Malta’s major social and economic issue is the housing crisis which is pricing out young people from the property market as property prices in Malta keep soaring. Both of the PN leadership candidates, Adrian Delia and Alex Borg have made comments on the housing crisis.
Adrian Delia is proposing a database of empty properties powered by AI. Supposedly this database will identify vacant properties which can be released to the market or made available to property buyers. You can read his proposals here. in his article Adrian Delia referred to a census which can be found here. Politicians should also stop adding the term “AI” to anything they propose because by now it’s just a buzzword
On the other hand, Alex Borg is proposing a set of measures similar to the ones already being issued by he Labour government and these include subsidising the property purchase of first-time buyers. You can find his proposals here.
None of them are proposing to address the housing crisis via planning and development solutions that address the housing stock. Empty buildings are not necessarily buildings that have been abandoned – many of these buildings are owned by private proprietors and the government can’t legally force these people to sell or rent out their property. In addition, further incentives will only keep raising housing prices, ultimately making the problem worse in the long-run.
No one in politics seems to be prepared to take decisive and strategic action with regard to the housing crisis, just like no one has ever had the courage to disrupt daily life and build a metro-line to alleviate long-term traffic problems.
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