2005 Dwelling Statistics

Finally it is out. The long awaited report from the National Statistics Office (NSO) concerning the dwelling situation has been published. It is part of the Census 2005 survey held in November 2005. Two years later, this much awaited report comes out. I shall be highlighting some findings which I think should be pondered upon in light of the construction craze that seems to be never-ending.

This report is available online at www.nso.gov.mt.

If your are an economist (I am not) with knowledge of the supply versus demand thingy, I think we in Malta are a peculiar case, unlike the UK where dwellings are in such a short supply. But then again, I am not economist (I have no idea to be frank) so I may be totally wrong.

I shall quote directly from the document here below:

Dwelling stock increase:
In a span of just 38 years the number of dwellings has grown by 2.2 times, from 87,049 dwellings in 1967 to the 2005 Census level.

1995 vs 2005:
In 1995, the number of dwellings stood at 155,202 units. This was divided into 119,479 occupied dwellings and 35,723 vacant dwellings. It has since increased by 37,112 dwellings, of which 19,699 were occupied and the remaining 17,413 vacant. Effectively, in this period the number of occupied dwellings increased by 16.5 per cent while vacant dwellings increased by 48.7 per cent. (This makes the number of vacant dwellings at 53,136)

Type of dwellings:
Of the total dwelling stock, 166,201 units, or 86.4 per cent, consisted of terraced houses, flats and penthouses and maisonettes. Terraced houses accounted for 68,586 units, or 35.7 per cent of the total stock. On the other hand, a total of 56,864 flats and penthouses and 40,751 maisonettes were recorded.

State of repair:
In 2005, the majority of dwellings were perceived to be in a good state of repair. In fact, a total of 107,433 units, or 55.9 per cent of the total were recorded to be in a good state of repair.

Dwelling type vs age bracket:
Whereas 63.1 per cent of occupied dwellings with a reference person who was less than 40 years old lived in a maisonette or flat/penthouse, this proportion stood at 36.7 per cent for occupied dwellings with a reference person aged 70 years or more.

On the other hand, 50.5 per cent of occupied dwellings with a reference person aged between 40 to 59 years lived in a house (including terraced, semi-detached and fully-detached).

Vacant dwellings:
On a national level, 72.4 per cent of all dwellings were occupied, (this makes 27.6 percent vacant).

Most vacant dwellings consisted of flats and penthouses.

About one-fifth of all vacant dwellings in Malta were holiday dwellings. In fact, holiday dwellings located in Malta amounted to 10,028 dwellings, or 18.9 per cent of all vacant dwellings.

Overall, I focused mainly on vacant dwellings, and I think you can understand why. As a future purchaser, my concern on the crazy high prices of dwellings is quite justifiable considering these facts.