‘Permanent Residents Scheme never meant to sell property’

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in Parliament yesterday that the currently-suspended Permanent Residents Scheme had never been intended exclusively to sell property, but to entice people of certain affluence to move residence to Malta, with all the benefits that that entailed to various sectors of the economy.

He was answering a question by Opposition Whip Joe Mizzi, who asked if and when the government intended to reopen the scheme.

Minister Fenech said the government was currently in the process of revising the scheme to make it conform to its original purpose. The purchase of property was just one of the conditions for a new permanent resident to benefit from the scheme.

EU citizens already benefited from the freedoms provided by the Union, and did not need the scheme to be able to buy property here.

The ministry had information showing that there had been a number of cases where the scheme had been “incorrectly” advertised, leading to a number of people accessing the scheme and rightfully becoming residents of Malta, accessing the same benefits available to Maltese and resident EU citizens. This included health services, which represented a great financial burden to the taxpayer.

The government had met representatives of the property sector and the Chamber of Commerce, and would be presenting the revised scheme in the next few weeks.

Labour MP Roderick Galdes pointed out that with every passing week Malta was potentially losing thousands of euros’ worth of foreign investment.

Minister Fenech said there had been occasions when property negotiators had gone overseas and simply sold property to foreigners without the onus of ever coming to Malta to reside here. With the minimum prices laid down for buying property there could be people of lesser affluence purchasing property and benefiting from social services, which was counter-productive to the original aims of the scheme. Alfred Sant (PL) asked why the Finance Ministry was taking so long to decide on the revision one way or the other.

Minister Fenech said the government’s duty was to take all steps to ensure that the revised scheme would be as foolproof as possible. If it took another month to finalise, it would be time well spent.

As reported in yesterday’s edition of The Times, the real estate business section of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry voiced concern about the suspension of the scheme, which last year injected €35 million to the economy. It said that real estate contracts for non-EU nationals were in limbo.