Thousands will tomorrow tune into a jam-packed Parliamentary sitting, as Finance Minister Clyde Caruana will deliver his budget speech.

It will be Caruana's sixth time delivering the budget since being appointed Finance Minister in November 2020. Two general elections later and he still holds the post.

The budget for 2027 however comes against a challenging backdrop: soaring energy prices bog down the country's balance sheet as it continues to subsidise fuel and electricity, yet Malta sits at a crossroad on numerous issues of great significance.

So what will people be expecting Budget 2027 to include? The Malta Independent on Sunday looks at four distinctive issues that people will be expecting to see addressed.

A new economic model

Without a doubt, the greatest concern in the country right now is on the topic of the country's population. The population has increased at a super-charged rate mainly due to the economic model that the Labour Party has adopted since it came to power in 2013.

Now, the government has time and time again said that it wants to shift the economy to be based more around quality, high-value sectors. Talk, however, is cheap. Action isn't - and action is what we are yet to see.

Malta registered a net population increase of around 14,000 people in 2025, bringing the total population to approximately 588,000. It is a lower increase than previous years, but it is still an increase. Prime Minister Robert Abela is on record stating that this level of growth would be sustainable for the country.

Yet this level of growth means that Malta's population is projected to approach 800,000 by the end of 2040 - a figure confirmed by Finance Minister Clyde Caruana. It's also a figure which prompts fear in the minds of those who hear it: the country's infrastructure is not keeping up as it is, the roads are already clogged with traffic, housing prices are still through the roof, and the country already feels as crowded as being inside a sardine can.

This budget needs to map out the government's plan in terms of what population increase it is envisioning, but also in terms of how it is going to shift Malta's economy towards high-value sectors.

This must be done tangibly. It is easy for Caruana to tell Parliament that the shift is coming without explaining exactly how it's coming. Caruana laid the blame at the foot of mostly private businesses, but they argued that it was the government's own choices that had created an economic environment where they had to employ more people.

"Over the last decade, Malta's Gross Value Added grew by 81.9%. Of that growth, 68.9% came purely from expanding the labour force. Shifts towards higher value-added sectors contributed only 9.9%, and actual productivity gains, meaning output per worker, accounted for a mere 3.1%," the Malta Chamber of Commerce said as it reacted to Caruana.

So at the very top of the budget list should be measures to make this shift truly happen: measures to incentivise capital investment, understand which industries give value and which don't - and prioritise those that do, create new sectors that bring high value but low infrastructural pressure to Malta, reduce bureaucracy, enhance digitalisation in both the private and public sector, and significantly increase support for reskilling and upskilling - among just some measures.

Anything short of that is an admission that the current model will persist, whether people like it or not.

An infrastructure that can cope

This budget will no doubt feature a host of good social measures. Pensions will increase, there may be tax cuts, tax incentives, tweaks to the social system here and there - but positive as those may be, the best antidote to improving people's quality of life right now is by investing in the country's infrastructure.

The country's infrastructural issues correlate with its population issues: it's clear that Malta's infrastructure does not have the bandwidth to cope with the amount of people that live in it - and that is having a hugely detrimental effect to people's quality of life.

Every time people leave the house they find themselves stuck in traffic: what was a 20-minute commute has been, at the very least, doubled. Add in the rain or a bumper-to-bumper collision somewhere along the main rush hour routes, and your commute will triple.

Summer heatwaves - which, with global warming, will only get more commonplace - again resulted in power cuts which dragged on for hours and in some localities, even for over a day. It's a carbon copy of 2023: the government pledged more investment, yet the power cuts persist.

Those who have needed emergency or semi-emergency care at Mater Dei Hospital or a polyclinic will also be well-acquainted with the present day realities: hours upon hours of sitting in a waiting room, in pain, to wait to be seen.

This government has created an environment which the country cannot cope with - so the budget must include significant investment to remedy the situation.

Malta needs courageous measures to encourage people to move away from their cars, but it also needs the process for a mass transport system - which both parties agree is the long-term solution - to begin.

The country needs to see much more investment in its electricity distribution system and much more encouragement for renewable energy.

Finally, Malta needs big investment in its healthcare system: more staff, in better working conditions, but also more infrastructure. The country's health system cannot continue to function efficiently with one hospital catering for over half a million people. Malta's aging population will only increase the pressure.

For all of this there needs to be the will to drive the country forward - but there also needs to be the will to invest in it.

Getting on the property ladder

Getting on the property ladder is likely the most significant challenge being faced by young people. For years we have heard that the market will stabilise, that property prices can only increase so much - but year after year, quarter after quarter, they have continued to increase.

The National Statistics Office's Property Price Index shows that property prices increased by 6.9% in the second quarter of 2026, compared to the same quarter in 2025. It means that the value of a property is actually increasing by more than the legal amount that its rent can be increased by every year - which is 5%.

A study by KPMG and the Malta Development Association found that the average asking price for an apartment in 2025 stood at €414,600 - some €40,000 than a year prior - while the average price of a maisonette also increase by around €35,000 to €405,155.

The same study shows that a young couple in their late 20s earning the minimum wage, with a joint income of €23,000, can only afford 2.2% of properties on the market today, a sharp drop from the 5.7% last year.

Young couples on an average income, jointly earning €51,000 can afford 70% of apartments, but that's down from 79% in the previous year.

It's clear that the rise in property prices is outpacing that of living conditions - and it is equally clear that, by and large, that what the government has done to try and stem the tide hasn't worked so far.

Introduce a €10,000 grant, and property prices suddenly jump by €10,000. There is an intrinsic sense of greed that has overtaken the property market, and it is beating down those who are trying to get onto the ladder.

Youths, in particular, will have their eyes peeled on whether the government will be doing anything to address this issue.

A move to quality tourism

Tourism - or rather, over-tourism - has become a particularly hot topic, as it continues to have a significant effect on the country: not only positively in economic terms, but also negatively in terms of pressure on infrastructure and on the quality of life of residents in touristic hotspots.

This past summer saw the army having to be deployed to the streets of some localities in order to maintain order, while a Polish tourist has even been charged with the murder of a man in Paceville. Meanwhile, the number of tourists coming to Malta continues to increase.

Per the National Statistics Office own data, up until August, tourism numbers are up by 17.6%. At the current projections, the amount of tourists coming to Malta this year will exceed 4.5 million. That is the same amount of tourists that the government's Vision 2050 predicted Malta would have in 2035.

It is an issue that Caruana is keenly aware of: he questioned in an interview recently why high-quality tourists would choose to visit Malta during the peak summer season, when overcrowding means there is barely enough space to lay down a towel on the beach.

The much-spoken-about shift from quantity to quality has, thus far, remained on paper. The key question, therefore, is what steps the government will take to turn this ambition into reality.

Caruana has said that it may be time to re-visit whether it makes sense to have incentives for tourism in peak summer seasons, and has also not excluded upping taxes related to tourists - but measures like these will only have so much impact.

People will be keen to hear how the government is tangibly going to shift towards a more quality-filled touristic model which doesn't measure itself against how many hotel beds are filled, but by other metrics such as how much tourists spend.