'We're moving the mountain'

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo yesterday expressed satisfaction that the government has promised to change the existing rent laws.

At a public meeting in Castille on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said an amendment to the existing rent law was in the pipeline after the issue had been repeatedly brought up by members of the audience claiming they suffered because of "outdated" rent laws.

AD had in the past weeks started campaigning in favour of a referendum which would abrogate all existing rent laws.

Speaking to The Times yesterday, Dr Vassallo said AD had managed to place the issue on the national agenda.

"We're happy that we got the mountain moving," Dr Vassallo said, adding that AD would be happy for the Prime Minister if he managed to implement a reform.

However, Dr Vassallo said, the promise made by Dr Gonzi that the government would go for a more "just and fair" rent law did not mean anything in practice.

"The government should say what its concrete proposals are," he said.

At this point, AD had no intention to bring its campaign to a halt but would keep up the pressure until concrete results were achieved.

Dr Vassallo said the AD campaign went beyond a few changes in the rent law. Instead, the Green Party looked at the matter from a broader perspective which also contemplated a revision of the property market.

"We are not expecting property prices to go down just because rent laws are changed. What we want to have is a competitive rent market so that young people may have a choice of not spending their entire lives stretching themselves to pay off home loans," Dr Vassallo said.

Rent prices would go down if people who owned property were encouraged to rent out vacant houses they owned. In turn, tenants would be better off if they took loans to invest in business rather than for a home loan, Dr Vassallo said.