Investigate Maltese property 'cartel', NGO says, amid MDA resignations
Builders' lobby acts as one with the lobby that effectively sets property prices, activists claim
The resignations of three developers from the developers' lobby expose a concerted effort by the lobby to control property prices, activist group Il-Kollettiv has said, as it called for the Maltese "property cartel" to be investigated.
Developers Paul Attard, Anton Camilleri, known as Tal-Franċiż, and Pio Vassallo stepped down from the Malta Development Association last week.
Times of Malta revealed how Camilleri and Vassallo were among the bidders for an affordable housing scheme that the MDA claims is unlawful state aid.
Camilleri is behind AC Group, the developer behind plans for a 39-storey hotel at the Villa Rosa site in St George’s Bay. Attard is the director of GAP Property and one of the heads of T&S Holdings, which is behind the controversial Mellieħa Heights development.
In a statement, Il-Kollettiv's group's secretary, Wayne Flask, pointed out how MDA president Michael Stivala had never objected to public land in Mellieħa and Villa Rosa being given for "ridiculously cheap" sums to Attard and Camilleri. He said both developments will see units sold at market prices.
“Stivala, however, has complained to the EU about a scheme which seeks to open the market to a third of Malta’s under-35 population, which, according to many studies, does not afford to buy property in its own country," he said.
The scheme was announced by the Foundation for Affordable Housing to build hundreds of discounted homes. The foundation, which is a joint venture between the government and the church, issued four separate tenders last year seeking offers from private companies interested in designing and building the respective sites.
Shortly after the scheme was announced, the MDA filed a formal complaint with the European Commission.
"Out of so many grants and subsidies throughout the years, this is the only one which makes property affordable. That’s why the MDA found it so diabolical.”
Quoting NSO figures between 2020 and 2024, Flask said the population has increased by 11.5 per cent, permits for new dwellings have risen by 15.2 per cent, but property prices have gone up by 29 per cent. By 2025, property prices had gone up by 35 per cent, he added.
Flask questioned how prices are three times higher than the demand, when it is clear that the majority of foreign workers relocated to Malta cannot afford to buy or rent a unit, and the supply outstrips demand.
"Stivala’s concerns about the free market and the Housing Affordability Scheme should extend to the whole property market. The MDA has a stranglehold on property prices since it incorporates the Federation of Estate Agents within its ranks," Flask said.
"The builders’ lobby acts as one with the lobby that effectively sets the property prices; this doesn’t look like a free market at all."
He said the MDA has been trying to discredit the NSO's and the Central Bank's figures and publish press releases boasting property sales without providing its methodology.
"It has now joined forces with the key players in the property market to create a "transparent price index" which costs €3,600 for a two-year subscription."
Il-Kolletiv once again highlighted its support for the Affordable Housing Scheme as an opportunity for hundreds of workers to own a home.
He noted how Property Malta, another state entity run by top developer Sandro Chetcuti, directly undermines this opportunity by setting Maltese property prices to attract “investors” from Dubai and China while pricing out many Maltese.
He proposed a tax on property hoarding as a solution for the “impossible” property prices.
“Taxing vacant properties owned by big developers and their fronts would disincentivise the sort of speculation – sometimes involving public land – which sees properties being eased into the market at the developers’ convenience.”
He said that the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority should make the advertising of property prices per square metre mandatory, as the first step in ensuring a minimal level of transparency in the market that is accessible to all consumers.