The contracts have been signed and hands have been shaken. The workers have had their morning smoke and a gulp of tea before moving onto the building sites. The gun has been cocked and it will fire. The developers and investors have written their names in the sand of the building sites.

Pause a while from environmental concerns and let us examine the patterns in the dusty clouds above the building sites.

The key is to think in simple cycles, one thing leading to another and back to the start.

Let us go back to the beginning.

A developer starts with funds of his own which get him so far. To further his enterprise, he involves investors on various terms; shares, bonds, and so on. Plot, workers and machinery come to his disposal. Work begins and ends. Production is complete. A block of flats is the product.

Now comes exchange, the selling of the flats to generate turnover used for his gain and payment of the investors. The cycle of production and exchange begins again.

Investors are various and some are average citizens with some extra money burning a hole in their pocket. They see the development of an unused plot of land, be it a field or an old house, as an opportunity for financial growth.

This “gold rush” is fuelled by lenient planning policies and an influx of foreigners. As a means to their end, investors usually hire a developer.

In the “gold rush” they have thrown their money at the deve-loper without a solid business plan. It is a fever. The developer does his job, is paid... then leaves. 

The workers will become unemployed along with the heavy machinery: useful at the time, convenient to the developer

Now, as many of us have observed, flats are still empty: exchange does not seem to be happening, rather, production seems to have continued at a higher rate. Production is now at a disproportionate rate to exchange; safely we may label it overproduction. The limit of the market has been exceeded.

The citizen developers may have given their family new accommodation but what of the rest of their apartments?

Is there turnover? Are the developers or investors bettering their financial condition? There is anarchy of production and they are stranded in exchange stasis.

What can developers do when funds run short? Traditionally in business there are the “plan Bs”, that is the conquering of new markets or the exploiting of the current market more thoroughly.

But Malta is small, these rescue plans chiefly apply to larger countries or to other industries altogether. The government may intervene and attempt to call in more foreigners through various schemes but it is not enough.

Credit has no use now, rather it is a burden.

Now you may see the future crisis in question. But do not shed a tear for the developers, inevitably they will survive. Keep in mind, a good number of them began as average, modestly paid citizens such as ourselves.

It was only unjust influence or luck that raised them to the pedestals they reside on now.

I dare say this stroke of good fortune was in truth a tragedy for society. They could have been social champions, bettering their community, and men of example to inspire. Like I said, many had humble beginnings. They were caught in the American Dream Syndrome, by which you either lose everything or become a millionaire.

The possibility of this phenomenon was made possible by the environment furnished by our current government. Its laissez-faire policies have dissolved all classes but two: the rich and the rest.

Let us now look at the repercussions of the crisis to come. Production will cease, it having no purpose anymore. The workers will become unemployed along with the heavy machinery: useful at the time, convenient to the developer. They will allow themselves worse exploitation for the sake of their daily bread.

The developers will repose comfortably, maintaining a trickle from the slow exchange of a tired market. The investors, often small-time capitalists trying to make an idle sum, will be at the beck and call of the developers.

The most concerning aspect of this crisis is that it will pass: the property market will expand with time and the cycle will begin anew, leading to a worse crisis than before.

What is to be done? I will not be foolish enough to attempt to tackle such a complex problem alone. What I say with certainty is that the stark line between the rich and the rest must be erased. Socially and financially.

Equality is the only concrete guarantee of justice.

At the moment this is near impossible, yet great things have been achieved in the pursuit of impossible dreams.

Andrea Caruana is a nursing student.