Swieqi mayor fears new 100-flat block will be used for short lets

Swieqi mayor Noel Muscat fears a large apartment block currently under construction, which will add 100 apartments to the area, will be used for short lets.

Developers BILOM group told Times of Malta that the company plans on keeping 24 of these apartments to be used as short-term rentals, while it plans on selling the other apartments.

The company confirmed that around 15 finished apartments, owned by a third party, are currently being used for short-term rentals.

According to the Planning Authority’s website, the new block – located on Triq il-Qasam, Triq il-Qantar and Triq S. Cannataci – will have 20 maisonettes, 63 apartments, and 19 new penthouses.

A spokesperson for BILOM recognised that the increased number of short lets located in Swieqi is creating an issue for residents and potentially acting as a nuisance for future guests.

“My suggestion would be that every owner of a short-let property should pay an amount monthly that goes towards improving the presence of community police,” he said.

He added that most likely, if the situation does not improve, he is considering employing security personnel to oversee the block of flats.

Besides this property, Muscat also said that the developers of other buildings under construction have informed him that they plan on retaining the property and using it as a short-term rental.

The mayor claims that, from his rough calculations and assuming that the buildings going up will be used for short-term rentals, then by next year the number of beds offered by short lets in Swieqi will increase by 1,000.

He clarified that this figure was speculative and stressed that there needed to be a system whereby the number of bedspaces being offered by short-term rentals can be traced.

Muscat suggested that whenever an application is being filed with the Planning Authority, then a short-term rental property should be treated as something commercial rather than a residential block.

“I’m not against short lets; I’m against the lack of regulation. At this rate, we’re on track to lose our residential element and turn into a touristic place. We’re becoming an extension of Paceville,” Muscat said.

The mayor’s concerns come at a time when Swieqi’s residents are complaining about misbehaving tourists residing in short-term rental properties.

This is not a novel problem. A document seen by Times of Malta shows that Muscat had a meeting in 2016 with then-Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis, to discuss the issues linked with the “mushrooming” of short-let flats in Swieqi.

On Monday, Muscat released a statement addressed to the prime minister calling for a raft of measures, including suspension on permits for short-let properties, regular police patrols at night and on-the-spot fines, to tackle the “crisis” in the area.

Last week, short-term rental platforms Booking.com and Airbnb agreed to help with enforcement on their booking systems after residents approached them with these issues.