So let me get this straight. We are told that we absolutely must build all these swanky high-rises for billionaires who are waiting on their private runway for their private jet to transport them to Malta. There is a great demand for this type of high-end property, we are assured. Reputable surveys have shown that there are at least a few thousand billionaires, tapping their designer shoes impatiently, waiting on those runways for the Maltese Planning Authority to rubber stamp the permit for another vertical high-rise building.
OK, I made up that last sentence, but that’s the gist of what developers are telling us. With regard to high-rise developments they claim that it’s a case of “Build them, and they will come”. The ‘they’ in this equation refers to as-yet-unnamed absurdly monied people who will definitely drop anchor in Malta on condition that their high-rise apartments will be miles above the mortals scrabbling about in the street, that their living quarters be tremendously luxurious and a quality leap away from the hovels currently on offer. In developerspeak, we have to “upgrade our product”, otherwise those impatient billionaires will set up shop in Dubai or somewhere similar.
But hang on a minute. It seems that Malta – Modest Malta not Pimped Up Malta – has already managed to lure the millionaires. And it has done so without erecting those sky-blotting conceits. The eighth richest man in China, aluminium billionaire Liu Zhongtian, is registered as being resident in a modest-looking first-floor flat in Naxxar.
Now that’s not exactly pavement level, but still – first floor is way below the 40-storied high-rise buildings they are telling us will reel in the big investors.
There’s more. Other investors in the cash-for-passports scheme have registered their residence as being a tiny flat in Birżebbuġa. And – contrary to predictions – they don’t seem to be very touchy about exclusivity and privacy. In fact, it is reported that a Kaakh investor is registered at the same small Birżebbuġa flat as two Russian investors.
The only silicon in Smart City is in the sealant around the windows
This millionaire-flat-sharing trend seems to have caught on. An Azeri and Russian investor chose to make a flat in Mġarr their home while two other Russians opted for a flat in St Paul’s Bay. And not a high-rise in sight.
So what are we to make of all this? Are high-rises really necessary to attract high-end investors? If so, then how can we explain all these millionaires shacking up in low-rise Maltese villages like Naxxar, Birżebbuġa and Mġarr?
It must be one of two things. Either that millionaires who love Malta will come anyway – regardless of whether there are high-rises or not. Or that due diligence on that investment scheme is wonky.
Take your pick.
In either case, we would do well to study the statements of these Dubai dream developers to see if they really stand up to scrutiny, whether there really is such a high demand for high-rises in Malta, and what will become of these vertical coffins when demand tails off.
• It’s funny how history repeats itself and yet we never learn much from previous pie-in-the-sky proposals. Some nine years ago, the PN government was abuzz with enthusiasm about the next big thing – Smart City. It was supposed to be a high-tech, high-end project turning us into Silicon Island and (inevitably) a hub round which a zillion start-ups would revolve.
Austin Gatt told us there was no such thing as being too ambitious. Anybody who raised any doubts about the viability of the project or why public land was conceded at relatively low rates, was dubbed a wet blanket and who lacked vision.
Well, all those naysayers have been proved right. The only silicon in Smart City is in the sealant around the windows. The place has a disparate array of uses, ranging from pussycat shows to tribute shows. And the government has been flailing around madly to find ways of utilising it.
In a last desperate attempt to fill up those empty floors, it is now dumping the Malta Tourism Authority in Smart City, necessitating thousands of extra trips across the island. And it’s still an eyesore that tears up the landscape. Definitely a lesson which teaches us that one can be too ambitious and devoid of foresight at the same time.
• Raisa Tarasova is an expat who has lived in Malta for some nine years. She has a blog where she uploads her observations about life in Malta. It’s interesting to read as it shows a different, outside-looking-in perspective.
Her latest post underlines the disparity between the promotional bumph and the Maltese reality. Entitled “Malta 2016: All you see is cranes”, Tarasova has uploaded photographs of the many cranes that dot the skyline.
She writes: “We all know how Malta looks on tourist booklets: turquoise sea, Azure Window, Blue Grotto, luzzu boats. While the tourism sector of economy profits from these pretty landscape features, construction boom is actively reshuffling the cards and screwing everything up. Look around and picture what tourists see most frequently during their holiday in Malta. What do you see on your daily home-office-shopping routine? Blue Lagoon? Azure Window? No, what you see is cranes.”
And there were our tourism authorities thinking that the cranes were invisible.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt