‘MDA bullying government, buyers to sustain monopoly’ - Il-Kollettiv on protest

Activist group Il-Kollettiv has blasted a Malta Development Association (MDA) judicial protest against government plans to build and sell housing below market prices as an attempt to “bully government and buyers into maintaining its monopoly”. 

In a statement on Tuesday, Il-Kollettiv condemned the recent MDA judicial protest against a state-church project spearheaded by the Foundation for Affordable Housing to sell properties 30% below market value.  

The developers’ lobby had argued the scheme would see the exploitation of public land by developers taking part in the scheme, who will receive the land for free, and risk distorting the market while fueling speculation.  

Il-Kollettiv criticised the MDA move as “attempts to bully government and buyers into maintaining its monopoly on property prices in Malta, while its own board members have received substantial public land for miserly annual emphyteusis [ground rent, or ċens]”. 

The activist group’s president Matthew Borg challenged MDA president Michael Stivala to “condemn the transfer of a massive open space in Mellieħa” which he said had been handed to the lobby group’s secretary general, Paul Attard, “for just €380,000 yearly, the price of a single apartment”. 

“Attard has never declared the intention to sell his hundred units at less than the market rate, in what is another case of unlevel playing fields,” said Borg.  

He added there were “many cases” where developers had “exploited” public land to the detriment of other developers and homeowners who Borg said had been “cheated by shady land deals such as that of Mellieħa Heights”. 

The government sold the plot of Mellieħa land, valued at over €12 million, in 2023 to developers on a 50-year perpetual revisable emphyteusis against an annual payment of €380,000. 

Il-Kollettiv president Matthew Borg challenged MDA president Michael Stivala (pictured) to condemn a transfer of government land that had benefitted one of his colleagues. File photo: Matthew Mirabelli.

Controversial plans to build a 4,000 square metre, 109-unit apartment block on the site in Mellieħa’s green lung were given the go-ahead by the Planning Authority in November, despite residents’ opposition to the plans. 

Turning to the MDA’s criticism of the short deadline for tender applications for the scheme, which it had argued had been ill-timed in the height of the summer, Borg remarked the association had “no issue with the planning reforms being rushed through Parliament in the same period of time”. 

Pointing to the Federation of Estate Agents’ membership of the MDA and noting that the National Statistics Office (NSO) calculated property prices by analysing estate agents’ advertising, Borg said the lobby group was “worried” the scheme would “expose how property prices are being kept artificially high”. 

He referenced a 2023 study by auditing firm KPMG that found that young single people could not afford 95% of properties on the market and NSO figures from the same year showing more than 80,000 properties were seasonally used or vacant.  

Meanwhile, the vacancy since October 2023 of the post of director general for the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority meant citizens “cannot ask for an investigation into... the existence of a potential cartel dominating the sector”, he said. 

Il-Kollettiv said the “aggressive stance” taken by the MDA was part of a “wide-ranging effort to silence opposition to construction and the overpopulation it brings with it”.