Solar and heat pump water heaters: the grant that has to come before the purchase

Most of the fit-out decisions you make in a Maltese shell can be reordered. This one cannot. The water heater grant run by the Regulator for Energy and Water Services (REWS) is approved before you buy the unit, not reimbursed afterwards — and the paperwork it asks for depends on something that may not exist yet on a newly bought property: an electricity bill in your own name.

Buyers arriving from the UK or elsewhere in the EU usually assume the opposite. You buy the appliance, you keep the invoice, you claim. Here, a receipt dated before your approval is simply ineligible, and no amount of explaining afterwards changes that. It is the single most common way the grant is lost on a fit-out, because the heater feels like part of the plumbing package and gets ordered with everything else.

What the scheme covers

The 2025 Water Heater Scheme covers three things: solar water heaters, heat pump water heaters, and boilers installed together with photovoltaic panels. It was launched by Government Notice 581 of 2025 and extended to 31 December 2026 by GN 2034 of 2025.

The equipment must be a REWS-registered model and must be bought from a retailer in Malta. Buying a cheaper unit abroad and shipping it in — a reflex for buyers used to a wider European market — takes you outside the scheme entirely.

The order of steps

This is the whole article in one list. Run it out of sequence and the grant is gone.

1. Open the ARMS account in your own name. The supply has to be on a Residential or Domestic scheme, and you need a bill on it. On a shell purchase the meter is very often still in the developer's name, or on a temporary builder's supply, which is covered in the utilities article in this section.
2. Submit Part A and wait for the confirmation letter. REWS states that applications are generally decided within five weeks.
3. Buy the equipment — after the confirmation letter, not before.
4. Install and commission it.
5. Submit Part B, after installation and commissioning, within six months of the acceptance.

The evidence required across the application includes the ARMS bill in the applicant's name, a Planning Authority permit where one is required, and a commissioning certificate.

Notice where step 1 sits. Everything else in a fit-out can proceed while the utility account is sorted out; this cannot. If your plumbing first fix is being planned for a date before you expect a bill in your name, say so early, because the alternative is either waiting or paying for the heater yourself.

Who is eligible, and who is not

From the guidelines to applicants:

• The applicant must be a resident of Malta, aged 18 or over, holding an identity document under Cap. 258.
• The applicant must own the property freehold, or hold it on a lease with at least five years remaining.
• The property must be used principally as the applicant's own residence.

That last condition does the heavy lifting. Landlords, commercial letting and developers are excluded. A great many Malta purchases — particularly second properties bought by non-resident EU buyers and units bought for the rental market — fall outside the scheme on this point alone, regardless of what equipment is installed. If you are fitting out to let, budget the water heater at full cost and move on.

There is also a siting condition: inadequate sun exposure may disqualify an installation. In practice that matters most in dense village cores and on lower floors of blocks where the available roof is overshadowed or where the roof is not yours to use.

What the grant pays for — and what it does not

The eligible cost is the equipment itself, including VAT. Excluded are:

• plumbing
• other works
• extended warranties
• permits
• certification

So the labour, the pipe runs, the structural work, the certification fees and any permit cost sit on your side of the line. In fit-out budgeting terms, the grant reduces the price of one item, not the price of the installation.

The grant percentage and the maximum payable are set in the Government Notice, which we have not read, so we do not quote a figure. Read the scheme page before you build a number into your budget.

Two further conditions are worth knowing before you choose between technologies. The scheme carries warranty obligations — five years for heat pump water heaters, two years for boilers with PV. And for solar water heaters there is a €500 maintenance allocation, reimbursed after five years against a receipt from the supplier. Applicants are also expected to keep records for five years and may be audited.

Funds are limited, and calls close

The guidelines are explicit that funds are limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with no guarantee of a grant. Eligibility is not entitlement.

Nor do these schemes stay open indefinitely. The separate 2026 Renewable Energy Sources Scheme, which deals with PV and batteries, stopped accepting battery-only and hybrid-battery Part A applications from 13 July 2026 and stopped accepting all applications from 12 September 2026. We mention it only as evidence of the pattern: a REWS call that is open when you start a fit-out may be closed by the time your first fix is ready. Check the current status of the water heater scheme at the point you are actually ready to apply, not at the point you start planning.

Why this lands early in a fit-out

The water heater is not a late decision dressed up as an early one. A solar unit needs roof area, orientation and a route for its primary circuit. A heat pump needs a location with airflow and a condensate path. A boiler-plus-PV arrangement changes both the roof layout and the electrical distribution board. All three change where the hot water pipework runs, which means the choice has to be made before first fix is set out — and the grant application has to be made before the choice is bought.

In an apartment, the roof is frequently common property and the condominium rules govern what you may install on it. The sources do not deal with that question at all, so treat the condominium's position as a separate check you make yourself, in parallel with the grant application rather than after it.