Watch: One-Bedroom Apartments Cost Almost As Much As Two-Bedrooms, MDA President Warns
Malta Development Association President Michael Stivala urged the government to ease restrictions on one-bedroom apartments in order to encourage the availability of more affordable properties on the market.
“We told the government years ago that if they limit one-bedroom apartments, their prices will explode,” Stivala said during a debate with Moviment Graffitti activist Andre Callus on the GO Tokis show Il-Każin.
“Nowadays a one-bedroom apartment costs practically the same as a two-bedroom one.”
As it stands, only 20% of properties in a block of apartments can consist of one-bedroom apartments. Policies were also revised in 2014 to increase the minimum size of all apartments, with one-bedroom apartments increasing from 45 to 55 square metres.
Stivala warned that the ultimate impact of these policies has been an increase in property prices and said that the minimum size of apartments in Malta is large compared to other EU countries.
He said that other factors contributing to high property prices include more expensive land, a surge in prices of construction material following the Ukraine war, an increase in salaries due to a dearth of workers, and excess government bureaucracy.
He urged the government to clamp down on excess bureaucracy.
“When a developer spends a lot of time on a project and invests a lot of money but takes long to finish it, the costs increase for nothing. We are in favour of controls but everyone who has dealt with government authorities know that there is a lot of pointless paperwork. The people are suffering at the end of the day.”
From his part, Callus placed the blame for high property prices on Malta’s economic model, which incentivises wealthy foreigners to purchase Maltese property and brings over thousands of low-paying workers to work in construction.
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