The Impact of Over-Development on our Health and Economy
Residents of many Maltese towns, especially Attard, Marsascala, Qawra Sliema, Swieqi and Xemxija, are finding that their once-peaceful neighbourhoods are turning into concrete jungles.
The 2005 NSO census showed 53,000 vacant housing units. In spite of this glut, between 2005 to 2010 MEPA issued permits for 47,000 more units, 95% of them apartments, increasing the number of empty properties to approximately 76,000.
The number of vacant units is destined to rise further as many approved permits are built and more mega-projects are approved. Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) maintains that the issue of over-development urgently needs to be addressed. Should more apartments be approved? On what grounds can we justify losing more of our countryside or of our urban health?
MEPA calculated that we only need 2,000 units a year for new families, yet from 2005-2009 it approved 8-12,000 units per year! Who is to mop up the over-supply? Who are the thousands of speculator apartments to be sold to? Not to foreign buyers since in 2009 only some 300 sales involved foreigners.
Whilst Malta remains a free market economy fuelled by entrepreneurial zeal, the belief that the market should regulate itself mistakenly assumes that it is only developers who bear the brunt of the risks. Contrary to this view, the Central Bank’s 2010 Financial Stability Report states that the current weakness in the property market poses a serious risk to the health of the Maltese financial sector as property represents a high percentage of banks’ loan portfolios. This creates a dangerous exposure at a time when the property slump has led to a rise in defaulting loans.
MEPA’s past failure as a responsibile regulator, issuing policies that encouraged a ‘race to build’ mentality, not only ruined our towns and characteristic village cores but also lead to a slowdown in purchases, with some buyers reluctant to invest since the glut diminishes re-sale potential. The Central Bank confirms: “The additional supply of housing units may extend the period of lull in property prices”
The presumed right to build without restraint needs to be seen in the light of the greater good for the community. MEPA has failed miserably in its duty to reconcile the rights of private property development with the right to good health.
Replacing houses by apartments has the double negative effect of bringing more cars into residential areas and of trapping their toxic fumes in urban canyons created when narrow streets are lined by tall buildings. These toxic emissions aggravate lung and coronary problems like asthma and emphysema, as well as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. International medical studies such as the UCLA research led by Dr James Alderman proved that children living near heavy traffic suffer permanent lung damage which can shorten life expectancy.
Furthermore dust from quarries and building-sites contributes to Malta having the highest rate of hospitalisation for pulmonary complaints in the world (report by Dr. Martin Balzan, President, MAM). Months of deafening building-site noise and ground-shaking tremors cause severe mental stress in neighbours and rob them of their light, air and quality of life.
In addition to air and noise pollution, the loss of our countryside reduces the absorption of water into the aquifers, increases flooding and negatively impacts tourism.
MEPA insists that over-congestion of neighbourhoods cannot be taken into account when processing permits; just as the Malta Transport Authority refuses to consider the increase in traffic generated by proposed developments in spite of North Harbours Local Plan assertions: “Resolving an unacceptable transport situation and relieving congestion is seen as a key step towards improving the quality of life for residents”.
Already in 1992 MEPA stated that many areas “have reached their environmental capacity and require a more restrictive approach to further developmental intensification”, urging against the construction of more apartment blocks. Yet the last nineteen years saw exactly the opposite happening, ruining our towns and even rural jewels like Manikata, fulfilling MEPA’s own warning: “The environmental capacity concept implies that if an urban area is pushed beyond certain limits, there is a risk of destroying the very things that are valued and give the area its special character”
Even if MEPA were to revise the Local Plans to slow down the rate of development, years would pass before this is implemented, during which time the situation will continue to deteriorate.
FAA therefore urges the speedier option of the introduction of policies dampening over-development while encouraging the rehabilitation of existing unused structures which, in turn, would provide work for the construction industry.
Surely both developers and the Authorities realise that enough damage has been done and that a seriously study of the excess property situation in Malta is seriously overdue. Rather than increasing the property market, we need options and solutions to finally start improving it.