Our Research Coordinator, Dara Turnbull, was at the latest National Housing Conference in Malta, organised by our partner, the Malta Housing Authority, where he gave the keynote speech.
He spoke about where things stand for public, cooperative and social housing providers across Europe right now – the big shared pressures, the policy tools that have worked in some countries and could work elsewhere, and the fact that the EU is becoming a much more serious player in housing than it was even a few years ago.
One of the insightful parts of the conference was the presentation of Malta’s new Housing Satisfaction Survey, to be published in a few weeks. On the surface, the picture looks fairly positive as 81% of people say they are satisfied with their housing situation. However, once we look closer, some familiar issues appear.
There are homes that need renovation, strong dependence on air conditioning, younger adults saying their homes feel too small, and everyday quality-of-life frustrations such as noise and lack of parking. It is one of those cases where headline satisfaction numbers are good, but they do not mean the housing system is without pressure points.
They also questioned “is Malta building the right homes?”. Malta’s dense population and rapid growth had completely changed how we should think about housing policy, with a need to consider the country like one large urban area. Much of the discussion was on community and neighbourhood quality, rather than housing itself, as living together and shared spaces were the biggest concerns for Maltese people. The Housing Authority outlined how it is working to develop a more holistic approach to housing and community, including a number of pilot projects; for example to help older people age in place in their communities.