A video showing planning applications in Malta over the past 30 years reveals the building construction frenzy that has enveloped the country.
Using data from the Planning Authority website, the video shows the number of planning applications approved and rejected since 1993, with approvals split into those inside and outside of development zones.
The sites of the applications are shown on an aerial view of the country, which gradually fills up with different coloured shapes representing approved applications.
By the end of the video, almost 168,000 approved applications in development zones and 17,000 approvals outside of development zones can be seen covering Malta. Almost 29,000 applications were refused, equivalent to just 15% of the total approved.
Speaking to Times of Malta, the video’s creator, UK-based Maltese software developer David Vella, said he was inspired to make the video because he wanted to see a visual representation of development in Malta for himself.
“It felt like development in Malta was accelerating but I’m a visual person, so I wanted to see it,” he explained.
“I wasn’t surprised by the result - it was sad, but confirmed my suspicions,” said Vella.
The software developer said he had started the project more than three years ago, but it had remained unfinished until recently when he was unwell and decided to complete it to give himself something to focus on.
Vella, a former Times of Malta web developer, said he wrote a piece of software to extract publicly available data from the Planning Authority website and add it to a map of Malta according to the time and date of the application. Once the data was collected, the video took around 26 hours to make.
Each frame of the video represents one day, with a year covered in around six seconds. As each application is added to the map, a line of text explaining a summary of the application and, in many cases, its Planning Authority number is also shown.
The developer stressed that while the video shows approved applications outside development zones (ODZ), “many of these are legitimate,” pointing to applications for wall repairs and infrastructure projects such as underwater cables and fish farms as examples.
Nonetheless, Vella hopes the video provokes a discussion about the scope of development in Malta, adding that in the future, he would like to provide a similar visualisation showing the heights of buildings and the developers who have filed the most applications.
Since its release on social media platforms on Friday, Vella's video has been shared countless times.
In December 2022, Planning Authority data tabled in parliament showed the number of applications had declined following a peak of over 10,000 in 2018. The same data showed the number had shot up from 3,244 in 2013 to 9,112 in 2017.
And in October, the Malta Developers Association said it was "concerned" by the number of proposed developments in Outside Development Zones, saying such construction should only be allowed in already committed areas.