Swieqi mayor calls for raft of measures to tackle short-let apartment 'crisis'

A temporary suspension on permits for short-let properties, regular police patrols at night and on-the-spot fines are among the measures being called for by Swieqi’s mayor in a bid to tackle reported antisocial behaviour in the locality.

In a statement addressed to the prime minister, deputy prime and tourism minister, permanent secretary and other officials, Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat called for a raft of measures to tackle the “crisis” in the area.

Pointing to rubbish being placed on the street outside of collection days and times, “night and day disturbances and vandalism”, Muscat laid the blame on short-let apartments, which he said had “raped and stripped [Swieqi] of its residential nature”.

“We know for a fact that the bulk of these problems are caused by tourists residing in short-let apartments, the cleaning of short-let apartments and the quality of some of these tourists”, wrote Muscat.

The mayor called for a “moratorium on short-let permits” until a carrying capacity for the locality has been carried out and for such apartments to be reclassified for commercial use.

Muscat argued that short-let apartments should not be allowed in the locality due to their commercial nature, noting that as a schemed residential priority area, Swieqi is subect to restrictions on business activities.

He said Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) permits should only be issued “if certain conditions are satisfied”, such as rules on garbage disposal and noise, and called for MTA approval to be required for change-of-use requests to reclassify an apartment as being for short lets.

Meanwhile, the authority should not issue short-let licenses to buildings without a garbage storage room or private collections, he said, while stressing that landlords should be “held accountable” for disturbances that take place in their properties.

Police should regularly patrol Swieqi at night and issue on-the-spot fines supported by body cameras, while shops in the area should not be allowed to sell alcohol past 11pm, said Muscat.

“Swieqi is essentially a residential area, born in the mid-Sixties, attractive mostly to people moving out of Sliema and St. Julian’s, and never intended to have any significant commercial activity,” he said.

He added the area’s designation as a residential priority area “means that hotels and guest houses are not allowed, and even shops are only permitted... if they are local in nature and of a limited size”.

Meanwhile, "many houses" were being demolished in favour of apartment blocks, "with the obvious intention of using them for short-letting", Muscat said, adding short-let accomodation would grow by an estimated 1,000 beds by next summer.

“I have to stress that the situation in Swieqi has reached unbearable and intolerable levels, and many residents who choose to live in Swieqi are now having second thoughts and moving out,” said the mayor.

He said that despite complaining about such issues for nine years, each successive tourism minister had failed to address the problem.

“Residents deserve respect, and they should live in their locality in a tranquil, decent and pleasant environment. They too deserve a better quality of life”.

On Friday, Swieqi residents “successfully engaged” with short-let platforms booking.com and Airbnb to tackle issues with problematic rentals in their area, Momentum said.  

And last month, the party launched a parliamentary petition calling on the government to take immediate action to address the ongoing disruption caused by short-term tourist rentals. 

Residents in the area have long complained about antisocial behaviour by tourists in the area; in May, an Austrian tourist was handed a suspended sentence after admitting to walking around Swieqi naked, save for a pair of slip-on shoes and a cap.  

Meanwhile, last year, a group of tourists renting an Airbnb were caught on CCTV camera urinating in public on a residential street, as residents and Swieqi mayor decried a string of incidents of anti-social behaviour including widespread vandalism.