A lot has been written about the government’s plans to build five university colleges in the limits of Marsascala. Beyond the controversies surrounding the actual motives behind this project and the decision to encroach ODZ land, there exists another aspect that has been given scant attention.

The development of the American University of Malta is likely to start a process of gentrification in Marsascala. Defined in very broad terms, gentrification is a process wherein households belonging to a lower socio-economic background are gradually forced out of a particular location due to the urban renewal of that area.

The announced project will represent, as rightly underlined by the government, an unprecedented investment for the region. It is for this very reason that the administration must deal very carefully with the potential effects that such plans would have on certain dynamics that have, in the meantime, come about within the area.

This development constitutes an exception precisely because it is not taking place in a locality that is conventionally allocated a project of these dimensions.

Marsascala is known to host several households that may certainly not be regarded among the most affluent in Maltese society. Although according to the latest census Marsascala’s proportion of rented dwellings was even lower than the national average (14.8 per cent against the nationwide 19.9 per cent), there is very little doubt that the figures are skewed by a number of undeclared property rentals (the rate of vacant dwellings in Marsascala total up to 42 per cent of all the properties).

In a parliamentary question addressed to the then minister for the family and social solidarity in 2013 it was additionally revealed that the largest number of applicants who were on the waiting list for social housing due to high rents hailed from St. Paul’s Bay and Marsascala (90 and 63 applicants respectively).

The latest census also evidenced that the northern and the south eastern harbours, in which the two towns are located, received the greatest number of immigrants aged 20 to 39.

The development of the American University of Malta is likely to start a process of gentrification in Marsascala

If the plan goes ahead, and the private university eventually accepts anything close to 4,000 students, the area will face a renewed demand for rental accommodation.

Given the kind of students that the university is aiming to attract and the proposed area’s detachment from nearby villages, rents are expected to take an upward swing and most of the tenants will be priced out of the market.

While there certainly exists no argument in favour of the latter’s right to remain within these dwellings indefinitely – not only have such past legal impositions provoked the paralysis of the Maltese private rental market but the landlords’ right to market-related profits has come to be regarded as a fundamental entitlement by the European Court of Human Rights – the government is certainly responsible for the smooth housing transitions of these individuals.

One such measure could be a region-specific ‘rent observatory’ that would allow the government to monitor any resultant fluctuations (this was the approach used by the Loi Duflot in Paris and other cities under pressure in France).

The abrupt displacement of vulnerable individuals would undoubtedly continue to weaken our social structures while reinforcing the idea that civic participation is intrinsically tied to income.

In this respect, one may certainly praise the minister’s plans to establish a new emergency shelter for the homeless although, perhaps, greater thought should be put into devising strategies that are capable of effectively preventing the increase of this phenomenon in the first place.

The realities present in the area earmarked for the construction of the university, environmental issues aside, will certainly present new challenges to the administration.

While attracting foreign capital to Malta and reviving investment in the south remain two undisputed priorities, a more holistic and socially cohesive approach is required to guide urban development in the region.

Kurt Xerri is a lawyer and a doctoral researcher at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain.