It has come to light that while the Solih administration’s flat recipients have had their units confiscated for allegedly failing to prove 15 years of residency in the capital Malé City, the Muizzu administration did not actually apply the residency requirement when re-evaluating the flat allocation list.

This information became public through a response by the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Infrastructure to a Right to Information request submitted by a private individual.

In its response, the ministry stated that the evaluation and verification of individuals on the list announced on 15 November 2023, were conducted under Housing Policy Number 2022/G-20, Article 3, sections d, e, and f. Although the policy’s section c explicitly states the requirement to verify 15 years of Malé residency, the ministry’s response makes clear that this criterion was not considered in the verification process carried out by the current administration.

The government’s actions regarding flat recipients under the Gedhoruveriyaa scheme stand in direct contradiction to Muizzu’s pre-election promises, in which he pledged that no housing unit or land plot granted by a previous government would be confiscated. He had also asserted that once a flat allocation was gazetted, the grant was complete.