Call for property to be valued at promise of sale

The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and the Federation of Industry have insisted that property valuations by a government-appointed architect should be performed at the promise of sale stage to ensure a fair valuation process.

Members were giving their views during a meeting with Finance Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech to discuss proposals regarding legal amendments to regulations on the tax on immovable property.

The Chamber and the federation appreciated that Mr Fenech agreed to meet them with urgency although both organisations expected a formal consultation process with the entire business community on such a crucial subject to commerce and industry.

The private-sector bodies raised the issue relating to offsetting capital gains on property with commercial losses.

They acknowledged the government's position on trying to discourage the hoarding of property and insisted that the commercial community must be given further incentives to invest in real business activity.

Earlier this week the timing of property valuations was the subject of disagreement between Nationalist MP John Dalli and Mr Fenech in Parliament.

Mr Dalli proposed that assessments by a government architect should start to be made when the promise of sale agreement is signed and before the actual transfer, in order to avoid problems.

He argued that this was needed especially since the tax penalty on the price difference was to rise.

Mr Fenech said that though he agreed with the suggestion in principle, no changes could be made at this stage before a detailed analysis of the implications, particularly if the sale took place quite some time after the assessment was made.