The property market is not as uniform and monolithic as it is often made out to be.

Recent years have seen a huge development of the letting market, as opposed to outright sales. There are many reasons for this, mainly to do with the expansion of the service sector (as outlined in our article on the front page) and the rise of repeat visitors thanks to the low cost airlines.

Now the letting market sector has its own characteristics: people here for a short time do not bother with having a huge place to live in, or a garden (Well, many people are out enjoying themselves as it is). Hence the increase in small apartments which seem too small to most Maltese, used to live in far more spacious apartments.

At the same time, the prices charged for letting of apartments have levitated. There are still people renting an apartment for some €250 a month and these are holding on to their apartments for dear life, while the owners would dearly love to see them out so that they can then rent the same apartment for €500 or upwards.

While such prices may be acceptable to people who are used to dearer rents abroad and who are anyway for a short stay here, these prices are getting to be above budget for ordinary Maltese citizens. In fact, we cannot understand how this aspect has not yet been made public and commented upon.

The letting business for Maltese clients has never been that strong, anyway, but it is now becoming more and more difficult as those Maltese who are not in a position to get a bank loan to purchase property are finding it harder to rent a place at the prices that used to be charged up till some years ago.

At the same time, although statistics here are not available, the number of Maltese people who want to rent is on the increase, with people divorcing or separating, young people choosing to go and live on their own, students from Gozo studying here (whose parents may not all afford to buy an apartment for their children to study in).

This may be just one aspect of the whole property sector and maybe there are other aspects equally important to focus on.

One can look on this vast sector from a variety of angles: the take up of environmentally precious land, the banks and how they treat a would-be developer, the huge amount of old houses in village cores that are not inhabited and which decline as no one lives in them, etc.