A farmhouse (razzett) is a traditional rural Maltese property, typically stone-built and originally agricultural in use, often converted to residential with features like exposed stone walls, courtyards and generous plot sizes compared to village-core properties. Farmhouses are treated as their own distinct, sought-after category by estate agents and buyers alike, separate from the urban houses of character they’re often compared to - the key difference being that farmhouses sit in the countryside and started life as agricultural buildings, while houses of character are village or town-core townhouses.
Renovation runs on narrow ODZ exceptions
Most farmhouses sit Outside Development Zone (ODZ), where new construction has been essentially prohibited since 2006 under a strict “ODZ is ODZ” planning policy - see the ODZ glossary entry for the general rule. Farmhouses are the main practical exception to that rule: Malta’s Rural Policy and Design Guidance permits redevelopment of buildings with historical or vernacular interest, and separately permits reconstruction of any building that existed prior to 1978, provided there’s proof it was in permanent residential use. This is the legal basis that allows farmhouse renovation and reconstruction to happen at all in the countryside - but it’s a narrow, conditions-based exception rather than a general licence to rebuild, and press reporting has documented cases of successive permits allowing later “outgrowth” beyond a farmhouse’s original ruin footprint, and of unpermitted rural building later needing to be sanctioned. Checking the full permit history of a farmhouse - not just its current state - is worth the effort before buying.
Pools follow the same rules as elsewhere
A pool added during a farmhouse conversion needs the same combination of Planning Authority development permission and Regulator for Energy and Water Services (REWS) construction/operating licence that applies to any other property - see Villas & Bungalows for the detail on that process. Converting agricultural land attached to a farmhouse into residential garden use is separately restricted under ODZ rules.
Where they concentrate
Farmhouses cluster in Malta’s rural western villages - Mġarr, Siġġiewi, Dingli, Żebbuġ - and across much of rural Gozo, including Għarb, Munxar and the outskirts of Xagħra.
Buying and renting
Farmhouses offer authentic character, large plots and strong appeal to foreign buyers, with restored properties commanding solid rental and holiday-let demand, particularly in Gozo. The trade-offs are renovation cost and complexity for older stone structures, and the ODZ constraints that strictly limit any future extension beyond the reconstruction exceptions above - a farmhouse generally can’t be extended the way a village-core terraced house could be.