The Housing Authority has launched a new rental scheme through which property owners can rent their premises to the authority that will then sublease it to tenants at subsidised rates.

Property owners will benefit from a reduced tax rate of five percent on their guaranteed rental income and will enter a contract with the authority for a minimum of 10 years, said Housing Authority Chairman Charles Borg.

The property must be finished, have all necessary planning permits and be up to standard.

An independent board will evaluate property to ensure it matches standards and to determine how much the authority will pay, in commercial rates, depending on the location and size of the property.

The authority will then sublease the property at a subsidised rate, Mr Borg said. He added that the authority will take the responsibility of the property once leased. The authority would be strict when it came to regulating tenants as it did not want to discourage property owners from entering the scheme, he stressed.

Family Minister Dolores Cristina stressed that the scheme was not aimed at filling substandard properties that no one wanted.

It was aimed at providing families, who had social problems, with housing while moving away from the concept of housing estates.

She said that the Housing Authority currently had a waiting list of about 2,000 people of which about 500 fell under the priority list and included people who needed to change home as it was too small or big, people living in shelters such as domestic violence victims and former prison inmates.

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