Government’s new land valuation formula is here to stay, Mizzi and Schembri confirm

Despite the controversy raging on how the valuation of the land at the ITS site in St George’s Bay was calculated, the government will be sticking to the modus operandi it had commissioned from Deloitte for the site as a means of selling public land in the future.

Contacted by this newspaper, Parliamentary Secretary for Lands Deborah Schembri confirmed that, “The methods used by Deloitte in their assessment are included amongst the set standards which the Lands Authority shall now rely on.”

“The Authority,” she said, “shall be directed to rely on acknowledged valuation standards and the chosen methodology depends primarily on the specific site circumstances and legal attributes.”

Contacted by this newspaper, a spokesperson for Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Konrad Mizzi, who had also been involved in the drafting of the government’s agreement to sell the prime ITS site to the db Group, confirmed this: “The new Lands Authority will be adopting international valuation

methods and those methods are supported by valuation guidelines. More on this and future approaches to valuation will be given in the coming months by Deborah Schembri as the change at the Lands Authority continues.”

According to experts who were involved in the valuation of the land at the ITS site, and who explained the methodology, approach and valuation attached to the site, the developer has been bound to honour strict land use obligations, or face significant increases in the price paid for the land. Such conditions will be replicated when the government sells land to the private sector.

As such, the days of people buying government property only to turn around and change its use appear to be over, with future sales of public land bound by strict obligations that would see anyone not fulfilling them facing significant price hikes. A full analysis of the changes being made to the ways in which the government will sell land in future to the private sector will be published during the week in The Malta Independent