Estate agency lobby groups attack each other

Malta’s two estate agency lobby groups have taken digs at one another as infighting in the industry reaches boiling point.  Members of one of the two groups, the Estate Agents Section (EAS) within the Malta Developers’ Association, have claimed that the other group, the Federation of Estate Agents, is a one-man show which did not represent operators in the sector.  Douglas Salt, a former member of the federation who today forms part of the new MDA branch, told the Times of Malta that the federation was making “sweeping statements” without consensus of industry players and without the backing of sound research.  The EAS was set up in February last year, with a vast majority of the FEA’s members having quit that organisation to create a new one under the auspices of the MDA. “The federation isn’t a federation at all. It is today made up of just one member, Simon Debono of Simon Estates, who calls himself the general secretary,” Mr Salt said. “That position does not even exist in the statute – I should know, I was there when the statute was written.” Contacted on Wednesday, Mr Debono said the claims against him were part of a smear campaign meant to undermine his...