Following my discussion about the Labour government’s proposed subsidies for first-time property buyers, and the alternative solutions to such a policy, it should be obvious that the first step forward in implementing this alternative should be to remove height construction limits in areas which are already highly developed and which are not part of the core historical towns and villages.
Places such as Sliema, Saint Paul’s Bay and suburban areas such as ฤฆamrun, Birkirkara and Santa Venera should have no height building limits on the condition that high-rises include a significant proportion of dwellings which are sold at affordable prices – even being capped by law. Property prices for lower level apartments can start at โฌ100,000 going up value to a couple of millions of Euros each for higher-level apartments – this is the equivalent of smart tower-buildings in many metropoli.
The mistake that was made by government policy is that high-rises have not been regulated in a framework of affordable-housing policy, leading to all the high-rises built being exclusively for rich buyers. This situation has also created a lot of unnecessary enmity by ordinary people with construction developers leading to an illogical, and ideological-driven, resistance by NGOs and environmentalists against high-rises.
Fears of overpopulation are also obfuscated due to the inefficiencies of a broken and decades-old infrastructure. We should not fear increasing our birth-rates and our population as long as we have efficient infrastructure and plenty of affordable housing units and this is very doable.
Removing height-planning restrictions will also give the government plenty of leverage over the construction lobby and the Malta Developers Association, allowing the government to take further control over its policy. The MDA has always simultaneously demanded less restrictions on height-planning while supporting the concept of no construction in ODZ areas. Removing height-construction limits, will also remove the need for the construction lobby to demand further planning restrictions in ODZ and other areas. The simple trade-off is that developers can build upwards while the government takes full and absolute control over planning on the ground, and introducing a pricing policy for towers that would enable an increased supply of affordable housing.
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