The Church in Malta, or more precisely the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission, has just issued a perfectly fair, non inflammatory and reasoned critique on, among others things, the social justice element of our recent hike in property prices (and the last five years particularly) which is making it harder for some young couples, as well as established married couples or separating families to get on the property ladder; on that at least we can all agree.

What I find disappointing is that there is very little proposed, if anything at all, in this paper that could address the problem properly. It is very easy to describe a problem, but far far harder to address it effectively; again something we can all agree on! To even begin to address the problem properly we have to be honest and admit that any central government action and intervention beyond what the government is doing by issuing yearly around 200 units for shared ownership would create many losers and perhaps not quite as many winners.

The Church rightly said that it does not want all this to be politicised but in effect, unless you propose solutions that are really tangible and not just pie in the sky you are entering the political fray and must then face the consequences of that. In fact, the bulk of the solutions proposed are currently the non-solutions of one political party, so it is disappointing that this paper did not look at the problem more profoundly and less superficially.

It is important though to admit one thing from the outset. The Church in Malta today, however indirectly, is contributing to there being some affordable homes on the market. The Housing Authority’s fledgling but continuing and burgeoning shared ownership programme relies very heavily on the element of Church land that the government passes on to the Housing Authority at regular intervals. Without this, literally thousands of young couples and families would never have been able to access home ownership, both in the past through a subsidised process and now through shared ownership.

So what are the solutions proposed? The most tangible is the one AD always proposes, which is reforming the rent laws. I have said it before and will say it again. Reforming the rent laws in general and removing the right of inheritance, which is a terrible miscarriage of justice, need to be done as a matter of social justice. The Church should admit that. Why should people who own property have to be denied access to it for their own children but then watch their tenants’ children inherit it? It is completely wrong and must change, with the necessary safeguards for a few older children who are currently living in properties they have lived in for 50 years plus.

But otherwise there is no evidence at all that this will bring down prices, either for rent or for sale. After all, the empty properties, (a separate group to those blighted by old fixed rents and are tenanted) save where there is a fight over the inheritance, could be put on the market and sold or rented out. This is not happening because people are, quite rightly in my opinion, holding on to their investment and it is going to take enormous carrots of incentives to break this impasse.

The truth, unpalatable though it is (so Church and political spokespersons dare not say it), is that people do not want to rent in Malta. They want housing for free. They want to rent at Lm10 to Lm20 a month. They want to go on a tour with Eurotours or Hamilton Travel but they do not want to pay rent. A roof over your head is something the majority who do not work hard expect for free. Up to now the government has used the private sector through the old fixed lets to do this. In the future, taxes will have to pay for it. And I am not sure many are willing to pay a great deal of taxes to fund housing for those who expect it for free, certainly not the three-bed maisonettes the Church talks about in its paper.

And let’s be even more honest. If the majority of engaged couples in Malta manage to buy a three-bedroomed flat or maisonette, it is an absolute miracle the Church should be thankful for. In what country in Europe do engaged couples have access to three-bed housing, or can afford to buy it in such large numbers? I am very glad many still manage to do it, but we are talking luxury not necessity here and I do feel the Church should use its pulpit to encourage people to be thankful for small mercies rather than fanning expectations of heaven on earth.

It is luxury to live in a three-bed flat before you even have your first child, before you are even married. It is luxury to finish and furnish homes in the way ordinary people do here. When my parents married all those years ago, they made do with odds and ends, bits and pieces. They slowly worked to have a home and in many cases this takes people a lifetime. Yet today’s quick fix generation want to be able to afford everything right away. What is the Church doing to reduce this materialistic culture? Or does it in reality have little influence beyond being where we all congregate on a Sunday, where we marry and where we die?

The problem is this. Too many people have become mini millionaires in property too quickly. Too many people are sitting on goldmines. It is hardly worth working any more. Every salary looks ridiculous compared to what people are making in a matter of weeks, months or years in property. If all this collapses there may not even be cheaper homes, because if the rich collapse we will all collapse with them. Therefore a decline in prices may not be as desirable as we think, though perhaps using interest rates to slow things down is required.

Property is not just our home today. It is also our only chance for a decent pension because however government tinkers with pensions you won’t be able to live well on it, so there is now a rush to buy second homes as pension funds which is also inflating prices. Grandparents are being hassled to help their family members get on the property ladder. So far it is just hassling, it could get much more serious.

First we brought in all that money from abroad and that inflated prices. Now we are bringing in the euro so all the liri under the bed are also going into property. We will have more price hikes (although there is a lot of unsold property) until the euro change and maybe some more demand because of low cost airlines. The rich will get richer, the poor will be with us always and will certainly be unable to buy a home, as they are unable to do anywhere in Europe.

Housing wealth in Malta is creating two Maltas. I think the Church, all the political parties, the bankers and contractors need to get together soon to ensure we do not have too bumpy a landing in the next few years and not too many losers. For those with St Tropez type homes life is rosy, for those renting or buying in Bugibba life is very very different. If we want to get out of this challenging time we all have to put the rose tinted spectacles away, get rid of the bleeding heart cataract approach and maybe have laser treatment too? Trouble is, do we want to?

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