Government & Politics
Majority of Maltese want 1939 rent laws changed
By MaltaMedia News
Feb 25, 2007 - 8:30:59 PM

The majority of Maltese (83.3%) want the 1939 rent laws changed, The Sunday Times reported.  While 15% consider the rent laws as fair, 57.7% said they would not consider renting a property, even if the rent were reasonable.

An overwhelming 96% of Maltese believe that the government and Opposition should agree on rent reform.

The Sunday Times survey also revealed that 98% believe that there should be some form of control to prevent the price of property from escalating further.  Fifty-six per cent disagree with the demolition of houses to make way for apartment blocks (41.3% agreed) while 71% disagree in the case of existing hotels being demolished for the same purpose.

While 72.3% agree with the concept of high-rise buildings to save on land use, only 55.3% of them would live in them.

Over 82% agreed that the construction industry is the motor of the Maltese economy, and an additional 4.3% "agreed a lot" with this statement; 10.3% said yes or no, while only 1.3% disagreed, the newspaper reported.

Asked whether building of dwellings for speculation purposes ought to be halted, 37% agreed; 18% replied yes and no, 38% disagreed, and 2.3% absolutely disagreed.

The survey was carried out by sociologist Mario Vassallo. 300 persons aged over 16 participated in the survey held between Febraury 10 and 17.

Asked by The Sunday Times to comment on these findings, Professor Vassallo said, "It is clear from these findings that property issues need a very close look, to bring matters up to date in a number of ways. Many Maltese clearly realise that old rent laws are unjust because they shift the responsibility for accessibility to housing, a state responsibility, to private owners who happened to have rented property prior or during World War II, now many decades ago.