Malta’s Estate Agents today made a formal request to Prime Minister Robert Abela to include real estate agencies in Annex A of its financial aid package, set up in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the government announced its third financial package aimed at helping businesses affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Businesses listed under Annex A will benefit from an €800 per month salary per employee while those in Annex B are entitled to one day's salary per week equivalent to €160 per month. Currently, real estate agencies do not fall under any of these categories.
In the letter sent to the PM, estate agents said that their business is at a complete standstill and they are severely restricted in their ability to carry out their services.
“As you (Abela) so rightly put it in a recent interview the success and continued operation of Malta’s property industry is crucial to take Malta’s economy forward once this crisis is over. Yet the government has chosen to discriminate amongst industries and to favour one over the other. We ask, what makes one industry better than the other? Who gets to choose which industry get assistance and which is left to its own devices?,” the letter stated.
The estate agents emphasised that their companies will have to be at the forefront to help turn the cogs in the wheel of Malta’s property sector and considering that most businesses on the island depend on the income from rental investments, this will have a significant impact.
“Those which successfully manage to sell property will have to wait yet again for the ‘konvenju’ stage to be over. In the meantime, our companies will still be faced with wages to pay and with no cashflow in sight.”
They pointed out that this not only affects the hundreds of individuals on their payroll but also those who are not. “These agents are our bread and butter. Our companies have a responsibility to them and to their families and they in turn have a responsibility to the people whose wages they help to pay. We cannot be left behind.”
The agents’ ability to sell or rent helps to sustain the wages for the numerous employees on their payroll and Malta has a responsibility to them and to their families too. “Our letting teams will be the people on the ground picking up the pieces with landlords, dealing with what has overnight quickly turned out to be an oversupply of rental properties,” the estate agents said.
“It is evident that this crisis is here for the next few months and that the property industry will struggle to pick up the pieces. If there was ever a time when the estate agents need to be protected - This is the Time. They will be the ones who will have to help revive Malta’s property sector.”