Galdes hides multi-million-euro contracts with Portelli

Embattled Minister Roderick Galdes is facing renewed political pressure after the Housing Authority declined to release details of multi-million-euro leasing agreements with developer Joseph Portelli and his business partners, citing commercial sensitivity.

The contracts, signed in 2024 with Excel Housing Ltd – a company jointly owned by Portelli, Mark Agius, known as Ta’ Dirjanu and Daniel Refalo, cover the long-term lease of about 100 apartments, mainly in Gozo, for use as social-housing units.

Annual lease values range from €4,000 to €9,000 per unit, according to Housing Authority sources, with penthouses, similar to one recently acquired by the Minister, commanding the highest rates.

In 2024, the same year the public deals were concluded, Galdes and his wife, Joanne,  entered into a promise-of-sale agreement to purchase a penthouse in Victoria from Portelli at an unusually low price. Galdes has rejected any suggestion of impropriety.

Efforts by The Shift to obtain the lease contracts under the Freedom of Information Act were blocked by the Housing Authority, which argued the documents fell outside the scope of the law.

The Authority is headed by Chief Executive Matthew Zerafa, a relative of Minister Galdes. The Shift has filed a formal complaint challenging the refusal.

The scale of the Gozo leasing social housing programme has raised questions, given historically modest demand for social housing on the island.

Parliamentary data tabled earlier this year shows that only 28 of the Gozo units have been allocated to Gozitan families, with the remainder housing Maltese tenants transferred from the main island – a move that has provoked frustration among applicants on Malta’s long waiting lists.

Some tenants have described the option of relocating to Gozo as an “indecent proposal”, saying they risked losing their place in the queue if they refused the offer.

The controversy has also drawn criticism from within the ruling Labour Party.

Former MP Silvio Grixti, currently facing criminal charges in an unrelated benefits case, publicly accused Galdes of uprooting low-income families from their communities.

Excel Housing’s portfolio under the agreement includes apartments and garages in several Gozitan localities: Sannat, San Lawrenz, Xagħra, and Victoria, as well as additional units in Gżira.

Last week, Marlene Mizzi, former chair of state property company Malita Investments, accused Minister Galdes of “hobnobbing” with contractors involved in social-housing projects.

So far, Galdes has not explained how he acquired a significant personal property portfolio; he also owns a house in Xagħra, as well as other properties in Qormi and Luqa, an apartment in Middlesex, UK, a house in Sicily, and another property in Siġġiewi.