KPMG's new report has declared that Malta's property market growth is slowing down, at least temporarily. Demand is not keeping up with supply, and politicians defending the construction industry have made assurances that this is merely a healthy part of the process of sustainable growth. Yet, amongst other problems, the high-end rentals section lags even farther behind than the rest of the industry. So let us dispel the defence of this sector put up by politicians.

Is there anything sustainable about our growth in the construction sector? The political defence of the current situation is merely that demand for housing units should pick up again. Is that actually desirable, however, when one examines the damaging effects of this economic model on other facets of our country? The report made it clear that the rising cost of living as a result of this economic structure is harming our quality of life. Wages are not keeping up with the new realities of our crowded little island. Vulnerable people are being fast priced out of the market in the face of rampant speculation.

 What about the other practical consequences of endless growth on our quality of life? Our infrastructure is under immense strain, and our buses are already packed like sardines in a can in busier areas. Feeding the lagging construction industry endlessly without addressing the overall unhealthy economic model is only leading us farther down the rabbit hole. How much more of our environment and heritage are we being asked to sacrifice to keep the developers enriching themselves? Who benefits from Malta's economy? Certainly not the pensioners, our children or the average man in the street.

Regarding high-end rentals, let us remember that most of the high-end projects like the db Group hotel in St. George's Bay have not even been built yet and already demand is lagging. The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association recently said that the construction industry situation had arrived at “intolerable levels”, and Malta is becoming “a construction site experience for tourists”. We are ruining what makes Malta special. Our tourism product is being systematically dismantled in a naïve attempt to ape and copy an international cliché about what success looks like. In reality, success in the Maltese context should not be measured by architectural designs which are making much of the world look the same. We need to promote what makes Malta unique, and by safeguarding our local context, we are preserving a pleasant environment for tourists. Tourists do not want to come here and live in filth.

The economic model is simply not working anymore. We have a government and main Opposition party who are in bed with moneyed interests and these two parties are therefore restricted in their ability to come up with the best realistic solutions for the country. We need to wake up and smell the coffee and start taking tough decisions. The construction industry is like an addiction reaching a chronic and devastating point for the body. We cannot keep feeding this addiction to delay the inevitable. Especially with climate change, Malta's delicate economy is destined for collapse. We are not planning for the future. The current state of affairs leads me to say that for many years, we environmentalists were trying to warn you. Now, we can also say "We told you so!"

Timothy Alden is a founding member of the Democratic Party