AD rubbishes minister's claim on property prices

Environment Minister George Pullicino was talking like a real estate agent when, in papers distributed to households on development trends in Swieqi, he justified the disaster caused by redevelopment by saying it would increase the value of surrounding property, Alternattiva Demokratika said yesterday.

"He is not distributing these papers like a minister, who has a broad vision for the good of all, but with the narrow mentality of an estate agent," AD chairman Harry Vassallo charged.

"Mr Pullicino is not giving a guarantee of an increase in families' capital; he is merely adding to the danger that the capital they invested would no longer have a value by increasing the number of extra and empty properties that we are never ever going to be able to fill."

His voice could barely be heard over the rumbling, hammering and vibrating of excavation works at Pender Gardens in St Julians - the backdrop to the press conference.

The venue was chosen, Dr Vassallo said, because Pender Gardens was a controversial project that, in the context of a country that had 53,000 vacant properties, did not make any sense.

He said it was a case of pure speculation, pointing out the sacrifices of the residents, the damage to neighbouring houses, the shade being cast on the properties and the increasing traffic around them, which could not be justified.

The communities of St Julians and Swieqi, like many others, had just about started to settle and the localities have now been turned into development areas once again, into "quarries" of noise and dust, he said. Due to the high cost of property, families were being constrained to demolish their homes to build flats for their children so that they would not be crucified by loan repayments extending over 40 years.

All this was occurring in the light of the fact that 28 per cent of homes were empty and 60 per cent of these were in a habitable state.

AD has proposed incentives to put the empty properties back on the market, including that rental income is taxed at 15 per cent so that landlords are encouraged to rent out.

Fiona Galea Debono