Estate agents write to the prime minister
We write to you on behalf of our members and the leading real estate agencies on the island.
Although we still struggle to be recognised, our companies have been the backbone of Malta’s property industry for years and have contributed to Malta’s taxes in no small part both on an individual basis and through the numerous property sales and letting contracts that we have handled over the years.
Our business, like many others that have rightly so been recognised, is at a complete standstill and we are severely restricted in our ability to carry out our services.
A mix of some 2,000+ employees, both on consultancy and on payroll, depend on our companies and this industry. Our payroll has increased significantly over recent years from management operations, marketing managers, compliance officers and admin staff. We have invested heavily in marketing, compliance and technology and have, on an individual basis and out of our own accord, represented Malta in numerous overseas fairs and exhibitions.
We not only represent our companies and the staff directly on our payroll but also the few thousand agents who depend on our companies for their livelihood – agents with families, agents with rents and agents who work in a difficult and fiercely competitive industry which means they only earn a living when they successfully sell or rent a property.
Contrary to public perception, a commission earned on a property sale or rental does not filter into the pocket of just one individual. That income is split among numerous people including referral agents, property negotiators, office managers and lastly the real estate agency which in turn then has to settle wages, marketing retainers, compliance officers and so on.
On the one hand, our letting teams have been inundated with requests to mediate and manage a suitable compromise between landlords and tenants where needed. They do this not for gain but because this is the time for them to take on this challenge.
On the other, our sales teams are in an even more difficult situation. At konvenju stage it takes a minimum of three months at the very least to receive their pay cheque. If you consider that, the majority of sales in recent years have been for developments and properties “on plan”, this means that a good number of these sales consultants have not seen a pay cheque in months!
It is evident that this crisis is here for the next few months and that the property industry will struggle to pick up the pieces. If there was ever a time when the estate agents need to be protected, this is the time. They will be the ones who will have to help revive Malta’s property sector.
Leaving our companies to drown is to potentially drown numerous landlords and businesses, that all depend on the success of this industry!
As you so rightly put it in a recent interview the success and continued operation of Malta’s property industry is crucial to take Malta’s economy forward once this crisis is over. Yet government has chosen to discriminate among industries and to favour one over the other. We ask, what makes one industry better than the other? Who gets to choose which industry gets assistance and which is left to its own devices? Our companies will have to be at the forefront to help turn the cogs in the wheel of Malta’s property sector and considering that most businesses on the island depend on the income from rental investments, this will have a significant impact.
And even when we do turn around this corner, our companies and even more so, our agents are still not guaranteed an immediate income. Those who successfully manage to sell property will have to wait yet again for the ‘konvenju’ stage to be over. In the meantime, our companies will still be faced with wages to pay and with no cashflow in sight.
We speak for the hundreds of individuals on our payroll but also those who are not. These agents are our bread and butter. Our companies have a responsibility to them and to their families and they in turn have a responsibility to the people whose wages they help to pay. We cannot be left behind. Their ability to sell or rent helps to sustain the wages for the numerous employees on our payroll. Malta has a responsibility to them and to their families too. Our letting teams will be the people on the ground picking up the pieces with landlords, dealing with what has overnight quickly turned out to be an oversupply of rental properties.
We respectfully ask to be included in the recent €800 incentive launched by government. Government’s action or lack of it will determine whether our companies will survive the next few months.