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Malta Labour Party spokesperson for housing Stefan Buontempo has no problem in advocating his concerns on the hardships of first-time property buyers whilst selling two-roomed apartments for sums of approximately Lm30,000.
Buontempo wrote in The Times earlier this week about how young couples were finding it very difficult to find a property in the open market which they can afford, with property prices having risen by 43 per cent over the past four years.
As a player in the real estate market, Buontempo’s apartments in Msida are a case in point – at a price tag of some Lm30,000, first-time buyers will acquire an apartment of two rooms, a shower room and an entrance hall, and in Buontempo’s words, “highly finished to EU standards.”
An architect by profession, Buontempo and his brother Alex, also an architect, have constructed fourteen apartments in a block in Msida named after their father Giovanni.
Stefan buontempo told MaltaToday he saw no conflict of interest with his business interests as an MP who believes that “property prices in Malta are still unreachable when one considers the meagre salaries many Maltese workers earn. This is causing frustration to many young people who feel they will never be able to own their own home unless they are helped.”
Buontempo told MaltaToday that as a shareholder in the family company, the main objective was to “offer advice to the building industry” and that although the company owns “some immovable property, real estate dealing is not its core business.”
The Labour MP said the company has never provided services for the construction of units for the Housing Authority or any government departments. “As an opposition spokesman for housing I am not in a position to take decisions to influence the property market in Malta.”
He also claimed his interest in housing was primarily academic and of a social nature, telling MaltaToday his special interest was the housing problem in Cottonera – a key factor in his decision to enter politics, he said.
Although Buontempo said politics gives him little time to give a helping hand in the family company, although he himself is actively on site at the apartments to monitor finishing touches. “All I want is to give my all for the common good in the number of years for which my constituents choose to elect me. You appreciate that I must secure a source of income to be able to maintain my family and myself whenever the people decide that my days in parliament are over.”
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