Home owners snap up €8m in restoration funds

A home restoration grant was closed today following overwhelming uptake from the public, Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri said today.

Addressing a press conference, Dr Schembri told reporters that the Irrestawra Darek scheme, launched back in January, had been met with more than 800 requests from home owners.
She said the entire €8 million allotted for the project had already been absorbed and the last few applications were being processed.
Although applications had come from all over the island, the highest concentration were for Grade 1 or 2 scheduled properties in Sliema. Żebbuġ and Valletta had also generated a lot of interest, she said.....

Read the full article on Times of Malta online edition March 27, 2017, here.

Scheme to regenerate village core buildings launched

First-time buyers of scheduled buildings will be given a 70 per cent rebate on restoration works, thanks to a scheme launched this morning.

The rebate, up to a maximum of €100,000, will cover facade and interior works, balconies, and even some forms of garden works.

First-time buyers of property in Urban Conservation Areas meanwhile will be eligible for a maximum rebate of €10,000.

The scheme, which will start on January 16, has an €18 million cap and is on a first-come first-served basis. Receipts must be provided.

The Irrestawra Darek scheme was launched by the Planning Authority this morning to help with the regeneration of Malta's village core areas. The scheme was first announced by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna in the last Budget.

The planning authority said it had reached an agreement with the Local Council Association to help councils provide residents with a conservation architect.

Times of Malta online article here.

Mysterious Għar Lapsi balcony is set in stone - No evidence to issue enforcement order, says PA

A close up of the concrete balcony captured by Planning Authority staff during a recent inspection.

A ‘mysterious’ concrete balcony protruding from the Għar Lapsi coastal cliffs enjoying unobstructed views of Filfla is there to stay, as according to the planning watchdog there is no “solid evidence” to issue an enforcement order.

Completely concealed from land, the structure is only visible from the sea. It was flagged a few weeks ago by environmentalist Alan Deidun, who posted a photo on his Facebook account.
While questioning the legality of what he sarcastically described as “a room with a view” he questioned if this was yet another audacious attempt to have a property in a privileged location.

A close up of the concrete balcony captured by Planning Authority staff during a recent inspection.
“Seems like constructions within cliffs themselves have become the next frontier,” he remarked.
Comments below Prof. Deidun’s post claimed that the ‘balcony’ was connected to nearby boathouses next to the Għar Lapsi public convenience.

This newspaper asked with the Planning Authority to verify if the structure was covered by a development permit and if an enforcement order had been ever issued.
In his reply, a PA spokesman noted that the options available were limited as the development might have been there for decades, possibly before 1967.  By law, structures build before this cut-off date which are visible on the 1967 aerial photos are considered legal, regardless of their location.

The ‘mysterious’ Għar Lapsi coastal cliff balcony as seen from a distance. Photo: Facebook

Read the full article on The Times of Malta (Published October 7, 2016)

Well-preserved 18th-century ruin, standing in isolation: The Devil’s Farmhouse in Malta

The Devil’s Farmhouse, also known in Maltese as “Ir-Razzett tax-Xitan”, and officially as “Ir-Razzett Tax-Xjaten” (“The Farmhouse of the Devils,” or “The Devils’ Farmhouse”), is an 18th-century farmhouse in Mellieha, Malta, built by the Order of St. John to be used as a horse stable. According to a national Maltese myth, however, the farmhouse was actually built by the devil, a tale from which it derives its historic name.

The whole complex of the farm

The building has a simple and modest vernacular architecture, with slit windows, that function as ventilators, and waterspouts. It has no inscriptions or symbols to provide further information about its use apart from some roman numbers (i.e. I, II, III) that were inscribed when it was converted to a farmhouse. These are found on the walls and woods, and record the sale of products....

Seen from L-Ghar ta’ Zamberat (Ta’ Zamberat’s Cave)

Read the full article on The Vintage News.

Paceville mega-projects will generate 2 million cubic metres of construction waste

Increase in construction activity to result in vast quantities of construction-waste which would increase pressure to use this material for land reclamation projects which will only be viable if more apartments are built on reclaimed sea.

The nine-mega developments in Paceville are expected to create between one and two million cubic metres of construction waste - more than the total amount of construction waste dumped in a single year.
The amount could increase further with the excavation of a tunnel proposed under regional road earmarked for after 2018.
Altogether, the nine Paceville developments included in the master plan will create 1.17 million square metres of new ground space set on different floors-which is nine times that of the combined Mriehel and Sliema towers approved by the Planning Authority in August.
The two projects - which have a combined gross floor area of 135,149 square metres - will together generate 276,115 cubic metres of excavation waste.
Although a direct comparison can’t be made due to variations in geology and parking requirements, a conservative estimate, confirmed by experts in the field, indicates that development in Paceville will generate around two million cubic metres of construction waste.
A report by the Environment Resources Authority described the amount of construction waste from the Sliema Townsquare project as a major impact, because the 109,215 cubic metres of construction waste from this project amounts to 7.7% of the annual amount of construction waste dumped in Malta.
With more high-rise developments - all of which require excavations for underground parkings - expected at Mriehel, Tigne, Qawra and Gzira the situation could reach unsustainable proportions. The situation would worsen further if a tunnel is developed connecting Malta to Gozo.
Sources in both the Planning Authority confirmed that the vast quantities of construction waste generated by these mega projects will increase political pressures for land reclamation projects like the ones being proposed in Portomaso in St Julian’s and Jerma in Marsascala.
Land reclamation using construction and demolition waste was already proposed as a solution in 2006 by the previous administration during a similar construction boom but a study conducted by British consultancy Scott Wilson concluded that this was not economically feasible due to large financial cost involved.

Land reclamation 

According to the report these costs can only be redeemed through large-scale real estate development in ecologically sensitive areas. In this way land reclamation would fuel even more construction activity.
Surprisingly this resource problem is completely overlooked in the master plan for Paceville which proposes nine sites for high rise developments in Paceville and a land reclamation project over 38,700 square metres of reclaimed land which will include buildings rising up to 15 floors.
The master plan simply states that excavation, construction and demolition wastes are disposed at 16 permitted spent quarries.
But a study commissioned by the Planning Authority in 2007 concluded that no space would be left for construction waste to be dumped in Malta’s disused quarries by 2020. Malta could have gained some more years because of a drastic decline in the amount of construction waste, from 1.3 million tons in 2008 to just 300,000 tonnes in 2009, may have given Malta more time.  But with construction activity booming again space in disused quarries may run out sooner.
Another option is to dump construction waste in the sea in a spoil ground located northeast of Valletta. A staggering 2.3 million cubic metres of construction waste was dumped in an offshore “spoil ground” located northeast of Valletta harbour between 2003 and 2010.  The environmental impacts of this operation are still being assessed.
But Malta’s waste management plan regards dumping-at-sea as a temporary solution to the problems associated with the disposal of large amounts of inert waste in Malta and recognized that this activity has to be phased out due to Malta’s international obligations.
Land reclamation itself - which is being proposed at Portomaso, could be in breach of EU environmental legislation protecting Posidonia meadows, a protected marine habitat.  Already in the 1990s the PA had fined Portomaso’s developers Lm50,000 (€120,000) for destroying Posidonia meadows following excavations for their yacht marina.
Divers in the area who have spoken to this newspaper confirmed that the ecology of the area is still recovering from the degradation suffered in the 1990s when Portomaso was developed.

Follow Original Article Link - MaltaToday, James Debono, 6th October 2016.

Housing Price Statistics - Malta (Q3 2015)

Malta recorded the highest quarterly increase in house prices in the EU (+6.2 per cent) in the third quarter of last year, according to Eurostat.
It was followed by Ireland (+4.5 per cent), Austria (+4.1 per cent), and Sweden and the United Kingdom (both +3.9 per cent).
The largest falls in the same quarter were recorded in Hungary (-5.9 per cent), Slovenia (-3.5 per cent) and Estonia (-1.9 per cent).
Overall, house prices rose by 2.3 per cent in the euro area and by 3.1 per cent in the EU when compared with the same quarter of 2014.


Above article link: Times of Malta
Source article link: Eurostat

The great rent revolution

One credit crunch, a low-tax regime, all served sunny-side up. How the property-proud Maltese went crazy for the rental market.

The property game used to mean pulling down townhouses and erecting five-storey apartment buildings. But things have changed at quite an unprecedented pace. From sites like AirBnB allowing hassle-free renting, to second properties being snapped up for rent by… “someone in the gaming business”, it’s no longer buy-to-sell any more: it’s buy-to-rent.

Just in August, the advertised property price index compiled by the Central Bank showed an increase of 6.7% in real house prices in 2014, the highest growth since 2005. It was the first time the property price index surpassed the pre-crisis peak reached in mid-2007.
But the big money-maker became the letting market. Home-owners climbing up the property ladder are holding on to their two-bedroom apartments, and their rental income pays the mortgage.

This is thanks to a combination of factors, driven partly by a surge in foreign labour attracted by the stability of the Maltese economy during the financial crisis, and the convergence of high-value service industries that have made Malta their base.

Read the original article by Matthew Vella, published 16th Sept 2015, here.

House prices in Malta up 11% - Eurostat

House prices in Malta rose by 11 per cent in the fourth quarter last year compared to the same period the previous year, according to the House Price Index. It was the second highest annual increase among the EU states for which data is available, the highest being recorded in Ireland (+16.3 per cent). Malta was followed by Sweden (10.4 per cent), Estonia (10.1 per cent) and the United Kingdom (10 per cent), and the largest fall was in Slovenia (-4.4 per cent), followed by Cyprus (-3.3 per cent), Latvia (-3.2 per cent) and Italy (-2.9 per cent).

The highest quarterly increases were recorded in Malta (4.6 per cent), Ireland (3.8 per cent), Slovakia (2.1 per cent) and Luxembourg (2 per cent), and the largest falls in Latvia (-10.2 per cent), Lithuania (-4.3 per cent) and Cyprus (-3 per cent). Over all, house prices in the fourth quarter rose by 1.1 per cent in the euro area and by 2.6 per cent in the EU compared with the same period the previous year. Compared with the previous quarter, house prices slightly decreased in the euro area (-0.1 per cent) and remained stable in the EU in the fourth quarter of 2014. The figures were published by Eurostat.

Source: The Times of Malta

Tax on rented residential properties in Malta reduced to 15%, backdated to Jan 1st. 2014

The tax charged on revenue from rented residential properties has been reduced from 35% to 15%.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the measure was announced in the last Budget and was being brought in now, backdated to January 1.

He said the measure was aimed at reducing tax evasion by encouraging landlords to declare the income they made form rented properties. It would also encourage more people to rent vacant dwellings. The tax would be collected as a withholding tax.

Prof Scicluna said that there would also be a one-time arrangement for people who wanted to regularise their position by declaring income from rents which was previously undeclared.
Such people would need to register their properties with the Inland Revenue Department, declare their income for the past eight years, and then pay two years worth of rent calculated at 15% on the weighted average of eight years.

He warned that people who did not regularise their position and were caught would be charged tax at 35% of their income plus interest and penalties.

The Times of Malta

Summer Break Time - The Street List

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and the Building Regulations Office within the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure notifies the public that in order to mitigate the nuisance of construction sites during the summer period - between the 15th June and the 30th September 2014, no demolition or excavation works will be allowed to be carried out in the following localities and streets.

Illegal excavation works and demolition can be reported by calling telephone number 2292 7608 (during office hours) or 9963 7508  (after office hours).

MALTA

B’BUGIA

TRIQ SAN PATRIZJU
TRIQ BAJJA SABIHA
MISRAH SUMMIT
DAWRET IL-QALB IMQADDSA

GZIRA

TRIQ IX-XATT
TRIQ SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
TRIQ SAN BERT (FROM TRIQ PARISIO UP TO TRIQ HENRY F. BOUVERIE)
TRIQ HENRY F. BOUVERIE (FROM TRIQ IX-XATT UP TO TRIQ SAN BERT)
TRIQ PARISIO (FROM TRIQ IX-XATT UP TO TRIQ SAN BERT)
TRIQ BELVEDERE (FROM TRIQ IX-XATT UP TO TRIQ IL-FLOTTA)
TRIQ PONSOMBY (FROM TRIQ IX-XATT UP TO TRIQ CAMERUN)
TRIQ IL-FLOTTA
TRIQ SIR WILLIAM REID

BIRGU

ALL STREETS EXCEPT:
TRIQ HILDA TABONE
TRIQ IL-MAJJISTRAL
TRIQ IT-TRAMUNTANA
TRIQ GLORMU CASSAR
TRIQ IL-LBIC
TRIQ NOFSINHAR
TRIQ PACIFIKU SCICLUNA
TRIQ IL-PALAZZ TA’ L-ISQOF
TRIQ L-ARCISQOF MIKIEL GONZI
TRIQ IT-TORRI TA’ SAN GWANN
TRIQ IL-KWARTIER
TRIQ ID-DEJQA
TRIQ IL-FOSS TAS-SUR
TRIQ DESAIN
TRIQ IL-KARDINAL FABRIZIO SCIBERRAS

ISLA

ALL STREETS IN ISLA

BORMLA 

ALL STRRETS EXCEPT:
TRIQ RIKKARDU TAYLOR
MISRAH GAVINO GULIA
TRIQ ALESANDRA

MARSASCALA

SQAQ NO. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10.
TRIQ PJAZZA DUN TARCIS AGIUS
TRIQ IL- GARDIEL
TRIQ MARINA
PJAZZA IL-BAĦĦARA
MIFSUD BONNICI
TRIQ SALINI
TRIQ SANT’ANNA
TRIQ SANT’ ANTNIN (FROM TRIQ IL-BUTTAR UP TO TRIQ IL-GARDIEL)
TRIQ SAN ĠORĠ
TRIQ ZONQOR
ZONQOR POINT
IŻ-ŻONA TA' SAN TUMAS
IŻ-ŻONA TAL-BAJJA TA' SAN TUMAS

MARSAXLOKK

TRIQ DUNCAN (FROM TRIQ SANTA KATERINA UP TO FISHERMAN’S WHARF)
FISHERMAN’S WHARF
TRIQ G. MANISCALCO (FROM SANTA KATERINA UP TO TRIQ WILGA)
TRIQ SANTA KATERINA
TRIQ SAN ĠUŻEPP (FROM TRIQ SANTA KATERINA UP TO FISHERMAN’S WHARF)
TRIQ WILGA (FROM FISHERMAN’S WHARF UP TO TRIQ ABDOSIR)
TRIQ IŻ-ŻEJTUN (FROM TRIQ SANTA KATERINA UP TO FISHERMAN’S WHARF)

MELLIEHA

TRIQ ADENAU
DAWRET IT-TUNNARA
TRIQ DUN BELIN AZZOPARDI
TRIQ GEORGE BORG OLIVIER
TRIQ GHERIEN (FROM TRIQ IS-SALINI L-QODMA UP TO MISRAH THOMAS SPRATT)
TRIQ INGRAW
TRIQ MAGRI
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
TRIQ IL-MARFA (FROM GORG BORG OLIVIER STREET UP TO TRIQ IL-QAMMIEH)
MISRAH IL-PARROCCA - MELLIEHA
TRIQ IL-PARROCCA  (FROM TRIQ-IL-QALB MQADDSA UP TO  MISRAH IL-PARROCCA)
TRIQ QAMMIEH
TRIQ IL-QARNIT
TRIQ SALVINU VELLA
TRIQ IL-QALB IMQADDSA (FROM MISRAĦ IL-PAROĊĊA UP TO TRIQ ĠORĠ BORG)
TRIQ IS-SAJJIEDA
TRIQ IT-TRILL
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
TRIQ DUN FRANGISK SCIBERRAS
IL-BAJJA TAL-MELLIEHA
IL-BAJJA TAL-ARMIER
IL-BAJJA TA' PARADISE
IŻ-ŻONA TA' GĦAJN TUFFIEĦA
GOLDEN BAY (RAMLA TAL-MIXQUQA)
IŻ-ŻONA TAL-MARFA
IĊ-CIRKEWWA

SELMUN, MELLIEĦA

SELMUN PALACE AREA

  MDINA
ALL STREETS/AREA IN MDINA

RABAT/MDINA/TA’ QALI

TRIQ IL-KATAKOMBI
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
MISRAH IL-MUSEUM
TRIQ IL-MUSEUM
MISRAĦ IL-PAROĊĊA
IS-SAQQAJJA
ST AUGUSTINE AVENUE
TRIQ SAN PAWL
TRIQ IL-KUNĊIŻŻJONI
TRIQ IR-REPPUBLIKA

TA’ QALI

ALL TA' QALI CRAFTS VILLAGE AREA

SLIEMA/TIGNE’

TRIQ L-ARMERIJA
BISAZZA LANE
TRIQ BISAZZA
TRIQ IL-KATIDRAL
TRIQ IL-KNISJA
TRIQ CRECHE  (UP TO DINGLI STREET)
TRIQ DINGLI
TRIQ DRAGUT
TRIQ DUN KARM PSAILA  (UP TO TRIQ SANTA MARGHERITA)
TRIQ DUN MIKIEL RUA
TIRQ IL-FAWWARA
TIRQ G. FAVA
TRIQ GHAR ID-DUD
TRIQ GHAR IL-LEMBI
TRIQ GINO MUSCAT AZZOPARDI
TRIQ GORG BORG OLIVIER
TRIQ GRAHAM
TRIQ GUZE HOWARD
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
TRIQ HUGHES HALLET
IL-PATRUNAT ALLEY
TRIQ KARM GALEA
TRIQ LOCKER
TRIQ LUZJU
TRIQ MANUEL DIMECH
TRIQ MATTHEW PULIS
TRIQ McIVER
TRIQ MILNER
TRIQ MRABAT
TRIQ NAZZARENU
TRIQ NICOLO ISOUARD (UP TO TRIQ DEPIRO)
TRIQ IL-KULLEĠĠ L-ANTIK
TRIQ PACE
QUI-SI-SANA SEAFRONT
TRIQ RUDOLF
TRIQ SACRO CUOR
TRIQ SAN GWANN BOSCO
TRIQ SAN PUBLIUS
TRIQ SANTA MARIJA
TRIQ SAVONA
TRIQ SIR A. MERCIECA
TRIQ SIR G BORG
TRIQSIR LUIGI CAMILLERI (UP TO TRIQ IL-VICTORJA)
PJAZZA SANT' ANNA
TRIQ SANT'ANTNIN
TRIQ SAN FRNAĠISK (UP TO TRIQ DEPIRO)
TRIQ SAN PIETRU
TRIQ STELLA MARIS
THE FERRIES
TRIQ THORNTON
TIGNE SEAFRONT
TRIQ TIGNE
TRIQ IT-TORRI
TRIQ VINCENT SCERRI
TRIQ ZIMMERMAN BARBARO
TRIQ ARTURO MERCIECA
WINDSOR TERRACE

ST. JULIAN’S

TRIQ BALL
PJAZZA BALLUTA
TRIQ IL-KNISJA
TRIQ DOBBIE
TRIQ SPINOLA
TRIQ ID-DRAGUNARA
TRIQ ELIA ZAMMIT
TRIQ GEORGE BORG OLIVIER
TRIQ GORT
TRIQ LOURDES
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
TRIQ IL-MENSIJA
TRIQ PACEVILLE AVENUE
TRIQ IL-QALIET S
TRIQ ROSS
TRIQ S. PRIVITERA
TRIQ SCHREIBER
SPINOLA BAY SEAFRONT AREA
PJAZZA SPINOLA (MISRAĦ IL-QALB IMQADDSA)
TRIQ ST AUGUSTINE
ST GEORGE’S LANE
ST GEORGE’S ROAD
ST GEORGE’S SEAFRONT
TRIQ SAN ĠUŻEPP
TRIQ SANTA RITA
TRIQ ST.ANDREW’S
TRIQ IL-WILGA
TRIQ PROFS WALTER GANADO
IT-TELGHA TA’SAN GILJAN
RAMPA TA’ SAN GILJAN
BAY LANE
TRIQ IL-BAJJA
TREJQET IL-BAJJA
TREJQET ID-DRAGONARA
WESGHET GEORGE PORTANIER
TRIQ ANGELO PULLICINO
TRIQ IL-BAJJA
TRIQ GDIDA FI TREJQET IL-BAJJA
TRIQ IL-KBIRA
TRIQ B’KARA
TELGHET B’KARA
TRIQ LAPSI
TRIQ WIED GHOMOR
TRIQ FORREST
TRIQ MENSIJA
TRIQ MUSCAT AZZOPARDI
TRIQ ALFRED GAUCI
TRIQ L V FARRUGIA

SWIEQI

TRIQ ST ANDREW’S (FROM TRIQ M. A. VASSALLI UP TO TRIQ L-IBRAG)
TRIQ IS-SIDRA
TRIQ IL-KEFFA
TRIQ L-IMGHAZEL
TRIQ IL-GWIELAQ
TRIQ L-GHARBIEL
TRIQ ID-DRIS
TRIQ A. M. CASSOLA
TRIQ IL-HEMEL
TRIQ IL-BRAMEL
TRIQ IL-KTAJJEN
TRIQ IS-SIRK
TRIQ IL-GEJZA
TRIQ IS-SWIEQI
TRIQ L-ILQUGH
TRIQ FUQ IL-GONNA
TRIQ L-GHOQOD
TRIQ IR-RONKUN
TRIQ IL-QATTA
TRIQ TA’ L-IBRAG
TRIQ IL-MARBAT

ST. PAUL’S BAY

DAWRET IL-GZEJJER
DAWRET IN-NAWFRAGJU
PLAJJET BOGNOR
RAS IL-QAWRA
SQAQ TAX-XAMA
TELGHET IX-XEMXIJA
TREJQET IL-KULPARA
TREJQET IL-LIXKA
TRIQ ALOFJU WIGNACOURT
TRIQ ANANIJA
TRIQ ANDREW CUNNINGHAM
TRIQ ANNETTO CARUANA
TRIQ BARNABA
TRIQ BARNABA
TRIQ BORDINO
TRIQ BUGIBBA
TRIQ CARMELO DE LUCCA
TRIQ CASSARINO
TRIQ CENSU TANTI
TRIQ DAMASKU
TRIQ DOMENICO DE NIZZA
TRIQ EFESU
TRIQ GARCIA DE TOLEDO
TRIQ GHAWDEX
TRIQ GIUSEPPE DESPOTT
TRIQ GULJU
TRIQ HORATIO NELSON
TRIQ IC-CAGHAQ
TRIQ IC-CERN
TRIQ ID-DOLMEN
TRIQ IL-BAHHARA
TRIQ IL-BAJJA
TRIQ IL-BEKKUN
TRIQ IL-FEKRUNA
TRIQ IL-FLIEGU
TRIQ IL-FREJGATINA
TRIQ IL-FUGASS
TRIQ IL-GANDOFFLI
TRIQ IL-GHABEX
TRIQ IL-GIFEN
TRIQ IL-GLIEBA
TRIQ IL-GWIEBI
TRIQ IL-HADDIELA
TRIQ IL-HALEL
TRIQ IL-HAMSA W GHOXRIN TA JANNAR
TRIQ IL-HARIFA
TRIQ IL-HATAB
TRIQ IL-HGEJJEG
TRIQ IL-KAHLI
TRIQ IL-KAVALLI
TRIQ IL-KAVETTA
TRIQ IL-KLAMARI
TRIQ IL-KONVENTWALI
TRIQ IL-KONVERZJONI
TRIQ IL-KONVERZJONI
TRIQ IL-KONZ
TRIQ IL-KORP TAL-PIJUNIERI
TRIQ IL-KURAZZA
TRIQ IL-LACCI
TRIQ IL-LAMPUKI
TRIQ IL-LUZZU
TRIQ IL-MAJJIERA
TRIQ IL-MASKLI
TRIQ IL-MAZOLA
TRIQ IL-MELH
TRIQ IL-MERLUZZ
TRIQ IL-MISTRA
TRIQ IL-MISTRIEH
TRIQ IL-MOSTA
TRIQ IL-MULETT
TRIQ IL-PAGELL
TRIQ IL-PAPA PAWLU V
TRIQ IL-PORJUNKULA
TRIQ IL-PORT RUMAN
TRIQ IL-PWALES
TRIQ IL-QALA
TRIQ IL-QALB TA' GESU
TRIQ IL-QARNIT
TRIQ IL-QAWRA
TRIQ IL-QROLL
TRIQ IL-VILLEGJATURA
TRIQ IL-WILEG
TRIQ IN-NAKKRI
TRIQ IR-RAMEL
TRIQ IR-REBBIEGHA
TRIQ IR-RIZZI
TRIQ IS-SAJF
TRIQ IS-SAJJIED
TRIQ IS-SIMAR
TRIQ IT-TAFAL
TRIQ IT-TAMAR
TRIQ IT-TARTARUN
TRIQ IT-TEMPESTA
TRIQ IT-TORRI
TRIQ IT-TRILL
TRIQ IT-TRUNCIERA
TRIQ IT-TURISTI
TRIQ IX-XITWA
TRIQ IX-XOLFA
TRIQ IZ-ZERNIEQ
TRIQ J. QUINTINUS
TRIQ JAMES SMITH
TRIQ L-ALKA
TRIQ L-ANKRI
TRIQ L-ARTIKLI
TRIQ L-ARZELL
TRIQ L-ARZNELL
TRIQ LASCARIS
TRIQ L-ERBA' MWIEZEB
TRIQ L-GHAXRA TA' FRAR
TRIQ L-IBHRA
TRIQ L-IMHAR
TRIQ L-IMREJKBA
TRIQ L-IMSELL
TRIQ L-ISKUNA
TRIQ L-ISPONOZ
TRIQ L-ISTAMNAR
TRIQ L-ISTURJUN
TRIQ MARKIZA BUGEJA
TRIQ MONS. ALFREDO MIFSUD
TRIQ NICOLA ARDOINO
TRIQ PADERBORN
TRIQ PARADES
TRIQ PATRI FELIC SAMMUT
TRIQ RADDET IR-ROTI
TRIQ RUGGERO LORIA
TRIQ SALVATORE BORG
TRIQ SAN GLORMU
TRIQ SAN GORG
TRIQ SAN GUZEPP
TRIQ SAN GWANN BATTISTA
TRIQ SAN LUQA
TRIQ SAN MASSIMILJANU KOLBE
TRIQ SAN PAWL
TRIQ SAN PAWL IL-BAHAR
TRIQ SAN TIMOTJU
TRIQ SAN XMUN
TRIQ SANT' ANTNIN
TRIQ SANT' ARISTARKUS
TRIQ SANTA MARIJA
TRIQ SIR LUIGI PREZIOSI
TRIQ TA' NAWCIERA
TRIQ TA' ZANDU
TRIQ TAL-BILBEL
TRIQ TONI BAJADA
WESGHA KENNIJA

QRENDI/WIED IŻ-ŻURRIEQ

ALL AREAS IN WIED IZ-ZURRIEQ

VALLETTA

ALL STREETS EXCEPT:
CITY GATE BUS TERMINUS (VJAL RE DWARDU AND VJAL NELSON)
MISRAH IL-HELSIEN
TRIQ PAPA PIJU V
TRIQ L-ORDINANZA (FROM MINN TRIQ IL-REPUBLIKA UP TO TRIQ IL-FRAN)
SANT ‘IERMU
TRIQ MIKIEL ANTON VASSALLI (FROM TRIQ NOFSINHAR UP TO TRIQ MELITA)
TRIQ IT-TEZORERIJA
PJAZZA CASTILJA
IL-FOSS TAL-BELT (FROM TRIQ L-ASSEDJU IL-KBIR UP TO STOCK EXCHANGE)

FLORIANA

TRIQ PINTO
TRIQ IL VITTMI FURJANIZI TAL-GWERRA
XATT L-GHASSARA TAL-GHENEB
TRIQ VINCENZO DIMECH
TRIQ L ASSEDJU L-KBIR (FLORIANA)
TRIQ IL-MALL

COMINO

ALL COMINO

GOZO

GHAJNSIELEM

TRIQ SANT ANTNIN
TRIQ IL-HAMRI

MARSALFORN, ŻEBBUĠ

ALL STREETS/AREAS IN MARSALFORN

MGARR, GOZO

MGARR WHARF
TRIQ MARTINO GARCES
TRIQ MARINA
TRIQ DE VILHENA
TRIQ SANT ANTNIN (FROM TRIQ L-IMĠARR UP TO TRIQ IŻ-ŻEWWIEQA)
TRIQ IR-REBHA
TRIQ MANUEL VILHENA
TRIQ IX-XATT
TRIQ LOURDES
TRIQ IL-HAMRI
TRIQ IZ-ZEWWIEQA
TRIQ L-IMGARR

  RAMLA L-ĦAMRA, XAGĦRA

SAN LAWRENZ

A TAD-DWEJRA
TRIQ IL-ĠEBLA TAL-ĠENERAL (FROM IT-TORRI TAL-ĠEBLA TAL-GENERAL UP TO THE SEA)

VICTORIA, GOZO 

TRIQ DUN KARL BONDI
MISRAH SAN FRANĠISK
TRIQ IL-KASTELL
MISRAĦ SAN ĠORĠ
TRIQ TAHT PUTIRJAL
TRIQ KARLU GALEA
TRIQ UNIVERSITAS
TRIQ IL-KUNSILL CIVIKU

XAGHRA

TRIQ GEBLA TAS-SANSUN
TRIQ GNIEN IMRIK
TRIQ GUZEPPI BAJADA

XLENDI, MUNXAR

ALL STREETS/AREAS IN XLENDI

The Malta Tourism Authority reserves the right to change amend this list as it deems necessary.

15% flat tax rate introduced on residential lets in Malta.

The Government has decided to introduce a flat tax rate of 15 per cent on the rent of residential properties, deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech said this morning....

Currently, the rent tax rate can go up to 35 per cent and has resulted in rampant tax evasion. Mr Grech said he expected more people to declare their rental income following this change, which would include harsher penalties for those who fail to declare their income.....

Read the full article on The Times of Malta online here.

New Malta residence scheme for foreigners launched - thresholds drastically reduced - timesofmalta.com

New residence scheme for foreigners launched - thresholds drastically reduced - timesofmalta.com

A new residence scheme for foreigners was launched this morning, replacing the foreign residents' scheme which was controversially suspended in 2011.

Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis said the Global Residence Programme, as the new scheme is called, will allow people who buy high value property and pay taxes in Malta to benefit from a residence permit.
The previous scheme was suspended and initially replaced by the High Net Worth Individuals Scheme which did not prove popular because the minimum value of purchased property had been raised from €116,000 to €400,000.

Under the Global Residence Programme, the value of immovable property bought in Malta by foreigners has to be at least €275,000. However, when the property is in the south of Malta or in Gozo, the minimum value can be €220,000.........

Budget 2013 to address tourism / self catering licensing issues

The next Budget will address the current licensing system that is being bypassed by many self-catering accommodation spots in Gozo, putting those acting in line with the law at a disadvantage, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said this morning. The minister was speaking during a pre-budget consultation business breakfast at the Kempinski Hotel in San Lawrenz.

Read the full article on The Times of Malta online, here.

Less bureaucracy in Trade Licence and MEPA requirements, for new businesses in Malta

People opening a new business which is not health or food related will no longer have to apply for a licence with the Trade Department following changes to the licensing process aimed to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency.

The changes were announced this morning by Small Businesses Minister Jason Azzopardi. The minister said that after obtaining the Mepa permit, a business owner would only have to notify the Trade Department that he was about to start the new commercial activity.

The businessman could do this up to 30 days after embarking on the new operation. The minister said he estimated that around 80 per cent of new commercial activities would benefit from this simplification.

Another new rule aimed to reduce bureaucracy is that when a new commercial activity is embarked upon, one would not have to submit copies of the Mepa certificates and floor plans but just the number of the Mepa permit.

The minister said that through these changes, the government was showing that it cared for the sector and was committed to offer Maltese and Gozitan businesses the best. Other measures included reductions in the cost of several licenses. The Trade Director was also being given the power to cancel licences which would have remained unpaid for four consecutive years.


Source: The Times of Malta online, Oct 12, 2012

High-end apartments fuel property price increases - CBM quarterly review

Property prices in the first three months of this year rose by 5.5% on a year earlier, the Central Bank has found, on the basis of its survey of advertised prices. Prices also rose by 6.1% in the previous quarter.
The increase in the overall property price index over its year-ago level was primarily a result of developments in the market for apartments, the bank said. Apartments saw an annual increase of 8.7%. The main reason behind this relatively strong growth was the increased number of advertised upmarket properties in high value areas compared with previous years.

During the first quarter of 2012, asking prices in the “other” category, which consists of townhouses, houses of character and villas rose by 4.1%. This increase was largely a result of higher asking prices for houses of character. Prices of villas and townhouses also increased; however, their impact on the headline rate was more contained.
On the other hand, asking prices for maisonettes were marginally down over their year-ago level while prices for terraced houses dropped at an annual rate of 8.5%. With regard to the latter, given the small number of terraced houses in the Bank’s sample, this development had a limited downward impact on the overall property price index.

The bank said the number of advertised properties captured in the Bank’s survey contracted by 3.1% on a year earlier in the first quarter of 2012, compared with a 7.0% decline in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued by Mepa also continued to decrease, going down by 16.5% year-on-year in the March quarter, following a drop of 17.6% in the previous quarter.
In absolute terms, this was mostly due to a lower number of permits issued for apartments although development permits for maisonettes and the “other category” also registered drops.

In contrast, development permits for terraced houses increased. Residential property prices based on the NSO Property Price Index, which had fallen by 1.4% in 2011, rose by 1.6% year-on-year in the March quarter of 2012. The increase in the latter reflected a 1.7% rise in the prices of apartments and a 6.0% rise in those of maisonettes. On the other hand, NSO data also show that, after they had risen by 7.0% during 2011, the number of sale contracts dropped at an annual rate of 6.7% in the first quarter of 2012.

Source - The Times of Malta online

Also view "CBM lowers growth projections, additional measures may be needed to achieve deficit targets" - The Times of Malta Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 11:08

Interest-subsidy scheme for first-time buyers purchasing from private sector in Malta

The government has announced a limited one-year interest subsidy scheme for first time buyers wishing to purchase a house from the private sector. The scheme was announced by Justice Minister Chris Said and will be open for the first 300 applications.

They will benefit from an interest subsidy of up to 2.5% on borrowing from the banks of up to €80,000. The savings could reach €14,500. Dr Said said the subsidy would be given for a period of between eight and ten years. The scheme would be administered by the Housing Authority.

Source: The Times of Malta online

LN to enable property owners in Malta to regularise in accordance with sanitary law.

A legal notice to enable owners of dwellings who have an existing structure, which is not in accordance with sanitary law, to regularise their position against an administrative fee will come into affect on August 1. The legal notice covers the size of internal and back yards, floor to ceiling height and rooms built in the backyard. These concessions only apply to development built before the coming into force of these new measures, on August 1.

If the size of the internal or backyard was not constructed according to sanitary regulations, the concession will be permitted as long as the length of any side is up to 65 per cent of that required by law and the overall area of the yard is more than 65 per cent of what was originally approved.

If the length of any side is between 60 and 65 per cent and the overall area is within that range, the plans of the dwellings could be considered acceptable subject to an engineer report stating that the rooms had adequate lighting and ventilation. These new regulations do not apply to commercial buildings. Internal or back yard less than half the size of what they should have been will not be accepted as they posed a public health risk.

Details of this new legal notice were given this morning by the director of Public Health Ray Busuttil, who is also the chairman of the General Services Board, which in the past two to three years saw a steep increase in requests for sanctioning due to these non-conformities.

The legal notice will give Mepa the power to sanction without the need for applicants to go to the General Services Board. With regard to floor to ceiling height, which should be 2.75 metres, the board was seeing a lot of applications with a height of 2.6 metres. This was due to smaller stone slabs and 2.6 metres was established as the threshold for the height limitation. If the floor to ceiling height was between 2.4 and 2.6 metres, an engineer's report was needed.

As regards rooms in backyard, these could not occupy more than 35 per cent of the area of the actual backyard and could not be more than 10 courses high. To apply one will have to get a specific form, available from Mepa, and have it filled in by an architect who also has to declare that it was a pre-August 1 building. An administration fee which has not yet been established will be charged Dr Busuttil noted that most of the buildings affected were apartment blocks or small houses built between the 70s and the 90s.

Mepa director of enforcement at Alex Borg explained that the measures were in reaction to the social realities of a number of families who ended up with a property which could not be modified or supplied with water and electricity meters due to the size of the yard.

These yards were often only slightly smaller than permitted and often served an entire block of apartment over which not all effected parties had control.

Source: Times of Malta online July 13, 2012

Environmental Indicators show sharp increase in construction waste

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 levels of sulphur dioxide and benzine both decreased.

The report's results were announced by Environment Minister Mario de Marco, who said that the replacement of the bus fleet would have a positive effect on air quality, but Malta still had the oldest average car age in the EU at 13.6 years. Malta, he said, needed to encourage car pooling, and he called on local councils to also create traffic free zones, particularly in village cores. The reports says that government spending on the environment had risen by 30% from 2009 to reach €130m.

Electricity generation rose by 2.6% in 2011. Marguerite Camilleri, Unit manager, policy coordinator at Mepa said the area of land designated as special protection area had in 2011 increased by 10.8 square kilometres compared to 2010.

Dr de Marco said such indicators were important in the context of the people's right to access for environmental information, which was reaffirmed in last week's UN conference on sustainable development.

Touching briefly on the importance of maintaining the coastal environment, he said that this was why the government could not say that land reclamation was one of the ways forward. He asked whether there was a massive demand for land which would justify the need for land reclamation, which could devastate coastal habitats?

Source: Times of Malta online June 27, 2012

Code of ethics for Maltese notaries being drawn up

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

Tougher checks on home loans - "Banks will bear costs"

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 efficient assessment of the borrowers’ credit worthiness so that only those who can repay the loan would get one. This will also reduce the banks’ potential losses while imprudent borrowers are spared bankruptcy. For the first time, prospective home owners would be entitled to a 14-day cool-off period so that they can change their mind about taking out a mortgage without giving any reason.

The cost of early repayments and risks of foreign-currency loans should be borne by banks, although the proposals specify that “fair and objectively justified” compensation for lenders must still be available.

The rules are expected to be adopted by the EP’s plenary session before endorsement by member states.

Source: The Times of Malta, June 13, 2012

Malta Property Price Index and Property Volume Index: Q1/2012

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.

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

Brits want out of Europe's crisis-hit countries says HiFX

British buyers are looking to offload their property in Europe’s crisis-hit countries according to new data from forex firm HiFX.

 Its research revealed that 39% of Brits wish to sell up in Greece, while 34% in Spain and 23% in Portugal plan to do the same.

Mark Bodega, marketing director at HiFX, said: "As many European governments tackle their deficits, second-home owners, especially those based overseas, have become easy targets for tax increases and as a result many are selling up and returning their assets to the UK."

Knight Frank’s head of international residential development James Price added that U.K. buyers are now looking for long-term security rather than short-term success. "What people are looking at now is the security of their asset in the long term," he said.

Source: OPP Connect 29th. May 2012

Urban Conservation rental properties to benefit from reduced Government taxes

The government in the next few weeks will announce a scheme of reduced tax where properties in urban conservation areas are rented out, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said today. He was speaking as the government launched a scheme whereby heirs can transfer their share of properties in urban conservation areas to one heir who would be responsible for their restoration. In so doing the heirs would be exempted from the 5% duty on the transfer of the property.

The scheme, originally announced in the Budget, is the second phase of another scheme where the government is issuing rebates of up to 20% on the cost to restore grade I and grade II scheduled properties in urban conservation areas. That scheme had attracted 800 requests for information, but so far only 95 applications have been submitted. Details of the new scheme were announced by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and Environment Minister Mario de Marco.

The new scheme applies only to 2012 and 2013. Dr de Marco said the new scheme should lead to the restoration and use of properties which have been vacant because of problems between the heirs. He said that in the next few weeks the government will also announce a scheme to encourage the use of the use of these old vacant buildings for residential or commercial purposes.

Mr Fenech, giving a pre-view, said that when such properties were rented out, rather than paying tax at 35%, landlords would pay 15% if rented out for commercial use and 10% if rented for residential use. Dr de Marco said these schemes were giving the construction sector a focus, so that instead of building on virgin land or demolishing old buildings, the developers restored old buildings and put them to use.

Source: The Times of Malta online

Malta Developers Association warns defaulting property developers

The Malta Developers Association has warned its members it would publish the names of developers who failed to honour commitments with clients unless the situation was rectified.

In a statement the association said it had received a number of complaints from people who bought apartments with the condition that the developer had to finish the common parts in an indicated time frame and subsequently this work was not carried out.

In some cases buyers completed the finishing works inside the flat but their property could not be used since the developer failed to honour his commitments.

“MDA feels that this conduct is a breach of its members’ code of ethics, shows lack of seriousness and gives a bad name to all developers.

“The association is striving as much as it can to ensure that its members act in a serious and professional way, and is not going to tolerate those who, through such conduct, give a bad impression on all developers in general.”

It warned developers that, if these circumstances persisted, it would have no option but to publish the names of the said developers so that the public and those intending to purchase a property would be informed of their misconduct.

Source: Times of Malta online, 19th May 2012

Treasure Island? - Malta feature on OPP magazine

The Overseas Property Professional magazine's May 2012 edition, features a special report on Malta.
The magazine can be read online here:
http://content.yudu.com/A1wptp/OPPMay12/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=

MEPA rejects Portomaso extension through Chairman's casting vote

A controversial extension to Portomaso was turned down by the Mepa board this afternoon after chairman Austin Walker used his casting vote.

The board members were tied with six votes in favour and six against after a four-hour debate held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre before a crowd of some 100 people.
The discussion revolved mainly around a clause in the previous Portomaso permit which stated that no further extension or development could be carried out in the area.
However, the legal representatives and the architects of the Fenech family, who want to develop the land, argued that the local plan approved 10 years later included this particular site as suitable for development.

A number of NGOs and neighbouring residents insisted that the permit condition was very clear and could not be superseded.
Various environmental concerns were also raised.
Mr Walker criticised the decision to include the condition in the first permit precluding further development saying that the hands of future board members should not be tied down in this way. He also expressed concerns about over-development and about enforcement orders not having been acted upon yet.

The proposed development was to have consisted of 46 apartments with a total floor-space areas of 6,710m², a sea water Lagoon with an area of 2,850m², 26 parking spaces plus  60 spaces within existing Portomaso carpark.

The site in question, covering approximately 7,543m² falls  between a centuries-old coastal entrenchment wall and the sea. It falls within the Portomaso complex and overlooks the shore. The Hotel Cavallieri at its South, the Portomaso Yacht Marina at its North and a wing of the existing Portomaso apartments at its West.

The site is at the end of Spinola Road in St. Julian’s and accessible through it. The new building will be at a lower level than the existing Portomaso apartments.

At the lower end of the site, in the vicinity of the yacht marina quay, there is an existing service tunnel leading to the Portomaso car-park.

Source: The Times of Malta

"MEPA's strategy flawed" - Malta Developers Association

The Malta Developers’ Association believes the planning authority’s Strategic Plan for Environment and Development is flawed as it is not based on “hard facts”.

The paper refers to the serious issue of vacant properties as a guess estimate

Submitting its feedback on the proposed plan (SPED), the association said this should have been finalised for consultation after the national census results were made public.

It said launching the strategic plan before the results of the census was contradictory.

“One cannot define proper objectives as the draft document sets out to do without first scrutinising the current situation,” the MDA said.

“The examination of the current situation is therefore flawed as it is not based on hard facts because these are not yet in hand.”

Martin Scicluna, director general of The Today Public Policy Institute, called the plan flawed in his Talking Point in The Times on Tuesday.

The SPED proposals had one major deficiency in that they took scant account of Malta’s abysmal planning history of the past five decades.

If it were to inject reality into the future planning system, the draft had to be radically amended, he said.

The developers criticised the short time window allotted for feedback and finalisation of the document. Such an important document merited more discussion, they said.

The association said that the issue of vacant properties was one of the more serious issues that the document referred to a “guess estimate”.

The actual property situation and the demand and supply equation needed scientifically researching before setting out planning objectives in this area, it added. “Anything else is just guesswork.”

It said Malta Environment and Planning Authority did not solve problems resulting from the published, approved local plans and kept refusing development permits.

“Hurrying SPED to solve this problem will lead to more mistakes and the local plans issues should be tackled as a priority,” the association said.

It said the draft SPED objectives failed to highlight Gozo’s shrinking economy and effective resident population.

There was no mention of a permanent link between the islands, even though the Cabinet that approved the document had also approved using EU funds for studies about it.

Source: The Times of Malta

'Discerned' market value of properties, resulting in higher tax claims on purchased property - Malta Developers Association

Malta Developers Association: Government refusing to acknowledge fall in property prices.
MaltaToday Wed 18, 2012 - Duncan Barry

The president of the Malta Developers Association has claimed government-appointed architects are being "guided" by the Inland Revenue Department on the 'discerned' market value of properties, resulting in higher tax claims on purchased property.

Michael Falzon, a former Nationalist minister, has suggested that buyers and vendors who find bargain properties in the current dampened market are being taxed on the difference between the bargain price and the discerned market price.

"Although government officially says the Inland Revenue does not instruct these architects about valuations, I know for a fact that the department unofficially gives them guidelines on how much the discerned market value of, say a garage or a flat, should be...

"It is as if one buys a suit from a sale, and the customer is expected to pay VAT on the original price of the suit and not the reduced price," Falzon said.

The valuation by government architects is carried out when Inland Revenue have reason to believe that the declared price on a contract does not reflect the market value. Falzon contends that market value is "a subjective matter" and accused government architects of not realistically lowering their bearings consonantly with the lowering of prices.

"It's no use saying the market value of something is x-amount of euros when there is nobody prepared to buy it at that price.

"If the market price is more than 15% over the declared price, the purchaser is asked to pay stamp duty on the difference, and a fine, and eventually the purchaser can also be asked to pay 12% on this difference."

The MDA is leading a public offensive on the high 12% final withholding tax on property sales, claiming the rate does not reflect the state of property values in Malta's current state of dampened prices.

Property in Malta is taxed either at 35% on profit, or 12% on the final value of the sale. The 12% system was introduced by government in a bid to appease vendors who were tempted to under-declare the sale price on contract due to the 35% tax on profits - but that was when the cost of land and property in Malta were appreciating heftily, practically every day.

"So the 12% tax was introduced. Vendors paid 12% on the selling price with not questions asked about the actual costs. The system included a time-window of five years - later increased to seven - during which one could either pay the 12% tax or opt for the old capital gains tax," Falzon said.

After seven years, property sales are taxed on 12%.

But now he says the problem is that property has not been appreciating at the sort of rate that led to the adoption of the system.

"Today 12% on the sale price could, in certain cases, represent more than the actual profit made in the deal. Developers hard-pressed by the banks to liquidate their assets cannot sell at a reduced price - at little or no profit - because that would mean severe losses."

Falzon says that developers should have the choice to opt for the old system, where only real profit is taxed.

"The situation would be different. In this case, the system is now becoming an obstacle for the lowering of prices."

New scheme to encourage use of old buildings

The government is to announce a scheme, including tax incentives, aimed at encouraging people to put unused building to use, Tourism and Environment Minister Mario de Marco said today.

Speaking on TVAM, Dr de Marco said one of the major reasons why buildings remained unused was the fact that they were inherited by a number of people and no decision was therefore taken on its use. Under the scheme, people who inherited such buildings would be encouraged to decide on assigning responsibility for the use of the building to one person. Tax incentives would be given on the building.

It was also being proposed, Dr de Marco said, that incentives would be offered for the use of large, old buildings. Such buildings, he said, were today unsuited for use as residences but they could be used as offices or, say, boutique hotels. The incentives would apply where such old buildings are reused for purposes which are compatible with residential areas.

The scheme is expected to be published in the coming days.

Source: The Times of Malta

Mistra Heights' land to be auctioned, valued at €5.6 million

The land in Xemxija that was to be the site for the massive Mistra Heights apartment complex will go under the hammer, after Ausrtian bank Bawag called in a €42 million loan against developers JPM Brothers.

The land has been valued at €5.6 million and covers a total area of 3,215 square metres.

The land will be sold by court auction in the Valletta law courts.

Unprecedented in Maltese banking history for the value involved, the €42 million loan was signed between Bawag and Gemxija Crown Ltd, the developers of Mistra Heights: 868 residential units in tower blocks of up to 11 storeys high on the site of the former Corinthia Mistra Village, in Xemxija.

Gemxija is jointly owned by a subsidiary of Kuwaiti real estate giant Al Massaleh, and JPM Brothers.

Massaleh's chairman Najeb al Saleh is also a shareholder in investment bank Fimbank, and is currently in talks to sell Massaleh's 38.8% share to Burgan Bank.

Works at Mistra were already at a standstill in 2009, when JPM owners Jeffrey and Peter Montebello were carrying out renovation works on finance minister Tonio Fenech's villa in Balzan. When their sub-contractor complained about not being paid for works, he revealed to MaltaToday how Peter Montebello had told him the works were "a favour" for the minister to broke the sale - that never materialised - of the Jerma hotel in Marsaskala to entrepreneurs George Fenech and Joe Gasan.

It is not yet clear whether Massaleh will continue the development. In the meantime, the Montebellos also managed to divest themselves of the Belmonte Heights apartment complex on Depiro Street, Sliema, but are still stuck with the Jerma Palace Hotel.

The latter was purchased from Libyan-owned Lafico, for eventual conversion into high-end apartments. But a change in planning policy at MEPA prohibited the conversion of hotels into real estate, denting the Montebellos' prospects of developing the property.

MaltaToday then revealed how in summer 2009 the Prime Minister had discussed plans by magnates George Fenech and Joe Gasan to transform the Jerma into a potential 'Portomaso of the south'.

In both the Jerma and the Mistra sales, Labour MP Charles Mangion was the notary for JPM Brothers. Stephen McCarthy, chairman of Union Print, had acted as the Montebello's representative in the sale and was formerly a director of Gemxija Crown.

Source: MaltaToday April 10, 2012

Government to cover 15.25% of expenses on installations of roof insulation and double glazing.

A scheme to encourage roof insulation and double glazing has been launched.

Resources Minister George Pullicino said that everyone installing roof insulation or double glazing between now and the end of the year would be given assistance of up to 15.25 per cent of the expense up to a maximum of 1,000 euros.

One could apply for the scheme through a form obtainable from the Malta Resources Authority. The government is investing 400,000 in the scheme.
The minister launched the scheme during a visit to a glass factory at Mriehel.

Source: Timesofmalta.com

Letter to The Times of Malta - Insight into the property market

Letter to The Times of Malta, from Francis Raeymaekers, Mellieħa.
Date of publication: March 28, 2012

I refer to the editorial Mixed Messages From The Property Industry (March 21) and as a director of one of Malta’s few property search companies would like to make some observations.

The Maltese construction sector is in the doldrums for two significant reasons: lack of funds and greed. Greed as typified by substandard construction where corners are systematically cut in the quest for ever greater “paper” profits. Some glitzy developments built with no or little ventilation, window fixtures installed with foam guns, and so on and so forth. Greed, as typified by overdeveloping developments, constantly adding to the current stock by clever manipulation and re-application of planning permissions. All impact the resaleability of the developments, creating substantial overhang and despair for owners who made the error of buying in the first place. The word gets out and funding dries up. The banks know first, as it is usually their clients who are caught in negative equity situations. After the banks, the public soon gets hold of the facts. Malta is small enough to always know a friend who has a friend who… The buyers become aware.

With regard to oversupply, this is both correct and false at the same time. There is a vast oversupply of small utilitarian apartments that few would ever want. Granting planning permissions without consideration to parking issues is not an accident waiting to happen, it has already happened.

Malta is blessed with a population who are all property experts, from the President down to the baker’s apprentice. How one would attempt to regulate this is difficult to say. Perhaps insisting, as the Knights of old used to, on a start and completion date for each application or introducing a “windowless” tax on incomplete projects might mitigate the number of partially built concrete and stone carbuncles that litter the island. Perhaps another idea might be to impose solar water and power installation on any new build or redevelopment. While this might add to the individual cost, so restricting numbers beneficially, it would also be of great value to this energy-dependent island and its economy as a whole.

Strangely the oversupply of utilitarian property is matched by a shortage of saleable property that is well built and in good, desirable locations. We often tell our overseas clients that there are less than 500 properties worth buying on the whole island, in all categories, from palazzos to studios. Of course, worth means different things to all. It can mean a roof over a head after a hard day’s work, a place to bring up a family, somewhere to retire to, a holiday home or even an investment. The last three are usually relevant to overseas clients.
Overseas clients are often told there are less than 500 properties worth buying on the whole island

The issue of valuation is another difficulty. The current statistics based on advertised prices are worthless. It should not be beyond Maltese sophistication to produce figures from actual transactions based on figures that the government already has in its possession. How else do they collect stamp duty? The seas around Malta have become much cleaner and clearer in the last 10 years but government administration and state bureaucracy remain stubbornly opaque. This may have worked well in the past but is no way to run a modern 21st century EU state.
Another area of growing indignation, especially among non Maltese EU citizens, is the discrimination in the pricing of utilities. The elite legal opinion is that there is no discrimination. I wonder if Maltese EU citizens, renting an apartment in London, Berlin, Brussels, Paris or Rome, were told they had to pay 30 per cent more for their utilities than other local users, would accept it as being non-discriminatory? Even if a non-Maltese EU citizen buys a property in Malta, they have to apply to the director for citizenship and of expatriot affairs for a “registration certificate”, which is not needed if looking for a job. If this neatly ties up loose ends within the opaque Maltese legal community, it completely ignores the perception of discrimination, which is growing daily within the “expat” community in Malta. This community is very important to the Maltese property market and is ignored at Malta’s future economic peril.

Finally, with regard to Maltese estate agents, they are what they are and just doing their job. If the headwaiter in a restaurant greets clients saying “The food is terrible here, what would you like to eat?” the restaurant will not survive for long. The property market is not different. In a way, a property search company is like a restaurant guide. It tells it as it’s tasted it and can pull a few recommendations from a lengthy and often “flowery” list of dishes and wines.

Conservative Malta tends to be comfortable in opacity much as the Italian economy was once described, as a goldfish in a pot of cold water on a hot stove.

High interest shown in Malta Housing Authority Rental Scheme

The Housing Authority has received a strong response to the new scheme that entices people to offer their vacant properties up for rent to provide a home for the 535 people on the waiting list.

So far, owners of more than 500 properties have expressed interest in the scheme which opened on February 27 and closes on April 30.
The authority is, however, expecting a surge over the next few weeks when property owners start receiving compliance certificates from the planning authority confirming their properties were built according to permit.

A spokesman for the authority said that, through this scheme, owners of vacant houses or apartments in Malta and Gozo may lease their property to the authority at a withholding tax rate of five per cent instead of the usual 35 per cent rate.

The property will then be rented out by the authority to its clients for a minimum of 10 years.
Among the conditions is that the property has to be finished, has been empty for the last six months and has a monthly rental fee of not more than €400.

An authority spokesman said since the scheme was publicised the website www.skemakiri.com received more than 2,200 unique hits. Moreover, around 40 people turned up at the authority’s customer care department requesting more information.

Some of these, the spokesman said, claimed they could offer dozens of properties.
The authority is hoping to find between 450 and 500 suitable properties, which could include apartments, houses or maisonettes, to address the priority list of applicants for alternative accommodation.

An independent board has been set up to evaluate the applications and choose the properties focusing on those offering most value for money and addressing the needs of people on the waiting list, the spokesman said.

According to the 2005 census, there are more than 53,000 vacant dwellings in Malta, an asset estimated at some €7 billion. Of the vacant dwellings, 20 per cent are summer residences and 25 per cent are dilapidated and have to be redeveloped.

This scheme seems to be attracting more interest than a similar one launched by the authority in 1999 offering property owners a grant of up to €8,000 to renovate their properties on condition they then rented them out for a minimum of 10 years.

Source: The Times of Malta March 22, 2012

The Times of Malta Editorial - Mixed messages from the property industry

Source: The Times of Malta Editorial - March 21, 2012

It is increasingly difficult for ordinary people to understand what is really happening in the property development market. Economic statistics published recently indicate that “the construction sector’s contribution to the economy has been shrinking over the past four years”. On the other hand a leading estate agency “saw an overall increase of 12 per cent in sales of property and an equal increase in letting last year”. So what is really happening in the property market?

An analysis of this market has to start with an examination of the current supply and demand dynamics of this industry. There are various estimates of the amount of properties available for sale at present. Michael Falzon, president of the Malta Developers’ Association, confirms that “there are a lot of units for sale from oversupply that was built over the years”. Unofficial but reliable estimates put the figure of vacant properties at between 50,000 and 70,000 units. This explains the rather pessimistic views of some estate agents who clamour for more support from the government in the form of fiscal concession and less onerous conditions in the High Net Worth Residency Scheme.

The local property market suffers from some intrinsic weaknesses that make it difficult for business analysts to gauge with more accuracy the state of health of this industry.

Official statistics kept by the Central Bank and the National Statistics Office may not be capturing the real movements in prices of property deals. This could be either because statistics are based on advertised prices, or because the sales actually recorded in the public registry do not reflect the true prices at which properties are bought and sold. The local property market remains opaque and, despite its small size, the monitoring of prices is more of an approximation than an exact science.
Another weakness of the local property market is the hype used by estate agents who, rather than give the hard facts that potential buyers need to decide when to invest in property, resort to marketing rhetoric that today is so easy to discredit as being outright misleading.

The facts are that the property market at present suffers from massive oversupply; that prices have not fallen further because banks are understandably being very considerate with developers who have not honoured their repayment commitments; that some developers are still getting building permits from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and are building new units thereby making the oversupply situation even worse; and that the property market is rather illiquid making it not quite the ideal investment haven that estate agents would like prospective investors to believe. There are, of course, certain sections of the market that are doing well. Well finished properties in prime locations are few and therefore there is always a good demand for such units that will continue to appreciate despite the economic slowdown.

Badly built properties in areas that are less attractive will continue to remain unsold until developers realise that they need to bring down prices even further to stimulate some interest in potential buyers. This is how most markets work and it is amazing how many still believe that in Malta the property market is driven by different dynamics.

The falling contribution of the construction and associated industries to the country’s economic growth is regrettable. But it does not justify using taxpayers’ money to prop up demand from reluctant potential buyers. Controlling excess supply will be a fairer and better way of strengthening the property industry.

Three year slump in Malta property sales, reversed - More foreigners buying property

The number and value of properties purchased by foreigners increased significantly last year, reversing a three-year slump in the sector, according to figures obtained by The Times.

But, while Finance Minister Tonio Fenech welcomed the results as evidence that economic growth was attracting foreigners to purchase “property of quality”, realtors said the €186,000 average price of these properties was “nothing to write home about”.
According to the figures, foreigners bought 994 properties in Malta and Gozo in 2011 – a significant increase over 2010, when foreigners bought 886 such properties.
Most significantly, the €185 million total value represents a 20 per cent increase over the corresponding 2010 and 2009 figures, when properties sold to foreigners fetched approximately €146 million. While the number of foreign-bought properties is yet to reach 2008 levels, foreigners spent practically as much money on domestic real estate last year as they did in 2008.