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WATCH: Housing Authority Helped 213 Youngsters With A Down Payment For A Home Last Year 

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The Housing Authority stepped in to help 213 young adults with a downpayment for a home loan, Social Accommodation Minister Roderick Galdes said this morning. 

The minister was addressing a press conference about the government’s Home Deposit Scheme, which was launched in 2019 with the intention of helping the younger generation buy their own property.  

Galdes referred to European statistics showing that the Maltese were among the latest in Europe to move out of their parents’ home. 

This, he said, was the result of a number of factors, including Maltese youths studying longer than they would in the past, often delaying starting a family in order to pursue their career goals. 

“Without beating about the bush, as we have seen in recent years, the issue of affordability is also an obstacle,” Galdes said. 

“The rate at which the property market has developed in recent years has meant that people within certain income brackets are encountering challenges.”

This was a double-edged sword, Galdes said. On the one hand, the increase in property value benefitted the over 85% of the population that owned their own home. It, however, made it difficult for the younger generations to get on the property ladder. 

“We opted to intervene and provide our assistance which can serve as a bridge between those with a medium to low income and the property market,” Galdes said. 

A major challenge was the fact that many youngsters were able to qualify for a loan based on their income, but they lacked the capital for a down payment. 

It was this reason that the government had launched the scheme, through which those looking to buy their first property could apply with the Housing Authority for it to cover the cost of a loan down payment. 

As a father, Galdes said that he wanted to have the peace of mind that his children would be able to become independent and to build a stable life, a sentiment he said he was sure he shared with many other parents across the country, and a sentiment that was at the core of the home deposit scheme. 

The fact that two-thirds of those who had benefited from the scheme were less than 30 years old, with a median income of €23,000 showed that the scheme was reaching its intended goal and was addressing the issue of property affordability among the younger generation.  

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Yannick joined Lovin Malta in March 2021 having started out in journalism in 2016. He is passionate about politics and the way our society is governed, and anything to do with numbers and graphs. He likes dogs more than he does people.

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