Malta Developers Association president Sandro Chetcuti yesterday showered praise on the Labour government for reviving the property market by accepting many of its suggestions.
Addressing the MDA’s annual general meeting that was also attended by both party leaders, Mr Chetcuti said the government was “supporting immensely the industry” and developers were managing to obtain “many new development policies which make sense”.
Citing lower tariffs levied by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, the introduction of new schemes for first-time buyers and a reform in how government architects evaluate property for tax purposes, he said these were major achievements by the association under the present government.
Mr Chetcuti said that even the new scheme for the sale of Maltese passports was giving a big boost to the building industry.
“The citizenship programme is an amazing opportunity for us,” he said. “We are seeing a lot of foreigners wanting to buy good property in Malta. This is very positive. Good times lie ahead for us.”
The meeting, which approved a motion to raise the association’s membership fee from €70 to €100 annually, was also addressed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.
Acknowledging that his government was working very well with the developers and was implementing many of the MDA’s suggestions, Dr Muscat said his government had managed to get the property market going again.
“I think that the market is responding well to the initiatives we are taking together with the developers,” he said.
Dr Muscat promised that he would continue to listen to the developers and to take even more incentives to keep the industry alive and kicking.
He spoke on what he called the big challenges in the sector, particularly separating the development and environment functions of the present-day Mepa. He said a new structure plan was under way, adding that policies had to be flexible.
Dr Busuttil admitted that under the last Nationalist legislature the government had been very inflexible and did not listen enough to the industry.
Recognising that the property industry was an important sector of the Maltese economy, he said it was important that a balance be struck between the use of land and the environment.
He said the Nationalist Party wanted to have an open door policy with developers, based on consultations and balance.
“My message to you is very clear: we want consultation, flexibility and balance,” he told the developers present.
Dr Busuttil said his party appreciated the need for further improvements in laws regulating development but said that one still had to see whether development boundaries needed to be extended further.