53,000 properties lie vacant

If there were any need to show that the property market is facing an alarming oversupply, the 2005 census figures released on Friday are living proof.

The census shows that the number of vacant dwellings now amount to about 53,000, an astonishing increase of 17,000 since 1995.

In percentage terms, this means that 26 per cent of dwellings are vacant. Moreover, only 10,028 of these properties are holiday homes.

The picture painted by the survey defies the law of supply and demand, confirming that prices shot up in the past decade, despite the oversupply.

Moreover, it lays bare Malta's bizarre comparison with other European countries.

With a landmass almost eight times as large as Malta's and about 100,000 more residents, Luxembourg has some 20,000 fewer dwellings.

While there are 53,136 vacant properties in Malta, Luxembourg has only 4,000. Ireland, with a total stock of 1.4 million dwellings has only around 7,000 vacant dwellings or 0.5 per cent of the total stock.

Some European countries actually fare worse than Malta. Greece, for instance, topped the charts in 2001 with 35 per cent, while Portugal had 29 per cent in 2003 but none of them has a ratio of property-to-landmass which comes close to Malta's.

Between 1851 - since records have been kept - and 2005, the number of dwellings rose 5.8 times, from 32,968 to 192,314.

Yet, in the last 38 years alone, the number has doubled. Since 1995, the numbers shot up to 37,112 dwellings, of which 17,413 remained vacant.

The census found that most of the properties are in a good state of repair or need only some maintenance. But, only some 28,000 dwellings or about 14.5 per cent of the total stock is rented... and with good reason, it seems.

Rent paid averages Lm300 per year or Lm25 per month. Most landlords, in fact, received less than Lm200 per year for their rented property.

As expected, those in the 60+ categories feature more prominently in the rental market, while between 72 and 80 per cent of those aged between 20 and 49 own their homes.

Similarly, the socio-economic groups which feature mostly in the rental market are individuals who have separated from their married partner or have had their marriage annulled.