025 and remax-malta.com 08.07.2022 (agents: the complex holding a casino as well as the marina, and the residences adjoining the five-star Hilton Malta). The casino is not in the developer's own financial summary as read and is carried on the agents' statement.
Pages read are linked.
Verification
- Official source
- Checked
- Inventory
- From official source
- Sources disagree
- circa 490 apartments (the developer's 2020 filing) against 420 and completion 1999 (Malta Sotheby's). Both may hold of different dates; the Laguna extension is later.
- Property confirmation
- Pending
- Last verified
- —
Booking
Private Residences records addresses; it does not broker them. Enquiries are passed to the party named in the record, and nothing on this site is an offer.
Make an enquiryClassified by The Resort Collection House · Edition 2026 · PR-D-293
Investment migration — the facts the rule turns on
The rule for Malta: Citizenship closed; permanent residence remains — checked 24.09.2026.
| Entry price | Not established | 21.09.2026 · searched in the record's sources; not published |
| Seller | Not established | 24.09.2026 · searched in the record's sources; not published |
| Special Designated Area | Yes | 24.09.2026 · openhouse.com.mt 16.11.2025; maltainvest.mt 20.02.2025 |
| Island | Malta | 24.09.2026 · record place |
The register publishes the facts and the rule; it does not say whether any purchase qualifies. Eligibility attaches to a sale, not to a building, and the register is not immigration counsel.