[WATCH] MDA director says property surplus kept prices stable in 2020

MDA director says property surplus kept prices stable in 2020

Malta Developers Association director-general Deborah Schembri has said Malta has a surplus of properties which last year kept property prices stable.

But she said people complaining about development had to realise that the industry needs to continue in its success, otherwise the entire country will be affected. 

Schembri said the 2006 local plans have always been criticised by the lobby, and the MDA is against the taking up of ODZ land. “People complain about developers, but developers are in line with regulation, and so it is regulation that must change,” she said, adding that “it's governments which must change regulation, not developers.”

In early June, a new scheme was announced for people working in the property sector who participate in international fairs that will see half the costs the incurred by those participating being refunded by government. 

“We need to attract foreign investment, it's healthy for the industry,” Schembri said when questioned on the issue. 

Moviment Graffitti activist Andre Callus

Andre Callus from Moviment Grafitti, blamed the relationship of the major political parties with businessmen like Silvio Debono for what he dubbed “questionable deals” being made on public land. “The absolute silence we hear from both parties over the DB project shows that they have the money and influence to buy silence and approval from them,” he said. 

Speaking on the Pembroke development, he said claims being made on such projects leading to jobs in the country are not true. “They will bring in a Turkish company, which employs Turkish people, and which, in a project carried out last year, had failed to pay its employees for five months,” he said. 

He also said the profits that will made from the project far outweigh the price with which the land was bought. “They bought, or rather stole the land for €15 million. From private apartments only, they will get €120 million.”

Callus insisted that this was not a lost cause, and the NGO will be fighting the project in court. “If you look at the donations we managed to receive in such a short period of time, you realise how angry people are about the project,” he said. 

He insisted government look at the legal avenues at how it should back out of the contract.