One in 10 Maltese fell behind on their rent or home loan payments in 2016, new figures show. 

Data released on Tuesday by the European Union’s data bureau, show that 10% of Maltese said they could not keep up with rent, mortgage payments, their utility bills, as well as payments on hire purchase goods.

According to a recent report commissioned by the Malta Developers’ Association, average rental prices in Malta have risen by some 47% between 2013 and 2016.

Utility prices have also been in the spotlight in recent weeks with the Consumers’ Association warning that households were being cheated out of lower tariffs on water and electricity due to the way the unit cost was being calculated.

In Greece a whopping 48% said they were in arrears

According to the Eurostat figures, Malta was in line with the EU average of around 10%, with the highest numbers found in Greece where a whopping 48% said they were in arrears on these types of payments. 

Around one third of the population in Bulgaria, and over a quarter in Cyprus and Croatia, were also in arrears of this type. On the other end of the spectrum, half of the Member States recorded that less than a 10th of their population were in arrears.

Germans had it best with just 4% saying they had fallen behind.  A closer look at the data compiled on Malta shows that while around 8% had said they were in arrears between 2008 and 2009, this started to change in 2011 where the figure went up to 10%. It then climbed further to 11, and 12%, before reaching an all-time high in 2014 – when 16% said that they were falling behind. 

The provisional figure for last year, Eurostat said, was expected to drop from seven to 5%.