Several major estate agents have said they are seriously concerned over the fallout of the new rent law which came into effect earlier this year.

The onerous conditions regarding length of leases and the lack of freedom of contract were causing serious problems in the market, both for landlords and tenants, real estate agents represented by the Malta Developers Association said on Thursday.

The Housing Authority said on Wednesday it was seeing an average of 100 rental contracts registered every day, with a total of 3,600 rental contracts having been registered since the implementation of the Private Residential Leases Act in January.

But the estate agents said landlords were increasingly wary of entering into new contracts and were being over-selective of tenants.

The number of buy-to-lets dropped significantly and there was a real risk of properties, previously available for rent, entering the market for sale. This would push rental prices up during a time when there were clear market indications of lower demand.

The law did not resolve the ‘issues’ it was supposedly designed to resolve and had only created more issues.

The estate agents said they would be raising the issue during a meeting with the Malta Developers Associations and called on the authorities for an urgent review of the law.