The Malta Developers’ Association, an aggressive and influential lobby group on behalf of construction development in Malta, launched a survey of the building industry during an event held at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Apart from giving a snapshot of the current state of the construction industry, the MDA is hoping the study will serve as a benchmark for policymakers, entrepreneurs and developers. The first findings are expected by the summer.

The survey by KPMG, one of Malta’s leading audit firms, will be conducted over a three-year period and will range over every aspect of the industry. One of the most important parts of the study will be to establish the prevailing stock of vacant properties and the quality of accommodation available on the market.

The report will not shy away from establishing whether there is a risk of a ‘housing bubble’, where demand is mostly driven by speculation until a sharp drop in prices leads to a market corrective with serious consequences for investors and the banking sector.

The highly-respected Church Environment Commission has commented on the developers’ initiative with a considered and impassioned response, sensibly underlining that it would be wrong to regard the outcome of the KPMG survey as a suitable basis for holistic planning decisions by the government. It has pointed out that the survey will inevitably be coloured by the MDA’s own remit and interests as KPMG’s paymasters.

Given that the survey was launched by the lobby group in the Prime Minister’s Office, the Church commission may well feel justified in their concern. The developers’ association may plead that, rather like the Malta Hotels and Restaurants’ Association’s quarterly surveys, this is not meant to be a basis for the development of national land-use policy but the suspicion nonetheless hangs over it.

The Church commission has acknowledged that, while the KPMG survey will undoubtedly add some value to the sum of knowledge of this highly-charged subject, it felt the government was still in duty-bound to launch a truly national and fully objective study into Malta’s housing, construction industry and land-use problems.

Going right to the nub of the issue, it said: “Such a study [on the demand and supply of Maltese properties and the fiscal and economic environment that has a bearing on them]” should “go beyond the interests pertaining to a particular section of Maltese society and take into account every aspect related to the quality of life of one and all.”

That we have all heard this before, from civic society and politicians, does not detract in the least from the need for urgent action to find positive remedies. We still recall that the 2008 general election was largely fought on a promise to deal with “the environmental deficit”. Nine years later, under a Labour government that appears to be joined at the hip to the developers and construction industry lobby, the situation is markedly worse.

Malta’s progress should not be measured solely on how the economy performs without taking due account of the social and environmental realities of uncontrolled development. The “building industry is not the only industry that sustains the economy of our country. We need to consider the effect of the lack of space… on the quality of life, on other industries and on the Maltese [people] themselves”.

With two years to an election, only a new administration committed to truly sustainable environmental and enlightened land-use policies can relieve the relentless assault on Malta’s quality of life.

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