BOV have recently announced a new home loan product aimed at applicants whose job entails a short to medium term advancement in their career with a commensurate increase in salary.

This appears, initially, to be a good idea. However, when one looks at recent history, this may not be the case. Early in the 1980's the term Yuppie appeared, meaning Young Upwardly Mobile Professionals. Many of these were working in the growing ITC fields and mostly for .coms.

When the London Docks closed, mainly due to Malta winning the bid for a major Cunard fleet refitting (this bid, by the way,  was LM5 million below cost ) the British Government redeveloped the entire dock area into Canary Wharf.This was a massive infrastructural development with skyscraper buildings and much of the old dock stock converted into living spaces. Many Yuppies bought into this very expensive and high focus area.

Then came the Stock Market Crash of 1987 and nearly all .coms failed overnight. This almost wiped out Silicon Valley in USA and had far reaching effects for the British Yuppies. Most saw their properties being repossessed within months.

Looking into the future , I  am sensing that by the time Smart City is finished in 2025, as well as the 'finalisation' of  other government based office centres, we will have trained so many IT professionals that we will have a surplus. As we all know IT changes on a daily basis and we really have no accurate method of foretelling what jobs will require what professionals in the future.

When this, plus our already dangerous property bubble bursts, where will this leave our young professionals who have been encouraged to take out mortgages beyond their needs or their ability to repay ?

Liz Groves runs Island Books in Mosta, a 2nd hand (and new) bookshop which is only open on weekends. She also cares about the fall of potential yuppies.