The Housing Ministry has informed the Malé City Council that any action that changes the registration status of a piece of land, which beneficiaries of the ‘Binveriya’ Social Housing Scheme had agreed to forfeit in order to be eligible for the scheme, will result in them losing their eligibility.
Among the eligibility conditions under the scheme is that if an applicant has a less than 600 square feet of land in their own name in the Malé area, they must forfeit such land to become eligible for the Binveriya scheme — they must also not have given away or sold land in the Malé area which had been under their name.
Several beneficiaries of the scheme, meanwhile, have signed agreements accepting their plots and many have even been handed the registrations for their Binveriya plots.
However, on 28 January, the Housing Ministry had sent a communique to the city council stating that should any beneficiary undertake any action such as converting the land they had pledged to forfeit to their sole ownership or transferring ownership of said plots to another, such beneficiaries would be declared ineligible for the Binveriya plots.
The ministry directed the city council to halt such transactions should a beneficiary of the scheme submit such an action, or request, to the council.
Posting the communique on social media recently, Malé City Councillor Saif Fathih said the ministry had issued such an order while it had been silent while many beneficiaries were conducting such land transactions without properly understanding potential consequences.