2021: Government promises Hiyaa keys in March, then in April

On 24 February 2021 Housing Minister Mohamed Aslam said the Hiyaa social housing flats in Hulhumalé Phase 2 would be handed over by the end of March. They would be ready for handover, he said, but not for living in: tiling and doors were not done, and recipients would get three months without rent to finish them. At the end of March the President's Office moved the date to April, citing small unfinished preparations. Keys were in fact handed over from 14 July 2021, and residents began moving in from 17 August. The unfinished interiors became a cost the next government chose to repay.

What was announced

At a President's Office press conference in February, the minister set out the plan: handover by the end of March, occupancy later. Recipients would take their flats as shells with incomplete finishing and would be given a three-month rent-free period to prepare them.

On 31 March the President's Office spokesperson, Mabrook Azeez, said recipients would receive keys during April. President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had already said the handover was close, and the spokesperson put the delay down to minor outstanding work.

The Boahiyaa site's April post added the checks the government said it would apply before handing over: whether a recipient had already received housing under an earlier state scheme; one flat only for a married couple where both spouses had qualified; and, for Malé residents, no land larger than 600 square feet in the capital. It also noted that the Architecture Association of Maldives had raised concerns about the design of the towers and flats.

The context

The 6,720 Hiyaa flats in 16 towers of 25 storeys had been physically completed by their Chinese contractor in March 2020. What remained was the Maldivian side: utilities, the final allocation, and the finishing that the previous government had planned to leave to recipients. The new government had considered borrowing a further US$45 million to finish the interiors, then dropped the idea so as not to delay handover further. The final eligibility lists were gazetted on 9 February 2021, two weeks before the March date was announced.

What happened next

Keys. Neither March nor April held. The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) held a key-signing ceremony at Huravee School in Hulhumalé on 14 July 2021 and then signed agreements and handed over 250 to 300 flats a day. Residents could move in from 17 August 2021.

Utilities and the rent-free period. Electricity and water took longer. HDC started the three-month grace period on 1 October 2021 for recipients who had signed by 30 September, once power and water had reached every tower, so rent collection began in early 2022. Bank of Maldives offered home improvement loans to recipients to pay for finishing work.

Finishing costs repaid. In December 2023 President Mohamed Muizzu, who as housing minister had begun the project, announced that MVR 200,000 would be deducted from the price of each Hiyaa flat to compensate recipients for the finishing work they had paid for, delivered as a lower monthly rent over seven years.

What it means now

Hiyaa set a pattern that the next scheme repeated. The 4,000 Gedhoruveriya flats handed over from September 2025 also needed doors, windows, fixtures, tiling and painting finished before families could live in them, and their handover dates also moved several times. For anyone offered a state flat, the handover date and the move-in date are different things, and the finishing budget is part of the price. Because recipients finished their own interiors, the standard of finishing in the Hiyaa towers varies from flat to flat.