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James Debono
20 per cent of all tenants living in rented properties have an approximate annual income of Lm2,000, a figure confirmed by the Household Budgetary Survey carried out by the NSO in 2000.
This means that there are 5,734 households in this group which are renting out properties with a declared income of Lm2,000.
However, the same statistics do not distinguish between rental tenure regulated by the pre-1995 and post-1995 rent laws, and are not yet available. This means that there are no hard figures yet which can give a face to those low-income tenants benefiting from controlled rents fixed at pre-1995 levels.
According to the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity such information will be available after November when the Census of Population and Housing will be carried out.
In the past weeks Alternattiva Demokratika embarked on a campaign to collect signatures to hold a referendum on the liberalisation of rents regulated by pre-1995 legislation.
Replying to criticism that it is has adopted a neo-liberal approach, AD has argued that social cases should be subsidised by the state and not by private owners. It has also argued that the security of tenure of over 60-year-olds should be protected.
However, AD has also been harping on cases involving the government, political parties and businessmen who have benefited from controlled rents on palatial homes and continue to benefit from ridiculously low rents to this day.
Speaking to MaltaToday, Malta Chamber for SMEs director general Vince Farrugia expressed his concern that a large number of corner shops were benefiting from controlled rents.
Farrugia acknowledged the fact that these rents create a distortion in the market since those paying controlled rents have a competitive advantage over shops paying full commercial rents. On the other hand Farrugia expressed his concern that these shops are barely making ends meet due to the prevailing economic situation.
jdebono@newsworksltd.com
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