Malta has a housing problem, and there is no easy way to tackle it.

On the one side, as everyone knows, property prices are very high. This makes it hard for people starting out in life to become home owners. Rent prices are also rising. According to the Housing Authority, “on average, rents rose by 5.5% in the first half of 2023 compared to a year earlier.” While this was less than the average growth rate of 6.9% registered in the second half of 2022, its still quite an increase.

To put things in perspective, in St Paul’s Bay, which it said was the locality with the most registered leases in Malta, “the median monthly rent for a two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartment registered with the Housing Authority in the first half of 2023 stood at €700 and €850, respectively.”

Malta’s population has also been rapidly rising, meaning that the demand is there, and thus property prices remain high.

But it is not easy for a section of the workforce, especially foreign workers being brought in to work lower paying jobs which locals aren’t applying for anymore, to afford such property prices. Some turned to accommodation sharing, but the concept was being abused of by some property owners, who were placing five or six beds in a room in an attempt to make the most money, and by doing so were creating terrible living conditions.

The government is attempting to regulate this by announcing a cap for the maximum number of tenants per rental property. One will need to wait and see as to whether this will be effective, but here’s  the thing, doing this alone is not enough.

This newsroom has already pointed out that there are certain questions to be raised on the impact that the legislation might have on those who felt they had no option other than to rent a single bed within an apartment of however many people in order to be able to get by.

Make no mistake, the abuse by some property owners by placing people in living conditions where they are 20 to an apartment or 6 or 7 to a single room with one bathroom needs to be tackled, but that is only part of the problem. The other part that needs to be tackled, is what will be done to ensure that they can live in dignified accommodation, and ensure that they are not living on the street.

Malta has been relying on the importation of workers to fill its workforce, but if there are those who aren’t earning enough to have a decent roof over their heads then something is seriously wrong with the model Malta has been using. Christian Inkun – the head of YMCA Malta’s residential department, told The Malta independent on Sunday that the government should carry out a study to uncover why people, especially migrants, are putting themselves in these uncomfortable living conditions to begin with. He isn’t wrong, and this could perhaps uncover other abuses that could be taking place. He is also advocating for a liveable wage, saying that there is a difference between a minimum wage and a liveable wage; with a liveable wage, “people can live comfortably and will not need to crowd together in apartments to cope with the increasing cost of living”. The idea of a living wage is an idea that has been suggested in past years, and should be part of the discussion.

The government is also working on more social housing to address the waiting list, which stood at 1,527 applicants in October according to Newsbook. This is not a small amount.

Businesses are bringing in foreign workers to continue operating or growing as there just aren’t enough Maltese to fill in the jobs, but this is resulting in the need for more apartments and more construction in an island with very limited space. At the same time, property prices are high, pricing out young people from the market, and a section of foreign workers are unable to live in adequate accommodation due to the wage they earn. It’s a model that works for some, at the expense of others.

We have long been talking about the need to change the economic model, about focusing on sectors which require fewer workers but still bring value to the economy and offer better wages. Such a focus is needed.