The minister’s Midas touch

The questions surrounding Roderick Galdes – the minister whose housing fortunes shot up while ordinary people’s went down – are not simply about one man’s political fate. If Galdes is proved right, and everything he’s done is legal, there remains Michael Kinsley’s Law of Scandal. 

Kinsley’s law states that the real scandal isn’t what’s illegal – it’s what’s legal. 

Over the past decade, Galdes has accumulated a substantial property portfolio – most of it since he was made housing minister in 2017. Galdes insists it’s all legal and declared. 

Now consider the arithmetic. On a ministerial salary of €60,000 – respectable but not princely – Galdes has assembled a property empire whose timeline reads like a fever dream of acquisition. 

Here’s the known inventory. Early purchases (2015-17) – in Xagħra, Luqa, Qormi – could be explainable by aggressive saving and good timing. But then came three more Qormi properties in 2019 – less than €70,000 for the lot. 

A barter deal followed in 2020. He traded a Xagħra property valued at €135,000 for an Għarb property at €100,000, added free construction work to make up the difference and emerged with a completed house.

The Siġġiewi property – unconverted townhouse for €125,000 in 2021 – became a holiday rental. Because when you’re managing affordable housing for the nation, naturally you moonlight in the vacation rental business.

The Victoria penthouse with garage (2025): €140,000. Galdes claims he paid €5,000 in 2021 to lock in that price – a discount this newspaper has struggled to find anyone else securing.

Also this year: a €135,000 loan for property abroad, possibly the Italian apartment block Jason Azzopardi has asked the police to investigate. The property – €250,000 plus €120,000 in renovations for three apartments – is in Forni di Sopra, below the Dolomites.

Forni di Sopra translates as ‘upstairs ovens’, and Azzopardi is asking if this is where the books got cooked. Galdes has denied all allegations and promises legal action.

But if Azzopardi’s claim is dismissed, Galdes would still have a problem. The reason he’s been tasked with addressing affordable housing is precisely because property is unaffordable for many families. Yet, he has somehow made himself a property mogul on €60,000 a year. 

The explanation had better be spectacular. Galdes says all his properties are declared to the authorities. Fine. Now, please, declare them to logic – the sniff test of property experts.

If he inherited wealth, say so. If his spouse earns seven figures, say so. If he’s leveraging small properties into larger ones through brilliantly timed transactions and favourable loan terms – well, maybe it’s time we abolish the Ministry for Affordable Housing and set up a Ministry for Real Estate Self-Education. 

Instead, we’re getting generic replies that are unsatisfactory. The minister protests that scrutinising his property empire constitutes a personal attack (“terror”) on him and his family. No, it’s a defence of public trust. When you accept public office, you accept surveillance – or transparency, to call it by its dignified name. 

Roderick Galdes has been winning while the public was losing- Ranier Fsadni

Asking a minister how he accumulated a million-euro portfolio is called accountability, not terrorism. Some countries have laws that require politicians to explain their wealth – or else risk losing it.

Galdes insists everything he’s done is legal. But legality is the baseline. He has political obligations, not just legal ones. His paperwork suggests extraordinary luck or savvy. It needs explaining, not just declaring – immediately and thoroughly. 

The alternative is asking Maltese families struggling to afford a single apartment to trust that their housing minister just happens to be a real estate savant who, despite earning €60,000, has cracked the code that eludes them. 

That’s not governance. That’s insult – and it could seriously damage the government.

For now, the prime minister continues to support him. And Labour’s news organisation ONE defended him against the fresh revelations by Times of Malta, choosing to direct fire at Azzopardi.

It looks like another drama in which Labour closes ranks against the lone crusader but three details make it different. 

First, some of the barbs have come from inside Labour’s own tent. Former Malita Investments chair, Marlene Mizzi, went public about Galdes’s “hobnobbing” with contractors and improper interference. Azzopardi has dropped details that, if true, scream insider leaks, some from within the cabinet. 

Next, in other scandals, you could at least pretend the minister was just grabbing a little extra while delivering for the masses. Here? His personal housing fortunes were soaring while Malita racked up debts and unpaid bills. It has had to suspend works on three housing projects. Meanwhile, ordinary people are priced out of the housing market.

Galdes has been winning while the public was losing. This is a recipe for destroying credibility in the government and the regulatory system itself. If it’s all been legal, it only makes the optics worse.

Then there’s the clock. The police are involved via complaint; if they drag their feet, expect a magisterial inquiry push in mid-May. The questions to resolve are not rocket science – the deals are documented. Come budget time next year, the front pages might be all about Galdes’s innocence or indictment, drowning out whatever fiscal goodies Robert Abela has planned as he heads into a general election. 

If Abela continues to back Galdes, he must be feeling lucky. Or else he doesn’t think this is a game of chess – where a minister can be taken off the board like a captured piece – but one of dominoes, where if one piece falls, a whole line might follow, just before voters speak their mind.