When reports sound the wakeup call

A study on the housing market in Malta and Gozo may have gone unnoticed this week; it should not. 

Grant Thornton presented some compelling housing statistics and interpretations in the second report of its kind. Perhaps it is not as exciting to readers as all the allegations of corruption and sleaze that continue to dominate the media radar.

But if you ask me, this country would do itself a big favour if it could dedicate some time and energy to the future of this island’s footprint.

Grant Thornton’s study reveals a trend that is unsustainable and worse still in some aspects catastrophic for Malta.

The report shows that between 2013 and 2021 house prices increased by 100%. This means that on average a property with two bedrooms that sold for €120,000 in 2013 would sell at €240,000 in 2022. The price would vary as well depending on the locality.                                                                  

Needless to say, a family home, with a small garden and drive-in and semi-detached would make you €1 million, if not more, poorer. And if one were to look at the price per square metre of all localities, some of the figures are shocking.

The price per square metre in Sliema and St Julians stands at €3,642. In Swieqi, Tal-Ibrag and Bahar ic-Caghaq the price per square metre is €2,851, while in Mellieha and Xemxija it is €2,599. In Balzan, Attard, Lija and Iklin the price stands at €2,437, while in Mosta and Naxxar at €2,160.

Other prices include Qawra, Bugibba and St Paul's Bay, €2,500; Gzira, Msida and Pietà, €2,490; San Gwann and Kappara, €2,033; Marsaskala and Marsaxlokk, €2,128; Fgura, Zabbar, Paola and Tarxien, €1,840; and Gozo, €1,751.

Similar arguments can be extended to the commercial property market, which features in this study for the first time. It is estimated that between 2017 and 2021, works commenced on the development of office space that would accommodate around 48,000 workers (based on 8sq.m of office space per employee).

During this period, employment in sectors that entail mostly office-based jobs (ICT, financial services, online gaming, etc.) increased by around 41,000. When also considering that the demand estimates do not account for the growing trend of persons working from home, the report suggests that there may be some oversupply of office space.

And that is an understatement. Prices are dangerously high and putting many families, couples, and individuals in a dire situation when it comes to borrowing. 

More so with budding businesses. It also drives individuals wanting to buy property and depending on a loan to become more aggressive in their work choices, remuneration and their demand for higher salaries and attitude towards making money and more money.

Politicians only respond to the needs of a thirsty generation of businessmen who have no qualms seeing the country disappear under a mound of rock, cement, cars, cranes and inexcusable ugliness. Saviour Balzan

The social and mental dimension was of course not measured by Grant Thornton; after all, they are in the business of numbers, not mental health.

The very fast upward trend in the economy in the last nine years has left many people caught up in a rat race, where it is never enough and everyone is simply wanting more.

By more, they want more money.  Money that will not only make them proud property owners but also give them the opportunity to invest in property and sell it for a handsome profit.

There is one simple word that describes this attitude – greed.

The argument may seem convoluted, but why do we need to overheat our economy, to produce more than we need and to make more money than we could ever spend? To argue ‘it’s the economy stupid’ is simply wrong.

This brings me to the most important consideration. This construction spree has ravaged our country.

We have diminished the natural footprint of Malta and Gozo, increased pressure on services, incremented our carbon emissions, devastated our water and energy resources and made our minuscule is-lands uglier and less inhabitable.

To make matters worse, to feed the economy we have expanded our infrastructure and become constrained to bring in more foreign workers whom we pay peanuts to sustain the services that sustain us. Foreign workers are now necessary across all sectors; from collecting garbage to health care.

It may sound Marxist but capitalism and the thirst for more unabated growth has served to place unreasonable pressure on the quality of our life.

The people who can change this and make the right moves to transform this are the politicians who directly depend on people in the construction industry to sustain their campaigns. Which is why they refuse to take action and only respond to the needs of a thirsty generation of businessmen who have no qualms seeing the country disappear under a mound of rock, cement, cars, cranes and inexcusable ugliness.

Politicians like Robert Abela and Bernard Grech could change all this, but they are elected by us and the "us" includes all those people who do not see anything wrong with the present economic model. Today’s politicians are a reflection of their constituency.

If we change, they change. Talk is cheap, what is needed is a vision that is motored by a desire to look to a fine future built on reasonable economic growth and the well-being of all the people. We do not need leaders who simply genuflect in front of the traditional posse of cement aficionados.