Corinthia's Ħal Ferħ plans recommended for approval

The proposed luxury Corinthia Oasis, an upmarket resort including residential units in Għajn Tuffieħa, has been recommended for approval by a Planning Authority case officer. 

The recommendation brings the derelict former Ħal Ferħ holiday complex a step closer to development, though the proposal must still be assessed and approved by the PA before development can begin. 

Corinthia is proposing a complete redesign of the Ħal Ferħ site to construct a mixed-use tourism and residential development, comprising a hotel with 161 rooms, including 22 water and 17 garden suites.

The development, intended to be low-density, also includes 25 residential units – 16 villas and nine bungalows, as well as amendments to the existing public road network and Scouts’ car park, along with landscaping.

Ancillary hotel facilities, such as a “top-tier” spa and gym, pools, restaurants, meeting rooms and an underground car park, are also included in PA/05420/21, which is now awaiting a final decision.

The area was originally reserved solely for tourism purposes, but Corinthia obtained permission to build residential units there by paying a €10 million fee back in 2021.

An image of the proposed luxury lagoon suites. Photo: Corinthia Oasis Resort website

PA recommendation

The PA’s Development Management Directorate has recommended granting permission to the proposed development on the grounds that it is in line with the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Development (SPED), principles of the North West Local Plan (NWLP) and the 2021 Ħal-Ferħ Development Brief, which calls for an iconic tourism development of low-density.

The proposed scheme follows the commitment approved in PA/04906/10 and renewed in PA/03134/19, “but, at the same time, rethinks it holistically to provide more contemporary and functional forms and spaces”, the case officer said in his report.

It also took into consideration the tourism component that would “offer one-of-a-kind facilities oriented to the luxury market, providing a unique opportunity within the countryside and a rebranding of the Maltese Islands as a destination of choice worldwide”. 

The proposed facade of the Corinthia Oasis. Photo: Corinthia Oasis Resort website

Once planned to be a large-scale timeshare development, the residential component would increase the level of the “already strong” real-estate market in Malta, the report said.

It also noted that the proposal was positively considered by the Malta Tourism Authority, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the Environmental and Resources Authority and Transport Malta.

How Corinthia acquired Ħal Ferħ

The Ħal Ferħ holiday village was developed in the 1970s and 1980s on part of the military British-era complex known as the Lower Camp and was taken up by barracks and modern buildings.

It operated as a tourist complex run by now-defunct airline Air Malta for years, but was eventually shut down and fell into ruin.   

Island Hotels Group acquired the land and the holiday complex from the government in 2009. In 2013 it received a permit for an €80 million project to convert the abandoned site into a low-lying complex of 228 luxury suites, pools, bars and restaurants.

The company said at the time that it wanted to develop a project that was “environmentally friendly to a level that has not yet been seen” in Malta. 

But the project never got off the ground and in 2015 Corinthia acquired Island Hotels and with it, the rights to develop the site. The luxury hotel brand initially said it wanted to complete the resort by 2018, but works never began. 

A 2018 Times of Malta article had documented the state of abandonment of the complex through the eyes of an Italian documentarian.

One year later, the permit to convert the former holiday complex into a luxury resort was renewed for five years.

Plans for the site envisage a mix of one- and two-storey buildings arranged within a ‘ribbon building’, featuring a landscaped walkway along its roof.

The 'ribbon' building concept, with rooftop walkway.

The1970s complex remained derelict for years. Photo: Alessandro Tesei

According to the Corinthia Oasis Resort website, the land on which the project is planned measures some 83,500 square metres. Listing facts and figures, the site states that 3,000 square metres of land have been contributed by Corinthia to widen and upgrade the adjacent public road, and it has also fully financed a 320-space public carpark on an adjacent tract of disturbed land operated by the Malta Scouts Association to alleviate the demand for parking by visitors to the nearby Golden Bay.