I always say: smack a massive tax on vacant properties and thus force people to sell. Why should a whole generation be blocked out of the housing market?

I think retail is probably inflated by 2 or 3 times the actual value.

Sooner, rather than later. I worry too, friend. Jackals rule now.

It’s not the loans that are the problem, but the investment opportunities, and therefore economic growth. Someone commenting on this blog raised this point once.

Say you are in Malta. If you want to sink your money in something back home, what is there? There’s just one outlet – real estate. Or a big expensive car. Immoveable, non-productive assets. This isn’t a 21st century economy. It’s a peasant economy in a monetary framework.

The whole island is built up. There are around 60,000 empty housing units. If that isn’t market saturation… Yet we keep on building. Why? Because it’s the best way to make big money. But it shouldn’t be that way. The construction industry is shrinking everywhere in Europe, replaced, to an extent, by renovation and repair. Not in Malta.

Whenever we are the exception, I worry.

So even if the banks don’t call in the loans, how will we sustain economic growth? By knocking down empty unsold properties costing millions? Something will give, sooner or later.

Yes. The interesting thing is that the Joseph Muscat government is calling for private suggestions about land reclamation projects.

In fact, I think I will submit a proposal to have my own little private island off the coast, somewhere. I am not decided as yet about the location, but my favourite spots would be somewhere close to Sliema, St Julians, Qawra, St Paul’s Bay, or in the Grand Harbour.

HP – good points – except that the banks have hardly called in property loans, except for some, since at least the 80’s. They prefer to roll interest on to the capital, thereby preserving their much vaunted capital ratio.

Oh, and Switzerland isn’t all it’s cracked up to be nowadays with transperancy being the name of the game.

“David” – other than the big issues that Daphne and others will explain to you, it’s been reported that MEPA is swimming in debt to the tune of some €10million.

Being that MEPA’s income comes from its system of application fees, do you still think this is all such a good idea?

SOMEBODY has to pay that €10million, David. Do you pay tax?

Controlling speculation and an excessive artificial demand for property is a job for banks and lending institutions or the market itself. Up to a few years ago, one of our more prominent commercial banks was giving out a 100% loans on a second property which automatically fulled inflated prices unnecessarily.

One must never forget that our inflated prices in property was the product of two capital repatriations from foreign banks in 2000 and 2003. This influx of liquidity triggered an unwanted speculation by individuals seeking to make a quick return and gave the banks unwanted cash by which to hand out as attractive loans. The vicious circle was that the high rise in property prices was forcing banks to hand out loans on artificially inflated real estate.

You can actually get paid to be a troll? What career prospects that must bring up.

Apart from the approaching bubble burst with the increase in supply, the coast might soon disappear. Whoever thought that he had a property in front of the sea might soon find out that the sea in front of them will be converted into land and a block of new flants will appear out of nowhere.