At least, so says the President of the Association of real estate developers in Malta, Sandro Chetcuti. He has clearly formulated his position on this issue at the debate organized recently by audit firm EY.
At the moment, every Maltese square kilometer has 226 vacant real estate objects (for comparison: in the Czech Republic – 6 in Greece – 7). There are about 55 000 of such houses (in 2011 there were 70 000).
However, Mr. Chetcuti believes that there is no reasons for concern, as half of these buildings are second homes or cottages.
The second half of the vacant properties are the old and dilapidated housing, or houses that were transfered by inheritance to the new owners. Something is just put up for sale at an inflated price and therefore can not be sold within a short time. According to Sandro Chetcuti, the real estate sector is the most reliable in terms of investing in Malta. All other options are only "gambling".
However, most experts who gathered at the debate, did not agree with the point of view of the President of the Association of developers of Malta.
Marie Briguglio said that the local real estate market will not be able to maintain the current growth in housing prices. Economist Chris Meilak predicted a steady rise in prices, which will continue through loans, consistently issued at low interest rates, low unemployment, GDP growth and consistently high demand for Maltese real estate.
Based on the material of timesofmalta.com
Photocredit Depositphotos.com