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Julian Manduca
As if Malta did not already have enough empty buildings, MEPA has informed us that an additional 4,000 were added in a record year for the issuing of building permits for housing: 6128 in 2003.
On Tuesday MEPA issued a press release, carried the next day as a top front-page story in In-Nazzjon, citing a 70 per cent increase in the number of permits issued for apartments and explaining how building development is being restricted to urban areas.
The point about the increase in vacant dwellings was not made in MEPA’s press release. The record breaking number of permits for dwellings were issued when the rate of household formation – which can roughly be translated into the demand for housing – remains at approximately 1,700 annually. Malta had 35,723 vacant dwellings in 1995 and since that year MEPA has issued 30,197 building permits for dwellings up to end 2003. Given the 1,700 rate for household formation, that would mean the vacant stock of housing will have increased by 16,597 to have reached a staggering 52,320 at end 2003.
If that trend continues and similar numbers of permits are issued in the coming years Malta will have more than double the number of dwellings planned in MEPA’s Topic Paper on Housing which will form part of the new Structure Plan. According to that plan Malta should build 41,200 dwellings between 2000 and 2020.
Building vacancy is considered to be a serious problem by town planners. Given Malta’s size and resources the problem is even more acute. When the last census was conducted in 1995 it was found that about 75 percent of vacant housing stock in Malta is new or in a good state: ready to move into.
In 2003 4,548 apartments were granted planning permission up from 2,657 in 2001 and 3,420 in 2002. The number of permits for terraced houses, maisonettes, bungalows and villas was down in 2003 from 2,061 (2002) to 1,580 and MEPA has welcomed a change in the type of permits being requested and granted.
Director of Planning Chris Borg greeted the news going on record stating: “This clearly indicates that people are increasingly choosing to build more than one unit on a plot of land. Such a choice reflects changes in the way we are looking at land use and implies also changes in social and economic patterns.”
MEPA director general Dr Godwin Cassar also welcomed the news stating this had indicated that MEPA’s decade-long policies to constrain sprawl and shift building development onto existing built-up areas was showing “excellent results”.
According to MEPA’s Housing Topic Paper adopted on 1 March 2002, “a conservative estimate of current residential capacity indicates a clear over-supply, with the equivalent of 98,300 residential units being available within current housing allocations (excluding vacant property and relaxed height limitations in emerging local plans).”
In 2001, 4,180 dwellings were granted permits, and in 2002 that number went up to 5,481 before 2003 broke all records with 6,128. That number excludes the permits which are issued for commercial premises which in 2001 amounted to 4,698 and in 2002, 3,955.
The number of permits issued for commercial premises in 2003 was not disclosed by MEPA. For the past eight years the number of commercial premises approved by MEPA was close to 4,000 yearly.
julian@newsworksltd.com
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