Tag: property

  • From Sicily to the Dolomites: How Minister Roderick Galdes Built An Italian Property Portfolio While In Office

    From Sicily to the Dolomites: How Minister Roderick Galdes Built An Italian Property Portfolio While In Office

    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.

  • The 20-Day Flip: Fortina Sold Public Land For €40 Million Weeks After Paying €8 Million To Lift All Restrictions

    The 20-Day Flip: Fortina Sold Public Land For €40 Million Weeks After Paying €8 Million To Lift All Restrictions

    In 20 days, Fortina converted an €8.1 million waiver on restrictions on government land into a €40 million sale to a company within the corporate structure of Bet 365.

    On 17th July 2019, Parliament approved a waiver to lift long-standing restrictions on government land owned by Fortina. Documents obtained by Amphora Media show that on 6th August, Fortina Developments sold a part of that same site to Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited, a company ultimately owned by Bet365 Group Limited, for €40 million.

    Bet365 declined to comment. Fortina’s lawyers told Amphora Media that “the transaction in question was conducted between commercial entities through properly executed public deeds, which are matters of public record and accessible for your review. These deeds contain the complete factual record of the transaction.”

    Parliament approved the waiver on development restrictions for €8.1 million. A report by the National Audit Office found an independent valuation of €18 to €23 million was suppressed by government officials. 

    One of these restrictions was a ban on any above-ground construction or development in the area.

    Fortina secured the €40 million promise of sale with Hillside against an €8 million deposit on 14th February 2018, a year and a half before the land restrictions were lifted by Parliament.

    This was two months before the Planning Authority received Fortina’s application permit over a change of use to office space.  It was approved in October 2018.

    The deal included several airspace parcels of land within the entire site:

    • A 1,645 square metre site,
    • A 940 square metre site,
    • A 978 square metre site,
    • A building permit awarded to Fortina Developments Ltd, the company led by CEO Edward Zammit Tabona (PA 03913/18),
    • The use and modification of the existing car park.

    According to the deed, Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited has “free and unencumbered” ownership of the site, including against “any rights in favour of the Government or any other public authority”.

    The €40 million sale does not include the Hotel development or other sites on the land that are still owned through Fortina-linked companies.

    Hillside’s accounts in 2019 also list a separate €33.9 million expense for the construction and development of the building, of which almost €1.7 million had already been paid by that time.

    The deed of sale references the “Arapa Deed”, which was a tripartite legal agreement between the Planning Authority, the Malta Tourism Authority, and Fortel Services Limited.

    This earlier deed imposed an obligation on Fortel to restrict the use of the hotel development to tourist accommodation only, strictly prohibiting its use for permanent residential occupation. 

    The deed of sale included specific clauses, such as the creation of the FSL Easement, designed to protect Hillside’s acquired property in the event of a breach of the Arapa Deed that could impact the entire project.

    The Journey from a €250,000 deed to a €40 million sale

    The site is part of the land Fortina acquired through multiple government deeds, which had restrictions lifted as part of the €8.1 million deal.

    Fortina acquired the site for just under €250,000 in a 1996 government deed. The deed gave Fortina “free and unencumbered” use of the land, against several strict conditions:

    • Construction was restricted to remain below specified reference points, but certain exceptions were allowed, including a swimming pool (up to 730 m²), boundary walls, toilets, garden landscaping, emergency exits, an Enemalta sub-station, and the reconstruction of the bocci pitch with ancillary facilities.
    • It would be used exclusively for the hotel’s extension.

    Corporate records and public registry documents show that, over 20 years later, on 14th February 2018, Hillside (New Media Malta Property) Limited & Fortina Developments Limited entered into a promise of sale agreement to acquire the airspace, car park spaces, and shaft for €40 million, paying an €8 million deposit.

    More than 18 months later, on 17th July 2019, Parliament waived all restrictions on that site and several others for just €8.1 million. On 6th August, Fortina sold that portion for €40 million.

    Fortina’s Cut-Price Waiver To Lift Restrictions And The NAO

    Fortina acquired all the sites in government deeds between 1991 and 2000 for a total value of around €1.4 million. The land was handed to Fortina for the sole purpose of extending its hotel on the site into apartments, offices, and commercial spaces. 

    The government approved the €8.1 million waiver. But an independent valuation, suppressed by the Lands Authority, placed the land’s value between €18.3 million and €23.9 million, depending on the payment terms.

    That’s a discrepancy of nearly €13 million to Fortina’s benefit.

    As part of the deal, Fortina paid €1 million upfront and would pay an additional €7.1 million over the next 10 years. By the end of 2024, Fortina had so far spent some €2.9 million, leaving a balance of around €5.1 million, which is to be settled entirely by July 2029.

    The Lands Authority has been instructed by the Parliamentary Audit Committee to conduct a new valuation of the Fortina waiver, following a report by the National Audit Office that revealed significant discrepancies in the original assessment. 

    The report also found that Lino Farrugia Sacco, the then-Lands Authority Chairman, had withheld a valuation placing the land’s worth at €18 million

    Farrugia Sacco, who died in 2021, warned the valuation “would create problems for him.”

    Former Lands CEO Received Payments From Fortina’s Boss the Year Sliema Land Was Undervalued By €13M

    A previous collaborative investigation by Amphora Media and the Times of Malta revealed an intelligence report that detailed how former Lands Authority CEO James Piscopo received payments from a company owned by Fortina’s CEO, Edward Zammit Tabona, in the same year Parliament approved the deal.

    Piscopo declared his conflict of interest with Fortina’s owners in September 2018, after journalists raised questions months into his appointment.

    The intelligence report indicated that he received in excess of €50,000 from Zammit Tabona-linked firms in 2019. A few months after being forced to resign all public roles, Piscopo was also awarded an €11,800-a-month consultancy with Ozo Group, part-owned by Zammit Tabona.

    Piscopo and Zammit Tabona confirmed the payments. However, both said the payments were private and legitimate and had no connection to the waiver.

    The NAO report has determined that Fortina was the recipient of a significant information leak on the deal.

    The Auditor General noted that, by 4th February 2019, Fortina was already in possession of the €8.1 million valuation by the Architects’ Lands Authority – before the Board of Governors meeting – since its counterproposal explicitly referenced the figure.

    Fortina later confirmed that this valuation triggered its own €2.7 million counter-valuation.

    Fortina told Amphora Media that “Edward Zammit Tabona has always conducted himself in a correct manner as CEO of the Group” and that while it was not in a position to comment, it stressed that Piscopo abstained in discussions or decisions on the waiver.

    In a statement following the PAC order, Fortina reportedly issued a statement insisting that the “maximum fair value would at best range between €3.5 to €7.4 million”.

    “We paid significantly more than the current fair value standards. Not only did we not benefit from an advantageous valuation, but we were significantly disadvantaged,” it said.