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.

Special dedication

When you realise that life is becoming too short at the age of 24, you must stop a little bit to think. How on earth will I manage to go on like this? I admit, most of the hectic life should be over by June next year, when I hopefully hand in my MSc thesis and adios to it all. Well maybe adios, because one never knows what may come across.

But, I am not alone. Baanisuu is always there for me and in such moments I realise how much I have to appreciate her. She is in the same shit as I am; her 2nd year of French at uni is not for the light-hearted. And yet, we still manage to spend quality time together. That is of course at the expense of other options, but it is the best option.

The last couple of weekends are a prime example. In the midst of lectures (yes, I have lectures sometimes on the weekend), lots of reading, writing assignments and so on, there is still time for us to enjoy a good laugh and shrug away (albeit for a few moments) all the stress and tension that is already building up.

What else is a requirement for a person, with no time to spare, having lots of things to do apart from work and a nerve-wrecking university course? Somebody like you, Baanisuu.

Let the War begin

I feel that sooner or later, the world will be faced with a major war. And by major I mean at a World War scale, not like the current Iraq, Afghan et al wars. The reason for this: the following article I read on The Guardian: Britain to claim more than 1m sq km of of Antarctica.

Now it is becoming evident that the major powers of this Earth are very worried indeed about the prospect of an oil-less future. And no, the worry is not because of renewables that will replace fossils. On the contrary, it is because known sources of oil are reaching their 'expiry date'. Hence, now there is a scramble for vast areas which were previously untouched and which potentially can host vast amounts of oil. I shall mention Antarctica, Greenland and a host of off-limit areas in the middle of the oceans.

In my opinion, this just shows how hypocritical we are. The same nations who claim they are the leaders in climate change policy, mitigation and adaptation are showing that all they are doing is just trying to make us feel good. What shame! On the other hand, I do not blame them. If vast amounts of oil are up for grabs, somebody is surely going to tap the resource one day or another. However, the hypocrisy of it all is too much to swallow.

And to think of it, why on earth should money be spent on renewables research when there is so much of the black stuff left. Who cares about climate change anyway?

Oh, and I had also some evil thoughts following my reading. Think of some big superpower, going to war to find weapons of mass destruction, only to find none, destroy the country but have a foothold in a oily rich country, or region. My my, I feel really sorry for all those people in Iraq who are there for a 'good cause'. No wonder they resist leaving the country.

Kicking out the plastic bag

Let's face it...why do we really use it? To put stuff in from the shop, drive home, take stuff out and then? Do you throw it away? Fill it with rubbish? Or collect them?

Using plastic bags is the perfect example of modern societies' wasteful and shameless consumerist lifestyle.

What is wrong with doing without the bag? Why do people at the cash point insist of giving me a plastic bag even when I tell them: "Leave the bag"? Why do we need a plastic bag to carry a newspaper, or any other single item that can be carried easily by hand?

What I am trying to say is that even if we do not want to use the 'Xummiemu' bags or alternative bags, we can still avoid using plastic bags when purchasing a small number of items by simply saying: "No thanks, I shall carry that with my bare hands".

I fully support this initiative and I am proud to say that I am also a convert. Ban the plastic bag! And once we are at it: Ban the Bulb! That incandescent thing that is cheap, emits some light and lots of heat but is terribly wasteful, inefficient and costly over the longer term (in terms of electricity and bulb replacements).

See what the town of Modbury has done: http://www.plasticbagfree.com in becoming the first UK town to be completely bag-free.

Here are some facts collected by Reusable Bags on the impacts of plastic bags.

Wake up!




This blog post has been specifically written in order to fulfil my duties towards BlogActionDay

Cement(ing) facts

The following is just to show how many different players are involved in the climate change issue:

• Concrete is the second most used product on the planet, after water
• Half of it is produced in China
• A business that produces more than 5% of mankind's carbon dioxide emissions
• Cement plants and factories across the world are projected to churn out almost 5bn tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by 2050 - 20 times as much as the government has pledged the entire UK will produce by that time
• The expected rapid growth in cement production is at severe odds with calls to cut carbon emissions to tackle global warming
• Already, some cement companies have taken steps to reduce their environmental impact. Some burn waste products alongside coal, while others have reworked their recipes and tried to make their plants more energy-efficient, with modest success

The Guardian

Peace Nobel Prize to Climate Change Warriors

Mr Gore may be a warrior. He was a US presidential hopeful in 2000, losing to Bush. Then he became a convert, an environmental convert. If parallel worlds do exist, I would have loved to see Gore as US president to see whether he would have been nickname "The Green President". Anyway, well done to him for winning the Nobel Price for his constant march in increasing public awareness on climate change.

This Nobel prize was shared with the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). This Panel consists of a huge number of scientists that constantly review other scientists report and publish several reports on their collective effors. This panel has increasing shown (since 1988) that climate change and human activities are significantly correlated.

So why peace? Well climate change can have significant implications for world peace mainly because of resource conflict and migration. Climate change is expected to alter the weather patterns, bringing heavy rains or drought, higher/lower temperatures etc. These have implications on low-lying territories, dry territories (think Africa) and a host of civilisations that live at the borders of livelihood.

Wake up (once again)!


The Guardian

Making polluters pay

I admit, I am not quite a fan of the US, mainly because of its environment agenda and the way it does things in the international sphere. But anyway, I guess that is the politics of the country which in no means reflects what the whole country is. Think of California with good old Arnie Schwarzengger and all the benefits to the environment he is promoting.

Anyway, as you probably know, court cases where people/organisation get to pay huge amounts of money because of what they have done is quite a big deal in the US. Remember Erin Brokovich? Now I read there is this US electricity producer that has been ordered by court to install $4.6 billion in equipment to sharply reduce emissions at coal-fired power plants.

Now that is truly applying the polluter pays principle!

Read: $4.6 billion settlement in power plant air pollution case

Fourth goal in three games

This blog is more becoming a Mifsud one, but anyway! He deserves it. Just enjoy the video below of his latest goal against Blackpool. That is pure speed!

Blogging for the Environment

I admit I copied and pasted the following text from the Blogger Blog, but you shoud read:

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day October 15, in 6 days time, is Blog Action Day, and the theme this year is the environment. If you have a blog and want to join in, all you have to do is use that day to post something related to the environment, in whatever way, shape, or form you prefer. You can pick an environmental issue that has meaning for you and let us know why it's important. Organize a beach or neighborhood cleanup and tell us about it. If you're into fiction writing, give us a story with an environmental theme. Have a podcast, videoblog, or photoblog? Join the fun! The idea here is to have a mass effect on public awareness by sharing as many ideas in as many ways as possible.

If you're game for participating, go register your blog with the 8,000+ other blogs (with 5 million readers!) that are already signed up. Also, see the Blog Action Day blog for more on how bloggers can change the world.



So what are you waiting for? Join up and blog!

Another one by Miffy

No wonder the 'Mosquito' is receiving such praise...just look at his goal that saved Coventry (CCFC) against Charlton with a late equaliser...

And now he has been short-listed for the Player of the Month Award (ccfc). Well deserved!

Also, check out his interview after the Man Utd victory.