Malta plans for property value index

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, financial institutions and ordinary people to determine a fair market value for a residential or commercial entity in a parti-cular locality.
Dr Said began his speech by explaining how the state’s “interventionist” policies by successive post-war administrations were always meant to be temporary.

But the ongoing permanency of these measures resulted in the “institutionalised misuse” of these social measures originally undertaken in extreme circumstances. “The right of a tenant to live in a rented property cannot be absolute or indefinite and it is the state’s obligation to alleviate impacts that arise from reasonable market conditions,” he said, recalling the government’s rent reform undertaken at the beginning of the legislature.

Source: The Times of Malta June 1, 2012