Some 500 families who built their houses on land expropriated by the government 30 years ago, have finally become true owners of their properties after the government compensated the original land owners thus completing the expropriation process, Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said today.

He said that over the past two years, the government paid over €5 million to land owners for land expropriated three decades ago in Ghar Barka in Rabat, Burmarrad, Tal-Wej in Mosta, Sta Lucija, Ghajn Dwieli in Paola and Gudja.

Some of the payments were made today.

He said the people who built their houses on the expropriated land had been in an anomalous situation where they held the land only on convenium and thus could not use it as collateral for bank loans.

The present government's actions, he said, gave peace of mind to these home owners and justice to the land owners, who had been paid the value of the land, with interest.