You and property in the EU

As the final days tick past before the referendum decides our future in Europe, it is essential that we sift lies from truths and half-truths from fiction.

Nowhere has the campaign of misleading and mudslinging been so evident and intense as in the misinformation about the property market.

Young couples and many others are being scared of membership as they are being told that they will be out of a job and unable to afford property once we join the EU.

As chairman of the Housing Authority with responsibility to ensure we have an adequate supply of affordable housing, it is really the right time to give my official views on this very sensitive and highly politicised area.

Let's start with some basics. Property prices in Malta and Gozo are likely to continue to rise. This has nothing to due with EU membership.

Indeed, if you are looking to buy your first home or in investing in property, that is exactly what you want to happen. In Malta as everywhere there is a contradiction in the property market.

When you want to buy you wish prices would come down. The minute you have bought you are ecstatic if they rise!

And you buy precisely because housing in Malta is a good investment, which in simple terms means your property will soon be worth more than what you paid for it.

So the vast majority of us who are property owners want property prices to go up! And we want this whether our political colour is red, blue or indifferent. None of us are indifferent about our own home and its value, now, are we?

The majority of us are owners and practically all the Maltese and Gozitans would be owners if they could. Simple facts.

The Housing Authority tries to help young people become owners if they cannot afford current market prices. In March we will issue around 130-150 more units for sale at very attractive prices.

Once again thanks to the good response to our last issue for sale single people can apply too, and across all the categories the most vulnerable, whether they have a disability or have spent their lives in care or have had to endure violence in their marriage, will all be given an extra advantage.

None of what we do will be jeopardised or threatened or lessened by EU membership.

We also help people who are now tenants to buy their homes, always adding to the proportion of owner occupiers in this country. And all this adds to the economy.

Everyone gains from this activity. Young people buy at cheaper prices, they use the services of banks, notaries, plumbers, air-conditioner suppliers, the list is endless. None of this can be affected by EU membership.

But there is another important and significant half-truth coming from those who oppose membership. Those who are now opposed set up a committee when they were in government to actually encourage foreigners to buy property here!

So why have all these spots scaring us of foreigners buying property here if you wanted to encourage it when you were in government?

And they were right to try and encourage it. In Malta and in Gozo we have an oversupply of units. Tens of thousands of empty properties are all around us. Let's hope some foreigners come in and buy and restore some of them.

And yet, even with this oversupply, prices always rise here. Of course. We are very small. We are densely populated. And because of the degradation in our environment there are certain localities where property has become incredibly desirable and in demand.

Property prices rise everywhere in Malta but, as in the rest of Europe location is the key. So properties in good location rise far higher than in others.

Even among the Housing Author-ity's clients the same is true. Now here we are talking about people with less purchasing power and consequently less choice. Yet when we issue beautifully designed and built units in Pembroke we are flooded with demand.

In fact in March we will bring another 28 units in Pembroke for sale at subsidised prices. Later next year another 70. None of this is threatened by EU membership.

In the last four years the Housing Authority has embarked on many new policies. One obvious one has been to improve the look of social housing. In a nutshell, to make it not look like social housing - and it has worked.

We are contributing to a better environment, to enhancing instead of degrading the way Malta looks. Buildings are there for ages and you need to factor this in when you are designing, something which doesn't always happen here.

Estate agents and banks will tell you this has been a very good year for the property business. That is good news for you, the property owner. And the best advice for aspiring property owners is to work hard and get on the property ladder as soon as possible.

That has always been good advice in Malta and Gozo irrespective of EU membership. Don't let half-truths mislead you. Understand what the EU is. It has its warts but at least it does not bray like a donkey with little brain power and go EEAAWW every time the truth is uncomfortable!