Recommended proposal for the extension of tax incentives put forward by the president of MDA Sandro Chetcuti accepted

The government will be acting on the recommendation of MDA chairman Sandro Chetcuti and extending the reduction on stamp duty incentive on the first €400,000 spent when buying a property. This scheme was supposed to end at the end of June but has now been extended to the end of the year.

The announcement was made during a meeting between Prime Minister Robert Abela and the Maltese Developers Association on Wednesday at the AX Group business centre.

The delegation included top ministers like finance minister Clyde Caruana, infrastructure minister Ian Borg, environment minister Aaron Farrugia, and parliamentary secretary Chris Agius.

“I believe the environment and development sectors can live together in synergy and complement each other,” Abela told the MDA. “In our economic vision, we have always seen this balance between environmental transformation and that of development. What we have achieved in energy, we must achieve in construction.”

Abela noted that proposals launched in the Economic Regeneration Plan would move the government “towards excellence”.
“The new construction authority will be very effective in further improving the standard in this sector,” Abela said.
MDA President Sandro Chetcuti highlighted the construction industry’s direct support of the economy to the tune of 11% in gross value added.

“While we must work to address environmental challenges, we must understand that development is a direct support of the economy with 11% direct value-added that can contribute to the government helping more other sectors.”

Chetcuti said acquisitions on promise-of-sale agreements had increased by €1.4 billion over the last year, despite the pandemic.
Chetcuti said a KPMG study showed that the price of affordable homes had not risen for the first time in the last seven years, despite strong property sales. “Had we not been resilient and turned challenges into opportunities, we could have had 40,000 at risk of losing thir jobs.”