PN MP Calls For Smaller One-Bedroom Apartments As Part Of Rent Reduction Strategy
Nationalist MP Toni Bezzina has proposed reducing the minimum size of one-bedroom apartments as part of a planning strategy for rent prices to drop to a more reasonable level.
Currently, a one-bedroom apartment must have a minimum gross floor area of 55m², while this stands at 90m² for a two-bedroom unit and 115m² for a three-bedroom one.
However, Bezzina pointed out that the current planning policy disincentives the construction of one-bedroom apartments as their space limitations are more stringent than for larger apartments.
If two people live in a 55m² one-bedroom apartment, that means they each have 27m² of space. However, if four people live in a 90m² two bedroom apartment, they each have 22.5m² of space, and if six people live in a three-bedroom apartment, they each have 19m² of space.
“If, with a bit of creativity, we can accommodate a one-bedroom apartment with all the necessary amenities in a space of 45m² instead of 55m², that would mean we can fit three one-bedroom apartments in the same space as one three-bedroom one,” Bezzina recently wrote in In-Nazzjon.
The minimum gross floor area of one-bedroom apartments used to actually be 45m², while two-bedrooms were 76m² and three-bedrooms 96m². However, they were increased in the wake of a 2014 policy document because doing so would “guarantee a reasonable quality of residential amenity and living space standards”.
However, with rent prices through the roof, has the time come to revisit this policy to incentivise developers to build dwellings that can be rented out at cheaper price?
Do you agree with this proposal?
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