Roderick Galdes, Malta’s Minister for Social and Affordable Accommodation, owns multiple properties and plots of land across Italy and Sicily, including a series of significant investments in Ragusa, Rosolini and the Dolomites between 2022 and 2025.
The purchases were made while Galdes held senior responsibility for the housing sector, first as Parliamentary Secretary for Social Housing, a role he assumed in 2017, and later as Minister responsible for the sector from 2020 onwards.
The first trace of Roderick Galdes’ property activity in Italy appears in Catania. On 6 December 2019, Galdes and his wife, Joanne Galdes, jointly purchased a 20-square-metre ground-floor unit at Cortile Litrico.
Joanne Galdes is a director at Wasteserv and has held roles at the Office of the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.
Galdes’ next documented property appears in Rosolini, in the province of Siracusa. According to the local land registry, Galdes and his wife jointly own a villa in Contrada Cavetta Amenta, measuring approximately 177 square metres.
The building was originally registered as a collabente, an uninhabitable or derelict structure, and was formally converted into a residential property in June 2022.
A year later, Galdes made another move in Ragusa. Land registry records show that on 15th June 2023, he purchased a large villa complex on Modica–Giarratana, comprising a main residence and a smaller unit.
Unlike his earlier properties, this acquisition is registered entirely in Galdes’ name. A formal renovation was recorded shortly after the transaction, confirming the site’s redevelopment.
The Ragusa records also show that Galdes holds agricultural land in the same area, acquired through a series of purchase deeds in June 2022 and July 2023.
These holdings include two agricultural parcels owned jointly on a 50% basis with Norbert Bellia, a Malta-born co-owner, as well as a smaller parcel in which Galdes holds a 1/8th share, alongside Bellia and two local Italian owners, Paola and Maria Occhipinti.
In 2024, an application by Galdes and Bellia to develop agricultural land in Ragusa was rejected.
Bellia appears to be a car dealer. In Malta, this name appears on numerous applications to develop sites into apartments and car showrooms.
A piece of agricultural land with a building in Sicily is listed within Galdes’ 2021 asset declaration.
Galdes’ most recent documented property activity appears far from Sicily.
According to the Udine land registry, Galdes and his wife jointly own three residential units in Forni di Sopra, a mountain village in the Dolomites.
The apartments were derived from a formal administrative division registered on 10th October 2025, rather than through individual purchases. The three units together total 10.5 rooms and remain jointly owned by the couple.
According to Google Maps, it appears that it comprises an entire residential block.
Galdes and his property deals have been under the microscope ever since Marlene Mizzi, the former chairperson of Malita Investments, accused him of interfering in the company’s operations and of “hobnobbing” with contractors that the company had engaged.
The Times of Malta have since revealed two property deals between Galdes and Excel Investments, a property development company owned by Joseph Portelli, Mark Agius, and Daniel Refalo.
According to his 2021 asset declaration, the most recent available, Galdes also owns properties in Luqa, Xagħra, Qormi, Siġġiewi, Middlesex, and Sicily.
Galdes, for his part, has described the criticism as an “attack on him and his family” and has denied all allegations.
When asked by reporters about Galdes’s property portfolio, Prime Minister Robert Abela stated that he was satisfied with the explanations provided, which claimed that the majority of properties were purchased before Galdes became minister.
Galdes did not respond to a request for comment from Amphora Media.