Secret Line Wall plan laced with suspicion

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 Monday, July 27, 2020 - 09:38 Mark Viales

Rich private investors and estate agents will monitor progress on plans to pedestrianise Line Wall Road as they seek to transform the area into a London-like business hub.

The value of prime properties is set to skyrocket due to the project, which is under a ‘Go Green’ light that will supposedly detoxify the polluted area.

The town centre is a gem for wealthy property developers who seek to build luxury business and residential real estate that will operate in an exclusive market.

The government has received public criticism on numerous occasions for failing to deliver affordable rental housing and instead encouraging overdevelopment of the high-end private sector.

MERGING WITH MIDTOWN

Just below Line Wall lie the Midtown corporate nerve centres of properties that have encroached on public land at the behest of the GSLP, and at the expense of locals. Only a small minority of Gibraltarians can afford to live there and, as has been observed in other extravagant properties such as King’s Wharf, many flats remain empty.

These ghost apartments are usually bought in bulk and then either rented out at exorbitant prices or used sparingly by the newly introduced wealthy foreign class. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) are the greatest contributors to Gibraltar’s fictitious GDP and care little for tradition, heritage or the well being of the working class. The purchase of expensive property in Gibraltar is largely a self-serving ploy that grants the rich access to a beneficial elite tax system, which is inevitably handed on a plate by the government.

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27-07-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR