Vacant housing: more targeting, less generalising

Vacant housing is everybody who is a green anyboy's favourite hobby-horse right now. Amid the worrying figures can we please have less generalisations and more targeted suggestions?

Let's get the facts clearly ahead of us first. There are in Malta and Gozo around 3,000 people on the housing waiting list. This is one barometer of how many new or rehabilitated houses we need.

There are, on the other hand, around 35,000 empty ones (including summer houses) and 20,000-odd which are vacant all year around.

Either way the conclusion is obvious. You cannot have a hoarding tax on all vacant property. It would be incredibly unfair, as even if all the owners wanted to use them/rent them, there is simply not enough demand.

Another issue concerns the location of these vacant properties and whether this constitutes a problem. Again, there is a high number of these empty units in the North of Malta and in Gozo.

I think we can all agree that these are relatively prosperous areas with low levels of social housing demand.

On the other hand there are high levels of vacant housing in Valletta and the Three Cities. Now here this is a problem. This is where Malta's poorest communities live. We are also talkng about our capital city, a world heritage site and obviously a mecca for tourists, particularly those who come off our cruise liners (at least it should be!).

Having vacant housing in these areas is a problem. Firstly, it is almost insulting for those who live there and are often sharing and living in overcrowded conditions. Secondly, it is a shame for the Maltese and for our visitors when we see former beautiful towns with so many empty buildings in disrepair or with crumbling balconies.

Therefore, I strongly believe that any strategies aimed at reducing the number of vacant properties should first target these areas.

A national strategy on vacant housing is unlikely to work fairly and well, not least because of the huge differences between, say, Gozo and Valletta!

Let's target Valletta and the Three Cities first and if we achieve a miracle or the beginnings of one, let's move on and discuss other areas.

The first and perhaps the easiest area to tackle should be government-owned housing. There are no official vacancy rates but we are talking about three sources:

1. Government housing built after the war;
2. Housing which was owned by the Church; and
3. Housing or property owned by the Lands Department.

Post-war government housing. It might surprise the general public but the Housing Authority doesn't even own the houses it builds today. When we build them and transfer them to the Department of Social Housing for allocation, they become the property of the Lands Department, which essentially means they are not managed, or cannot be managed as well as they could.

Government owns about 9,000 of these and we have no clear picture of who is in them, who is underoccupying, who is living there without a proper licence.

The title of these properties should be transferred to the Housing Authority, that must then, from the rental revenue it collects, fund a team of housing officers who will provide Malta's first ever social housing service, ensuring properties are maintained, ensuring tenants pay their rent, as well as ensuring that tenants are in receipt of all the welfare benefits they are entitled to.

Another requirement, and a very difficult one in a country where might is right, is the settling of disputes between neighbouring tenants, including action which does not exclude firm action against those who persist in anti-social behaviour.

I am here talking about the very few tenants who literally terrorise their neighbours and simply nothing is done, because nobody (as is usually the case!) owns the problem.

It is also bad for the legitimate tenants who have little recourse when other tenants break tenancy conditions and keep all sorts of animals - from large snakes to dogs - or who behave in an intimidatory manner.

If we're serious about using up what we have and not wasting we must manage these units properly, and that includes charging and collecting a fair rent.

Housing which was owned by the Church. These are also called the Joint Office properties. I have always heard the rumour that the Church kept the best of these for itself, but whatever the truth is... those units which Government now owns need to be used, not necessarily for social housing, but a use must be found, even if it involves private sector investment.

Leaving these buildings to rot should not be an option.

Housing owned by the Lands Department. Again, official figures are hard to come by, but there is undoubtedly a resouce here, and one which must be tapped.

There is of course too all the privately owned and vacant housing in these areas. Here I would like to see more carrots and less sticks.

Successive governments have themselves created these problems by having rent laws, which mean tenants in Malta on old fixed rents pay almost no rent while the landlord is obliged to repair. There are many exceptions, of course, but landlords have been hassled long enough and it is about time we incentivised rather than discouraged landlords.

While Government can try to tackle government-owned units, it would be beneficial to have a semi-government agency charged with urban renewal, possibly with special and new powers given to it by Parliament, but initially charged specifically with the urban renewal of Valletta and the Three Cities.

The Housing Authority currently only has around six years of land supply left. Its building programme including its urban renewal programme is currently carried out by the Department of Building and Construction.

Urban renewal clearly needs its own focus and its own injection of funding, including some form of partnership with the private sector. It may be possible to transform part of the Department of Building and Construction into a fully-fledged Urban Renewal Agency, as the Housing Authority could easily carry out its new building programme itself much more cost effectively than is the case to date.

Instead of throwing our hands in the air and looking at the whole problem of vacant housing as unsolveable, let's just take particular localities and take specific and targetted action.

Improvement can definitely be achieved and fewer mistakes will be made if we think, target and achieve small scale...

Ms Micallef Leyson is chairman of the Housing Authority