Investigate the Property Cartel
Press Release: Top-level MDA resignations cast shadows on lobby’s intentions for the market
“The public rift in the Malta Developments Association is more than a simple disagreement between board members, for it exposes a concerted effort by the lobby to control property prices,” said Il-Kollettiv in a statement following the resignation of three MDA board members.
“MDA President Michael Stivala never objected to public land in Mellieha and Villa Rosa being given for ridiculously cheap sums to former Secretary General Paul Attard and Anton Camilleri in Mellieha Heights and Villa Rosa respectively. Both developments will see units sold at market prices,” said il-Kollettiv secretary Wayne Flask.
“Stivala, however, has complained to the EU about a scheme which seeks to open the market to a third of Malta’s under-35 population which, according to many studies, does not afford to buy property in its own country. Out of so many grants and subsidies throughout the years, this is the only one which makes property affordable. That’s why the MDA found it so diabolical.”
Quoting NSO figures for the period between 2020 and 2024, Flask said that the population has increased by 11.5%, permits for new dwellings have risen by 15.2%, but property prices have gone up by 29%. By 2025, property prices had gone up by 35%.
“It is clear that supply outstrips demand, and the majority of foreign workers relocating to Malta do not afford to buy or rent a unit on their own. So why are prices up by three times the increase in demand?”
“Stivala’s concerns about the free market and the Housing Affordability Scheme should extend to the whole property market. The MDA has a stranglehold on property prices since it incorporates the Federation of Estate Agents within its ranks. The builders’ lobby acts as one with the lobby who effectively sets the property prices; this doesn’t look like a free market at all,” said Flask.
“The MDA has been waging a years-long campaign to discredit the NSO’s and the Central Bank’s figures. After months of press releases in which the MDA boasted property sales higher than those quoted by the NSO – without providing its methodology to the media – it has now joined forces with the key players in the property market to create a ‘transparent price index’ which costs €3,600 for a two-year subscription. This is prohibitive even for a newsroom, and very expensive for anything that claims to be transparent.”
Flask reiterated the group’s support for the Affordable Housing Scheme as an opportunity for hundreds of workers to own a home. He noted how Property Malta, another state entity run by top developer Sandro Chetcuti, directly undermines this opportunity by setting Maltese property prices to attract “investors” from Dubai and China while pricing out many Maltese.
Flask proposed a tax on property hoarding as a solution for the “impossible” property prices. “Taxing vacant properties owned by big developers and their fronts would disincentivise the sort of speculation – sometimes involving public land – which sees properties being eased into the market at the developers’ convenience.”
He also said that the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority should make the advertising of property prices per square metre mandatory, as the first step in ensuring a minimal level of transparency in the market that is accessible to all consumers.
