Social Policy Minister John Dalli last week announced that a White Paper on rent reform will be published by the end of this month.

The government will finally be taking the bull by the horns, although the success or otherwise of its initiative will be judged later on. The people have been let down quite a number of times on this matter, and therefore it is still early to pass judgment.

There has been talk of a much-needed reform in the rent laws for a number of years, and although promises have been made no government has as yet managed to carry on with its plans to reform outdated regulations.

The issue is so complex that although the willingness to change the system has existed for years on end, successive ministers have given up. Mr Dalli has now given new hope, especially to property owners who do not rent out their houses simply because it is not to their advantage to do so.

In Malta, there seems to be a focus on home ownership, which in itself is not such a bad idea. The Housing Authority itself has, according to Minister Dalli, promoted ownership over the past years. But the time has come for a shift towards the rental market. Property however has to be affordable to rent out to make the system viable.

In his speech in Parliament, Mr Dalli made particular reference to young couples, who are burdened with loan repayments in the years leading up to their marriage and for many years afterwards. Today, it is very hard for them to rent a place in which to reside.

The fact that the rental market has not been “touched” by modern legislation has led to a situation where there are many unused houses in Malta, in particular in the core part of our towns and villages.

While the building of new residences continues unabated, other older homes are left abandoned – some are close to collapsing – by their owners simply because it is not feasible for them to repair and rent out. Initiatives that were taken over the years have not helped to change things round.

There have been several calls in the past for the government to tackle the situation, with Alternattiva Demokratika being in the forefront in their request for a comprehensive upheaval of the system to encourage more people to rent property, while at the same time stopping or reducing the amount of new land that is taken up by new buildings.

AD was in fact among the first entities to praise Mr Dalli for the announcement made, saying that the fact that there are over 50,000 empty dwellings in the country has led to spiralling costs when it comes to buying homes as well as serious environmental and economic problems.

But it did express a word of caution, saying it hoped that the White Paper does materialise “and does not suffer the same fate it did at the hands of Minister Cristina, when it never saw the light of day after it was announced”.

The opening year of a term of office is perhaps the right time for the government to come up with proposals that may hurt but at the same time are crucial to improve the situation. And this is perhaps why the government waited a little bit longer to publish its intentions.

What is sure is that no more time can be wasted on such an issue. Discussion on the White Paper should not take longer than necessary so that the law can be changed as quickly as possible, perhaps by the end of the year.