Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg said on Sunday that it has never been more difficult for people to become homeowners in Malta than it is nowadays.

During a discussion broadcast on NET TV, housing affordability was the topic of conversation. Joining PN leader Alex Borg for this discussion was his Shadow Minister for Accommodation and Lands, Stanley Zammit, realtor Andrew Bugeja, University student and KSU’s Social Policy Officer, Julie Ann Camilleri, Chamber of Architects’ President Andre Pizzuto, and family lawyer Stephen Thake.

Borg said that housing affordability is one of Malta’s most pressing concerns – according to surveys and by accounts on the ground.

The challenge of becoming a homeowner affects not just youths and students looking to become first-time buyers, he said, but also people going through a separation or divorce and senior citizens looking to downsize their homes as just two other examples.

Citing statistics, he stated that, according to a 2025 KPMG study, a couple in their late 20s both earning a minimum wage can only afford 2.2% of advertised finished apartments on the market – down from 5.7% just a year prior.

Borg said that workers’ wages increasing in proportion to increasing property prices, highlighting how this issue is only growing more difficult according to current trends. While noting that while the government cannot directly intervene to address this, so as to avoid “destroying” the property market, he called for government housing schemes and incentives to be more effective in assisting youths, those going through a separation, and people who live alone to become homeowners.

For instance, he mentioned that the average apartment in Malta currently costs around €400,000, yet the Housing Authority’s 10% Deposit Scheme – which helps people eligible for a home loan to pay off the 10% down payment on a promise of sale signing – is capped for properties valued at not more than €250,000. “This must be brought up to today’s reality,” Borg said.

“We must truly sit down and come up with a scheme that actually helps people who are looking to buy property, not sellers. People who are looking to purchase property to become homeowners,” Borg said.

The Opposition leader stated that owning your own should be a basic right for everyone to enjoy and that it is wrong that it has become a “luxury” or a “dream” for a person to become a homeowner.

Borg commented that due to today’s high property prices, fresh graduates are staying in their family homes for an additional six years before considering taking the leap to move out.

“Nowadays, there are more expenses, more bureaucracy, and longer times for processes,” he said.

The PN leader also said that bank processes for property purchases have become “very bureaucratic,” mentioning that one must wait “months” before receiving a sanction letter, and that there is no single one-stop shop where people can go to vis-à-vis issues within the property market.

Borg stated that while Malta’s economic statistics – such as its burden of debt – are healthy for European standards, we must ask ourselves where national economic growth is coming from, whether it is sustainable, and whether this economic growth is helping people become homeowners or not.

PN MP Stanley Zammit said that accommodation pressures do not just affect youths and that national authorities, including the government, must analyse whether existing housing schemes are effective and whether more must be introduced.

Zammit said on Sunday that, according to current trends, it is only growing more difficult for people to afford property. He mentioned how in the past year, property prices in Malta increased by over 6%, while incomes for low-income families have gone up by some 4%.

He said that with the annual budget coming up soon, on Monday, 26 October, the country is not only waiting for the government to fulfil what it had pledged, but for promised measures to be introduced without delays as “youths cannot postpone their plans to start a family by five years” and separated couples cannot wait around for government measures to come into force before moving on with their lives.

“We must determine the root of the problem and tackle it by coming up with more long-term solutions,” Zammit said, later mentioning some of the PN’s recent electoral pledges such as eliminating succession tax.

KSU Social Policy Officer Julie Ann Camilleri mentioned that while many government housing schemes look great at face value, many youths and students are struggling to acquire the necessary liquidity to first render themselves capable of applying for them. She noted that with many students already relying on part-time jobs to keep up with today’s increasing cost of living, a financial push is often needed to help them enter the property market.

On this, the Opposition leader remarked, “it’s not about how nice these schemes look, but how many segments of society they impact.”

Camilleri also said that, coming out of University, new graduates recognise that their first working wages will not be enough to help them afford a property till their situation changes.

Andrew Bugeja told the panel that, in his professional experience, real estate agents like him are seeing less couples and have stopped seeing people looking to buy property alone altogether.

“In 2012, someone on a working wage could live alone and afford a property. Nowadays, these people aren’t even approaching us,” he said.

Bugeja stated that “the economy is fighting against buyers” with the property market having become a business. He said that “we must make things easier” as at the moment, individuals are in direct competition with resourceful companies.

Perit Pizzuto mentioned the bureaucracies involved in property processes nowadays, with them becoming longer and more expensive than in the past for documentation reasons, he said. He added that the Chamber of Architects is campaigning for property processes to go through a central authority, rather than several.

The KTP President said that local plans must be updated as well, since several realities have changed since 2006. For instance, he mentioned that divorce was not even legal in Malta back then, that local demography and societal needs have since evolved, and that the Maltese economy has transformed with the addition of new prosperous sectors over the last two decades.

The latter has affected the property market, he said, noting that single-bedroom apartments used to be reserved for students around the University of Malta and Junior College, but are now no longer being designed for students. He added that there are many different kind of prospective property buyers on the market, though it’s typically the richer who come out with the prize.

Pizzuto stated that Malta must understand why property prices are increasing the way they are, noting that not looking to solve this question would be like placing a wet towel on a sick person’s forehead to cool down their temperature without looking to cure their ailment.

“Government politics must focus on these things, not just to help those struggling better compete against those richer than them,” Pizzuto said.

Family lawyer Stephen Thake said that the number of couples separating and unmarried couples falling out is increasing. He added that Malta has more foreign couples and that the number of Maltese couples “has also decreased a lot.”

Thake said this is relevant to know in this discussion because of the consequences left whenever foreign couples go their separate ways; he said that when a foreign couple’s marriage ends, the woman typically seeks to leave Malta as quickly as possible, rather than figure out how to move on while staying in the country.