“Government and the Labour Party are responding to the demands of the cohort of first-time buyers and prospective buyers very well and they are addressing the aspirations and dreams of this population group which wants to become homeowners.” Housing policy consultant Stefan Cutajar made this declaration during yesterday’s episode of TheDailySpot, TheJournal.mt’s daily analysis of the electoral campaign.
Cutajar was reacting to Labour’s pledge to pay first-time buyers €1,000 of the mortgage payments made during each year for the first ten years of a loan.
He noted that although in Malta, 80% of the population live in owner-occupied dwellings, government is still responding to the other cohort’s needs.
“I believe we are in the right direction to helping more people realise their dreams.”
“Over the past we have increased incentives for people who want to live in rent and other forms of tenureship. The Government’s housing policy is very diverse and very encompassing so these schemes must not be seen in a vacuum and they are helping those people who want to take the extra step of homeownership,” he said.
I believe we are in the right direction to helping more people realise their dreams.
Cutajar added that government now has to ensure there is adequate supply in order to avoid any repercussions on the property market, which might be deemed to be inflationary.
“The government’s role from now onwards is to help these young prospective homeowners in finding adequate supply since we are doing everything to remove the obstacles to accessing the property market not only through these fiscal measures but also to other incentives which have been offered by the Housing Authority and other entities for a long time.”
“I believe we are in the right direction to helping more people realise their dreams of becoming homeowners for the first time and even of course in progressing in the property ladder in any form,” he said.
We can buy properties we couldn’t afford before
Sharing his experience during TheDailySpot was first-time buyer Claude Abela who said that this was great news for him as he’s planning to buy his own residence next year.
“While I was expecting and believing that government will once again incentivise, in one way or another, first-time buyers to become property owners, I was totally blown away with the proposal itself.”
“€1,000 in one year is a lot of money, and this figure multiplied by ten nearly sums up the 10% that one would need as down payment to buy the property itself.”
“We are now considering other regions and localities that we previously thought to be out of our budget, because we’ve realised that with this financial aid, along with the fact that now our income tax will be reduced, we can afford to buy properties that we previously considered to be out of our budget,” he said.
