When you need one
Malta transposed the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive through Legal Notice 376 of 2012. A valid certificate must exist before a dwelling is sold or rented, and the rating has to appear in the advertisement — not produced later when the notary asks for it.
- Selling — the certificate passes to the buyer
- Renting — it passes to the tenant
- Advertising — the rating goes in the listing
- New build — as part of demonstrating compliance
Valid for ten years, unless the fabric or services change. New apertures, added insulation, different heating or cooling plant, or a PV installation all change the calculation underneath it.
The thing that actually moves your rating
Two apartments in the same block, same size, same aspect, can come back with different ratings. Not because one performs better — because one was calculated and the other was defaulted.
The national procedure lets an assessor take U-values from default tables when the construction is unknown. Those defaults are deliberately conservative. They have to be: they cover the worst plausible build-up for that element type. Use them on a property built better than the worst case, and the certificate understates the building.
This matters in both directions. An understated rating makes a property harder to sell against comparable stock. An overstated one hands a buyer a dwelling that will not perform the way the certificate promised — and that is the version that generates complaints.
Maltese construction makes this sharper than it is elsewhere. A double-leaf franka wall behaves one way; the same wall with bond stones bridging the cavity behaves measurably worse, because the stones conduct straight through the gap. Torba fill, traditional deffun roofs and beam-and-block ceilings each need calculating on their own terms. No default table distinguishes between them.
Every element on a GENCO assessment is calculated from the build-up recorded on site, to EN ISO 6946. Defaults are used where nothing else is available, and the certificate says so.
Apertures, and why g-value matters here
Windows need a U-value and a g-value — the fraction of solar energy that gets through. In a northern European climate the U-value dominates. In Malta, with six months of cooling season, unwanted solar gain through glazing is frequently the larger problem. Manufacturer declarations and certified window energy ratings take precedence over tabulated fallbacks, and on newer developments they are usually obtainable.
Blocks and developments
Every self-contained dwelling needs its own certificate. But a block shares build-ups, aperture specifications and often plant — so surveying it as one exercise rather than forty separate visits is both faster and more consistent.
Consistency is the part that gets underrated. When two apartments in the same development carry ratings produced by different assessors on different assumptions, the discrepancy surfaces at exactly the wrong moment: when a buyer compares them. GENCO has run this at 8-unit block scale and at 150 units on a single development in the south, with one set of calculated U-values applied across the whole site.
What the assessment covers
A monthly energy balance under EPRDM, the national procedure for dwellings, built on MSA EN ISO 13790. Heating season November to April, cooling season May to October — a single climate dataset for all of Malta and Gozo, so locality does not change the result.
- Thermal envelope — external walls, roof, exposed and ground floors, every aperture
- Services — space heating and cooling, water heating, lighting, ventilation
- Generation — PV and solar water heating, credited against demand
Excluded: common corridors, communal staircases, and garages — whether or not you reach them through an internal door. Washrooms count only if reached by an internal staircase. A floor sitting above another conditioned apartment is an internal element, not envelope.
The rating describes the dwelling, not the household. EPRDM applies standardised occupancy, set-points and appliance use, so a family of five and an empty flat return the same number.
Getting a quote
No site visit needed to price it. Property type, approximate useful floor area and locality are enough — fee fixed on confirmation, inclusive of the €75 registration fee, so the quoted figure is the figure you pay. Pricing scales with floor area and the number of distinct elements to measure, which is why a townhouse with split levels and mixed construction prices differently from a one-bedroom flat with four external walls.
One week from survey to issued certificate for a standard property. Working against a promise of sale or a listing date? Say so at enquiry and it gets scheduled around it.
For the survey, useful to have
- Architectural plans, if they exist — they shorten the survey considerably
- PA permit number, for newer properties
- Access including roof, where it is reachable
- Details of heating, cooling and water heating plant, and any PV or solar water heating
Common questions
Why did two identical apartments get different ratings?
Almost always because one was calculated and the other defaulted. The buildings are the same; the assessments were not.
Can a rating be improved without touching the building?
The building's performance, no. Its rating, sometimes — if the original certificate ran on default assumptions and the real construction is better than those defaults assume, recalculating from the recorded build-up reflects it more honestly.
Does my electricity bill affect it?
No. It is a standardised calculation of the dwelling, not a measurement of last year's consumption.
Can I get one from plans, before it is built?
Yes — calculated from the specified construction. If the build departs from the design, an as-built assessment is needed for the certificate to stay accurate.
Do you do commercial buildings?
EPCs here are domestic only. For commercial and industrial sites the equivalent is an ISO 50002 energy audit — a measured investigation rather than a standardised rating.