Bishops’ synod

Congratulations for Fr Joe Inguanez’s Talking Point (November 1).  I enjoyed it tremendously.

Somehow, it evoked in me distant echoes of the late Hans Kung’s 1965 Structures of the Church.

I wonder how relevant now is all the former talk about the significance of Vatican II; the Bologna School of the late Giuseppe Alberigo in asserting that Vatican II marked a paradigm watershed in the evolution/development  of the Church seems more than justified. 

How can the aspirations identified by you be translated into fresh norms: the laity, women – including ordination – priestly celibacy, subsidiarity, etc? 

Cardinal Grech may well be remembered for spearheading the forthcoming synod.

Give us more of the same, Fr Joe!

Amabile Galea – Balzan

Dissecting property properly

Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Those of us who followed the budget representations in parliament some weeks ago cannot but note the mismatch between representation and reality. For, make no mistake, the property market represents a section of the economy that has overheated for quite a while.

Let me state at the outset that the property market cannot be assessed in isolation from other sectors of the economy gripped by the scourge of COVID-19. Neither should it be assessed without taking into consideration consumer behaviour or demand in general. In other words, the property market should be just one cog in a well-timed economic machine. Locally, the situation is not so.

The young graduate, the separated spouse trying to rebuild a life after marital problems and first-time buyers cannot but watch in disbelief the “biggest” social housing projects “in the last 40 years” that are being touted by the government as if it has things sorted out. People earning an average wage of €25,000 will not be able to obtain a bank loan to finance to purchase of a decent, averagely-priced property.

If anything, the various schemes announced in the budget are testament to the failure of this government to take stock of the current shortcomings. It has not escaped anyone looking for their first home how unsustainable asking prices are. Serious studies, such as those by EY in collaboration with Djar, show how the average asking price of a property in Malta was €400,000 at the start of 2021. Is this the sort of future the government intends with its vacuous slogans on the future we wish to leave our children? Any meagre attempt the government is making in providing fiscal incentives is immediately swallowed up by market forces and for-profit interest in the form of unsustainable price increases. Ironically, the government helped to overheat the property market by decreasing the withholding tax charged on the sale of property from 12 per cent to eight per cent and, though doing away with the stamp duty of first-time buyers (up to a threshold), the prices of property still kept shooting up.

The truth is that, since 2013, the government has adopted an aggressive laissez-faire approach towards the construction industry in the form of deregulation in turn for its tacit – and direct – support. This has meant a market that is, in many respects, out of control. Development policy has largely been left in the hands of an architect-lawyer who is a staunch partyman.

The rental market is not faring any better. Just ask the single person attempting to rent a decent apartment or a single person trying to raise a family and renting suitable accommodation. And what about the anomaly of regulated rents? Does the government really believe a €250,000 handout to owners of flats to carry out structural repairs is going any far in even attempting to remedy this sore issue?

These myriad schemes are, therefore, an indirect admission of the failure of the government to properly regulate the housing market for the benefit of the broadest-possible swathe of citizens – the working majority. Property development is essential for younger generations of people in Malta to get on the property ladder but this must be sustainable and, above all, affordable.

Noel Muscat – PN candidate and mayor of Swieqi

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