More about the rationalisation madness

Abstract

The prime minister, addressing the media at the Auberge de Castille on June 24, argued that the rationalisation of the development boundaries would lead to lower property prices. Yet Environment Minister George Pullicino rebutted this claim a few days later in an interview on Radio 101. Dr Manuel Borda, writing in The Sunday Times (June 18) also concludes that the release of new land for development will not bring about a decrease in property prices. The statistics he quotes also substantiate this claim - between 1994 and 2004, in fact, there was a fivefold and a two-fold increase in the number of apartments and maisonettes developed per annum respectively - the population did not increase so much over the same period. Yet the surfeit of properties on the market did nothing to lower prices. So why is the PM using the social expedient to justify such scheme inclusions?