Minister asks Parliament for legal remedy to address issuance of state-owned land for residential use

Infrastructure Minister Dr. Abdulla Muthalib on Monday asked the Parliament for a legal remedy to address the issue of state-owned land to build residential homes.

Unlike other countries, most homes in the Maldives are built on state-owned land. This practice came under renewed scrutiny in 2023, when thousands of Male’ residents were promised plots of land, including from Hulhumale’, free of charge, by the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administration. Many questioned the free distribution of prime real estate, from the sale of which the state could earn millions of Rufiyaa.

Muthalib, who was summoned to the Parliament for questioning on Monday morning, was asked by Thulusdhoo MP Ibrahim Naseem regarding this. He opinioned that the issuance of state-owned land does not offer a permanent solution to the country’s housing crisis, asked for the policies he may be implementing to resolve this issue.

Muthalib said that the practice of issuing state-owned land is unique to the Maldives, and is also of historic and cultural significance.

He said that changing such a practice is far too huge a task for him to tackle alone, and asked the Parliament to find a legal remedy.

“Changing a practice of such cultural and historic significance to the Maldives is not something I have the authority to do by myself. I therefore ask that the Parliament write state-owned land into a law and you find a remedy to this,” he said.

Muthalib said he does not believe issuing state-owned land for residential use is a sustainable solution to the housing crisis.

“It is very important that a solution is found through the Parliament and through the laws,” he said.

Muthalib later clarified in a post on X that he wasn’t asking the Parliament to change laws in order to stop the issuance of state-owned land.

“What I said in response to a question I was asked is that, that practice is unique to Maldives and that it might not be sustainable. And that it is the sort of issue that requires a remedy from the Parliament,” he said.

According to an audit on the former administration’s ‘Binveriya’ scheme under which over 9,000 land plots were issued from Hulhumale’, Gulhifalhu and Giraavaru, uncovered that the scheme resulted in a staggering loss of MVR 11 billion to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

The scheme was one of two housing schemes rolled out by the MDP administration to address the housing crisis in the populous Maldivian capital.