Hotel proposed on Ħamrun's main street

A planning application has been submitted to convert a furniture showroom on Triq il-Kbira San Ġużepp in Ħamrun into a 22-room hotel with 48 beds which rises to four floors.

The proposal involves replacing the building's contemporary façade with one incorporating six traditional Maltese timber balconies.

However, the development would also create a blank party wall overlooking neighbouring properties and add extra floors that would rise above the surrounding streetscape.

Submitted by Abdulrahman Alyasin, the application envisages demolishing the existing first-floor slab and façade, constructing new first, second and a setback third floor, installing a lift, carrying out internal and external alterations at ground-floor level, and adding a rooftop pool.

The Malta Tourism Authority has already issued a Tourism Compliance Certificate for the 22-room hotel, but the project must still obtain planning permission from the Planning Authority.

If approved, it would be among the first hotel developments proposed in Ħamrun. Between January 2024 and May 2026, the Planning Authority approved only two guesthouses in the locality and no hotels.

The application is another sign of the continued spread of tourism accommodation beyond Malta's traditional tourist hubs.

Since the beginning of 2024, the Planning Authority has approved 220 tourism accommodation projects, comprising 62 hotels and 158 guesthouses, adding a total of 5,235 rooms.

While most approvals have been concentrated in high-tourism localities such as St Julian's, Sliema and Valletta, recent applications indicate that tourism accommodation is increasingly spreading into other localities, with guesthouses and hotels being proposed in areas that have so far seen little tourism development, in this case in a road traditionally associated with high street retail.

The site is zoned as a Primary Town Centre within the locality’s urban conservation area. The local plan permits one additional receded floor in those parts of the Primary Town Centres of Birkirkara, Hamrun and Mosta that are located within the Urban Conservation Areas.

This is aimed at enhancing the function of these centres by allowing businesses to expand within these locations. The additional allowable floor is to be receded in order to ensure the least adverse effect on the skyline and the streetscape of the centres