Mepa permits drop to 3,064
Increase in maisonette prices
The number of permits issued by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (Mepa) for residences fell to just 3,064 units in 2012, a far cry from the peak of 11,343 seen in 2007, according to the Central Bank of Malta’s Quarterly Review.
In 2011, 3,955 permits were issued.
There were only 958 permits for new premises issued, compared with 2,636 in the record year of 2007.
It is worth noting that a permit for an apartment block, for example, would be for several units. The drop in units was spread across almost all the different types of dwelling, with the largest category – apartments – clearly seeing a proportionate large drop. The only category which saw growth was terraced houses, which increased from 191 units in 2011 to 202 in 2012.
The number of permits for commercial and social development also fell, from 1,720 in 2011 to 1,598 in 2012, with a drop in agricultural development being made up for to an extent by tourism-related projects and other community ones.
Average prices of residential properties fell at an annual rate of 2.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2012, following a drop of 1.2 per cent in the previous quarter. However, over the year as a whole, average property prices increased by 0.5 per cent, as a rise in prices in the first half of the year offset the declining trend in subsequent quarters. This marginal increase in the index was well below the increases recorded in the previous two years. Quoting its own property price index, the Bank said that the drop in the fourth quarter reflected diverging movements in the prices of different segments of residential properties.
Whereas prices for maisonettes and terraced houses increased, those for apartments and other properties including town houses, houses of character and villas, dropped.
In the last quarter of last year, asking prices for apartments, which made just over half of the properties surveys, saw an annual drop of 3.2 per cent, a larger decline than in the previous quarter.
Advertised prices in the “other” category fell by 0.9 per cent, owing to a drop in prices for villas and for houses of character.
In contrast, during the fourth quarter of 2012, prices for maisonettes and for terraced houses increased by 1.6 per cent and 0.9 percent, respectively.