Property sales in 2020 generated around €3 billion in turnover, the Malta Developers Association said on Saturday, matching results obtained in 2019. 

The MDA said that 13,867 promises of sale had been signed between January and December of last year – 624 more than were registered one year prior. 

Sales boomed in December, when 1,390 promises of sale were signed for a total value of €382 million, according to the MDA’s preliminary data. 

 “The value of the sales produced in 2019 and 2020 was similar, surpassing the €3 billion mark for each year,” the lobby group said. 

It said the results showed that government intervention to limit the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had worked and that as a result the property sector had flourished and “surpassed expectations”. 

The lobby group said the €3 billion in property sales would generate hundreds of millions of euro in taxes for the public purse. 

Malta’s construction sector has boomed over the past 12 months, despite an economic slowdown caused by the global pandemic and a construction site collapse which killed a woman inside her own home.

Miriam Pace was buried alive beneath rubble when walls of her Santa Venera house caved in on her. Four people involved in excavation works next door have been charged with her death. 

Prime Minister Robert Abela had appointed a commission to recommend reforms to the sector’s regulations following that tragedy in March 2020, but said last week that the commission’s report would remain secret. 

That decision prompted anger and dismay from construction collapse victims, activists and stakeholder groups.