The prevailing economic uncertainty is continuing to cause the already precarious situation of the property market to deteriorate further, causing great preoccupation to three organisations, the Malta Developers Association, the Federation of Building and Civil Engineering Contractors, and the Federation of Estate Agents.

The three associations said that the operators in the property and construction sector are not represented on the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, and therefore this means that they are not being given space to make their voices heard in this forum, despite this sector being so important to the Maltese economy.

The MCESD held a meeting last Wednesday, with those attending, excepting the General Workers’ Union, saying that the existing political situation has not yet had an impact on the economy.

The three associations said yesterday that although it has emerged that so far the employment figures are satisfactory, they fear that if the economic uncertainty continues to persist, the situation in the construction sector will continue to deteriorate, resulting in a lessening of the rhythm of this major motor of the economy in our country and a considerable number of jobs will be lost in the sector, to the extent that those who will be unemployed will not be able to be absorbed in other sectors of the economy, as has happened so far.

“Apart from that, the slowdown in the activity in the property market can have a negative impact on the financial institutions, to the extent that the banks have already complained that requests for house loans have reduced drastically.

“The operators in this sector feel that a lot of development work can be done to modernise existing buildings, work that today nobody is being encouraged to take on because of the current situation of uncertainty,” they said, pointing out that several businesses and self-employed persons benefit from the economic activity that the property market generates, apart from those directly employed in the sector.

“These are all in danger of being hit negatively,” the associations said.