Over €2 billion worth of property was registered in 15,557 contracts of sale concluded last year, data tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna shows.
The 2015 property sales were a 35 per cent increase over 2013 figures when 12,272 contracts, worth €1.3 billion, were concluded.
The First Time Buyers’ Scheme, introduced in 2014, was a key driver, the data shows.
Applicable on home sales concluded between November 2014 and December this year, the scheme exempts first-time buyers from the 3.5 per cent stamp duty on the first €150,000 of their first home. This measure translates into potential maximum savings of €5,250.
The increase in the sales of apartments, the preferred choice of first-time buyers, points towards the popularity of the benefit. A total 5,196 apartments were sold in 2015 compared to the 3,577 in 2013, the last year before the introduction of the scheme.
The data indicates that 2,937 and 2,982 contracts benefitted from the scheme in 2014 and 2015 respectively. The number of exempted buyers were 4,011 and 4,043, saving a total of €25 million.
The attractiveness of the scheme is also confirmed by other data.
Last year the scheme peaked in June (665 contracts) and in September (616 contracts).
This tallies with the original plan to end the scheme in June and its extension to September 2015, following various stakeholders’ requests, including the Malta Developers’ Association, which originally proposed the scheme as a one-time measure.
Following these peaks, contracts plummeted to 108 in October, the lowest level in two years, pointing towards the possibility that the uptake was made up of advanced sales rather than new demand.
Besides helping young people acquire their first home, the Malta Developers’ Association said the incentive also helped the property market. In fact, the market of developable land was vigorous, compared to other land. While the sales of fields remained constant, airspace sales rose by 25 per cent between 2012 and 2015.
Replies to parliamentary questions shed light on the local property market over the last nine years.
A total 73,402 promises of sale have been registered since 2008 with an indicated value of close to €11 billion.
The lowest number of promises of sale was 7,841 in 2011 with €1.074 billion worth of property. Although 97 more promises of sale were registered in 2009 when compared to 2011, the value of the property included in the 2009 agreements was €100 million less than that in 2011.
The constant decrease in registered promises of sale, going on since the international financial crisis erupted in 2008, changed in 2013.