€1.50
'Senseless'
Estate agents react to
government rent reform
PAGES 14 & 15
INTERVIEW
PAGES 10 & 11
Europe will not
admit the mini-BOTs
are coming
Maria Micallef, CEO
of General Soft
Drinks and other
top enterprises
PAGE 3 PAGE 2
THURSDAY 27 JUNE 2019 • ISSUE 14
WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT
Number of
unemployed
down 6.8%
in May, but
jobless under
25 on the
increase
Douglas Salt
MASSIMO COSTA
& KURT SANSONE
PROPOSED changes to
the law regulating rent
contracts have been met
with some criticism by es-
tate agents, who pointed
out shortcomings relat-
ed to the imposition of a
rental increase cap and the
setting of a relatively short
minimum term before a
tenant can terminate a
contract.
Amongst the main
features of the re-
form, the details of which
were unveiled yesterday
by Prime Minister Joseph
Muscat, are the capping of
annual rental increases at
5%, the setting of a mini-
mum residential lease of
one year, the requirement
that all contracts are reg-
istered, and the provision
of tax credits for landlords
who off er long-term con-
tracts.
In comments to Business
Today, Douglas Salt, direc-
tor of Frank Salt Real Es-
tate, said the idea of off er-
ing tax credits was a good
one, since it off ered a good
incentive.
He was far less positive
about the 5% cap, however,
saying that any form of rent
control in the past had al-
ways had a "very negative"
aff ect on the market.
Calling the cap a "sense-
less decision", Salt remarked
that while a 5% limit might
have sense at this current
point in time, conditions in
the future might change in
such a way as to make the
imposed limit inadequate.
