Developers have made a number of proposals to the Prime Minister to counter the slowdown in their sector, the GRTU, which organised the meeting, said.

Amongst the suggestions were:

First Time Buyers

Removal of stamp duty up to €116, 500 worth of property. Above that, the 3.5% will be chargeable on the balance above€116, 500;

Incentives due to the fact that the banks themselves are not granting loans. The reintroduction of the interest-free loan scheme from government was suggested, eg 25% of cost of acquisition;

The creation of a Private Public Partnership to address the housing issue in order for developers to have an incentive to develop for first time buyers level of properties of acceptable standards;

Abuse of any incentives or loan schemes should be heavily penalised and can be verified through prior researches;

MEPA

Site notices to all neighbours in the vicinity is unacceptable; Frivolous 0bjections - a system must be introduced to curb such objections such as a bond deposited by the objectors upon filing of objection;

Refusals of Full Permit by the same Board who would have granted an EIP permit thus convincing the developer to buy the property/site;

Compliance Certificates - is it necessary to incur the expense for compliance certificates for every unit when a developer builds a block, instead of a compliance for the entire block?

Major projects need to be granted/refusal of a permit within 6 months from application. Definition of large projects required;

Enemalta

Electricity Meter on construction sites - unacceptable that Enemalta removes the existing meter and consequently charges the developer for re installation;

Tax

Government Fiscal Valuation - An architect should value the property in the period between the promise of sale (konvenju) and the final deed of sale. In the event of no promise of sale agreement , a period prior to the deed should be established for such valuation;

Value of property for fiscal purposes should always be that at the time of promise of sale;

In order to incentivise the rent industry particularly the buy-to-let, fiscal incentives should be introduced such as the replacement of Income Tax and VAT with a final withholding tax on rentals of 15% instead of complicated maintenance reductions and other incentives

AIP

Such permits need to be liberalised - not restricted to certain areas - or abolished completely since such burdens and requirements are a disincentive to foreigners and discriminatory to property owners.

The GRTU said that in his concluding remarks the Prime Minister assured those present that the working committee promised in the Budget would be immediately set up so that action can be taken in harmony with government's environmental, social and economic policies will be implemented without much delay.