EU citizens rights to rent out their property in Malta

Dr. Simon Busuttil MEP wrote in today's Times of Malta, primarily to answer Dr. Peter Caruana Galizia's 'The Hybrid Holiday Home' article which in turn was written following yet another write up by Dr. Busuttil.
The centre of the debate is Malta's accession negotiations with the EU where the acquisition of immovable property (AIP permit) issued to EU Citizens precluded them from renting out a holiday home they purchased here in malta, when absent from the island.

Dr. Busuttil's letter titled 'Renting out property' can be read by clicking here.

The Times of Malta also published two more property related letters today. One from yet another angry reader who writes in about the now infamous Mepa debacle in Xemxija. The letter titled 'MEPA weak with the strong' can be read here.

Another letter titled 'Proper consultations' targets the recent cabinet meetings in Parliament discussing the white paper on rent law reforms. The article can be read here.

The white paper mentioned is the first step in the liberation process for properties rented out before 1995, where tenants had an automatic right to inherit these properties, and where many landlords are still collecting a pittance in rent per annum yet unable to evict the tenants.

Malta's Green Party is also seeking to abbrogate these socially unjust rent laws by a referendum, wherin 30,000 signatures have to be collected.
The pressure is definitely on, and the question is not if the reform takes place, but when, given that the next general elections are in 2008 and there are more tenants then landlords if one is fishing for votes.

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