This policy applies to all new building units built by the Housing Authority for rent, and not to all government-owned properties. By “locality”, the authority means not only the town or village one is residing in, but also in the surrounding areas.

An analysis of the applications showed that Birkirkara has the greatest number of applicants who want to remain living in this locality. There are also a great number of applicants who want to continue living in Valletta (58 per cent).

St Paul’s Bay and Gzira have the least number of applicants that want to remain in this locality. However 64.7 per cent of the applicants in Gzira want to live in areas close to Gzira and 57 per cent of applicants from St Paul’s Bay want to remain living close to this area.

The locality with the greatest number of applications came in from Valletta with 298 applications – almost 10 per cent of all the applications.

Housing Authority chairman Marisa Micallef Leyson said the authority tried its best to meet the needs of these people who want to remain in the same communities. “This new policy will be of specific help to families, older people as well as single or disabled people who have strong community networks and support,” she said.

From now on, when we build units for rent and transfer them to the Department of Social Housing for allocation, half of them will have to go to the people of the locality, always according to the points system of course, she said.

Valletta (298 Applicants)

Out of these 298 applicants from Valletta, a total of 172 applicants want property in Valletta (58 per cent). This means that more than half of the applicants from Valletta want to continue living in Valletta. Only 126 applicants (42 per cent) want to move out of this locality.

Cospicua (232 Applicants)

A total of 94 applicants want to continue living in Bormla (40.5 per cent). However there are a total of 114 applicants who want to remain living in the Cottonera area. The total percentage of applicants from Cospicua who want to remain living in the Cottonera Area is 49 per cent.

Birkirkara (170 Applicants)

A total of 106 applicants want to continue living in this locality. More than half of the applicants from this locality (62 per cent) want property in this locality. Only 38 per cent of the applicants from Birkirkara want to move out of this locality.

Hamrun (149 Applicants)

A total of 83 applicants from Hamrun want to continue living in this locality. Thus more than half of the applicants (55.7 per cent) from this locality want to remain living in the same locality.

Gzira (133 Applicants)

There are 47 applicants from Gzira who want to remain living in this locality. Thus 35 per cent of the applicants from this locality want to continue living here. However there are 39 other applicants that want to remain in the North Harbour Area. Thus a total of 64.7 per cent of the applicants want to continue living in this locality. The majority of these choose areas like San Gwann and Sliema.

Senglea (116 Applicants)

There are 52 applicants from Senglea who want to remain living in this locality. 45 per cent of the applicants from this locality want to continue living in this locality. However there are a total of 64 applicants from Senglea who want to remain in the Cottonera area. Thus more than half of the applicants from this locality want to remain in this area (55 per cent).

St Paul’s Bay (111 Applicants)

There are 34 applicants from this locality who want to continue to live in this area. Thus (30.6 per cent) of the applicants from this locality want to continue living in St Paul’s Bay. However there are a number of applicants who want to live close to this area. A total of 57 applicants want to remain living in this area and its vicinities, thus 51 per cent of the applicants want to remain living close by. These applicants want to live in areas like Qawra and Bugibba.

Qormi (108 Applicants)

A total of 58 applicants from this locality want to continue to live in this particular locality (53.7 per cent). However there are 67 applicants who want to remain living in the vicinities (62 per cent), in particular Hamrun.