Bought in shell? We take it from bare walls to the day you turn the key — as your single prime contractor, using only CheckYourTraders-verified trades.
In Malta, buying a property in shell form is one of the smartest moves you can make — a lower purchase price and complete control over how the finished home looks. The catch is everything that comes next: coordinating a dozen trades, in the right order, to the right standard. That's exactly what we do. You get one contract, one invoice and one point of contact from the first survey to handover — and every trade on site is verified through CheckYourTraders.
A shell-form (or "shell") property is structurally complete but bare inside. You typically get the structure, slab, roof, external walls, windows and external doors — and little else: no flooring, no internal plastering or finishes, no kitchen, no bathrooms, and no electrics or plumbing beyond the rough-in. "Finishing" (or fitting out) the shell is the work of turning that bare structure into a move-in-ready home — the mechanical and electrical work, plastering, flooring and tiling, bathrooms, kitchen, internal doors, painting and final finishes. Because so many trades are involved, a shell finish is where projects most often run over budget and over time — usually through poor coordination rather than the work itself.
A typical shell finish runs through these stages, each handled by a verified specialist and sequenced by your project manager:
Finishing costs depend on the size of the property and the standard you're finishing to, but as a current guide for Malta:
These are indicative. The only way to get a real number for your property is the Shell-Form Calculator below, followed by a free on-site survey for a firm, itemised quote.
Set the size, property type and finish standard for an indicative all-in figure. Then book a free survey for a firm, itemised quote.
Indicative only — based on typical Malta shell-finish rates and not a quote. Your on-site survey produces a firm, itemised price.
Finishing the inside of a shell that already holds its development permit usually doesn't need a fresh Planning Authority permit. Where the project involves structural changes, an extension or facade work, a permit is required — and in Malta only a warranted perit (architect/civil engineer) registered with the Planning Authority can submit it. Your dedicated project manager coordinates the perit and the PA application so you don't have to navigate it yourself. Electrical, plumbing and structural work is always carried out by registered, CheckYourTraders-verified trades — both because it's the law and because uncertified work causes problems when you come to sell or rent. If the property sits in an Urban Conservation Area (UCA) or is heritage-listed, stricter rules apply; we confirm exactly what yours needs at survey.
Most shell finishes in Malta are run as a loose collection of separate trades — you chase the electrician, then the tiler, then the kitchen company, and when something's wrong they point at each other. We do it differently. As your prime contractor we plan the whole job, sequence every trade, and carry the accountability ourselves: one contract, one invoice, one named project manager from survey to handover. The trades come from Malta's largest verified network — 500+ CheckYourTraders-verified professionals — and payments are tied to completed, signed-off work. You deal with one team; we manage the specialists behind the scenes.
One survey, one firm quote, one team accountable from bare walls to handover.
Book a Free Survey →It opens like an app, and the budget calculator works without a signal.