Malta Property Blog

Waste generation in 2010 increased by 48% compared to the previous year, mainly due to a sharp increase in construction waste, a Mepa Environmental Indicators report issued today shows.

The report says that construction and demolition waste had increased after having declined by 70% between 2008 and 2009. Municipal waste declined by 10 percentage point to 17.2% while hazardous waste declined from 4.8% to 2.5%.

Mepa chairman Austin Walker said the increase in construction waste stemmed from a spike in building permits in previous years. He said the amount of waste which was was being recycled had increased from 4% in 2009 to 7.7% in 2010.

The Environmental indicators also show that last year the number of permits issued for housing units declined from a high of 11,000 in 2007 to just 3,995 last year. Malta last year exceeded the EU standards on particulate matter in the air on a number of days, mainly in Msida, one of the areas having the heaviest traffic flows in Malta. However leve…

The Notarial Council is in the process of drafting a code of ethics for notaries after recent amendments in the notarial law established the duties of notaries that were never defined by law.
Minister for Fair Competition, Small Business and Consumers Jason Azzopardi earlier today presented warrants to 14 new notaries. He said that the amendments in the law ensure that European notaries who would like to practice in Malta must know how to write and speak Maltese as well as English. He said that in this way, Government safeguarded national interests.

Source: di-ve news

People taking out home loans will face tougher checks under new plans unveiled by Brussels.

The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee has approved proposals aimed at strengthening both the rights and obligations of consumers on mortgages.

According to these rules, those taking out a home loan will have to be scrutinised more closely to make sure they can repay their loans while banks and financial institutions will have to be clearer on the information they give to clients before lending them money.

The new rules also introduce a new cooling-off concept, where clients will be given a chance to change their mind.

The EU’s mortgage market is valued as €6 trillion or 52 per cent of the EU’s GDP. Malta’s banking sector is highly exposed to the mortgage market, which is estimated to make up the bulk of the island’s local banking business.

The aim of the new rules is to give consumers taking out mortgages greater protection. The main elements include a more efficien…

In the first quarter, the All-Property Price Index increased by 1.6 per cent. This primarily reflected a rise of 1.7 per cent in the apartments index, compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The maisonettes index went up by 6.0 per cent.

The All-Transactions Volume Index showed that the number of transactions in the first quarter of 2012 decreased by 6.7 per cent when compared to the corresponding period last year.

Read the full document published by the NSO (National Statistics Office - Malta) June 1, 2012, here.
Press the "Comments" link within the document, for same day related press coverage.

Family Minister Chris Said has set up a working group to propose a framework for a Market Property Value Index. This “transparent” mechanism would act as the national baseline to determine a fair market sale or rental value for any type of property in any particular area in Malta.

The working group will be made up of representatives from the Chamber of Architects, the College of Notaries, the GRTU, the Real Estate Association, the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and government entities. Dr Said made the announcement during a conference on Property Valuation Standards organised by the Chamber of Architects earlier this week.
“I am confident that salient work will be carried out in this regard and I look forward to the recommendations that will be presented,” he said.

He said discussions with banks and real estate agencies showed the increasing popularity of renting. But since the rental market was still in its infancy there was very little market intelligence for investors, financi…