Developers applying for high-rise buildings are ignoring the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on architecture and construction, conservationist NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar has warned. 

“International studies indicate that high-rise buildings will become more expensive to build, less efficient and less desirable as companies and families avoid cramped offices and multi-unit residential blocks, having to share lobbies, lifts and corridors with hundreds of others," FAA coordinator Astrid Vella said.

"This will reduce the economic attractiveness of investing in tall towers both for offices and residential uses.”

In a statement on Saturday, the NGO called on authorities to use this time to plan for a "better, healthier, post-COVID Malta". 

It warned that instead of taking stock of the new situation, the construction industry was continuing with business as usual. 

"Deafening excavations continued, causing great distress to people stuck at home. As landfills reached capacity, cowboy developers are avoiding dumping charges by illegally dumping thousands of tons of debris in the open countryside, forming veritable rubble hillsides along Żebbuġ’s highly-protected Wied Qirda, a fact that could not have passed un-noticed, yet continues unchecked."

FAA also pointed to a recent development beside the Xagħra Stone Circle, a megalithic remain close to the Ġgantija temple site. It said trees had been uprooted and protected dry-stone walls destroyed without any monitoring by heritage authorities, and that no action had been taken despite reports to the Planning Authority.  

"Public protests have made it clear that we cannot go on this way. The drop in the demand for property due to the pandemic has also meant that there is no justification to add to the over-development of the islands, and ignore abuse, both of which are undermining tourism, the true pillar of our economy," FAA said.

It also called for a nationwide master-plan to guide future development, as well an in-depth study of the country's carrying capacity, requirements of different age groups, income and wealth distribution and how people live and travel within Malta.