The Nationalist Party and the Labour Party are broadly in agreement on helping the Maltese cope with the high property prices.

This emerges from a press conference given by the Labour Party leadership during which four initiatives were proposed and from a counter-statement issued later by the Ministry for Social Policy.

These are Labour’s four proposals, correlated by the government’s reaction:

Setting up a fund for help

This would provide first time buyers with up to 10 per cent of the total, which sum would be repaid, plus bank interests, when the property is resold.

The government replied such funds already exist in the Share Ownership Scheme and the Share Equity Scheme.

Rates of interest on lending

Labour proposes capping interest rates for first time buyers up to a bank rate (not a base rate) of 4.5 per cent, for the first seven years of the loan.

The government replied it has just proposed much the same thing in the pre-budget document.

Tax on first property

Labour proposes that the 3.5 per cent reduced tax on property be extended from Lm30,000 to a Lm50,000 limit.

The government asked if Labour is thereby proposing increasing the five per cent tax on property worth more than Lm50,000.

Helping people out of a job

Labour is proposing that people who lose their job are given a year’s grace to find another job and restart paying the loan.

The government replied that whenever job losses occurred, the government, together with the commercial banks helped those who had lost their jobs.

It would be helpful, the government statement pointed out, if the Opposition were better informed on what is already available.