Developers Who Sold Galdes €140K Flat Also Leased 104 Homes To Housing Authority In Same Year
The group of companies from which Affordable Housing Minister Roderick Galdes bought a €140,000 penthouse and garage leased more than 100 properties to the Housing Authority in 2024, the same year Galdes signed a promise of sale for his Gozo home.
Times of Malta reported that Galdes purchased the shell-form duplex penthouse and garage from Excel Investments, owned by developers Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius and Daniel Refalo. The final deed was signed in January 2025.
Just two months earlier, in November 2024, Excel Housing, a subsidiary of the same group, leased 104 apartments, maisonettes and penthouses across five blocks to the Housing Authority under the Nikru biex Nassistu social housing scheme. The leased portfolio, located in Gżira and four localities in Gozo (Sannat, San Lawrenz, Victoria and Xagħra), has a combined value of €27.2 million.
Galdes, whose ministerial portfolio includes the Housing Authority, had already signed the promise of sale for his property earlier that year.
Under the Nikru biex Nassistu scheme, private owners offer their properties to the Housing Authority, which then sublets them to low-income families while covering part of the rent. The authority entered into 203 new agreements with private owners in 2024 and renewed another 35 contracts. The scheme was extended for another year in August, with Galdes stating that over €38 million has been spent since its launch in 2017, now providing homes for around 1,300 families.
In a parliamentary reply in June, Galdes said that 144 Gozo properties had been leased to the Housing Authority since 2020, including 53 leased in 2024 alone. He said the government is paying between €3,520 and €9,417 per unit.
The Ħal Gelmus complex where Galdes bought his property spent nearly 20 years awaiting approval. Developer Mark Agius first filed plans in 2005 to replace a former tomato paste factory with apartments, garages and a supermarket. After years of delays, the project stalled, picked up again in 2012, went quiet, and was revived in 2019.
A permit was finally issued on 23 March 2022, just three days before the general election.
Galdes insists he “reserved” the property in 2021, before the project received planning approval.
In 2024, developers secured permission for an additional 35 units despite objections from the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. The Building and Construction Authority also halted works twice across 2024 and 2025 due to an expired insurance policy and issues with a bank guarantee.
Responding again yesterday, Galdes dismissed allegations of improper ties with contractors, pointing to earlier denials by the Malita Investments board.
He also argued that “imprecise” information was being circulated about his Gozo home, saying it was not a penthouse but a four-bedroom, 84-square-metre flat, and that comparing 2021 property prices to today’s market was misleading.
Galdes added that he has published his asset declarations every year since first entering parliament in 2004.
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