244 people have been disbursed low interest housing loans from under the ‘Hiyaavehi’ housing financing scheme, whilst 629 approved applicants are awaiting their funds to be received within the upcoming month.The program has been structured to disburse MVR 2 Billion annually.

State Minister for Housing, Ahmed Nazim Mohamed, has spoken on PSM ‘Raajje Miadhu Program’ where he stated out of the 2,256 applicants that have applied for the scheme, 891 of the applicants have been approved after they went through the stages of the assessment process.

He has further stated the government fully intends to disburse the approved applicants of their funding by the end of the year 2026, whilst speaking on PSM.

Nazim has stated the delays are due to the lengthy process taken in order to establish policies, as well as procedures in governing loan disbursements.

He emphasized his point by explaining that the Ministry, as well as participating banks, and applicants had to work together to resolve raised issues, including certain building plans exceeding the 20% commercial use limit and Bill of Quantities (BOQ) estimates which seem to have exceeded the approved loan amounts.

Implemented in partnership with Bank of Maldives (BML), Housing Development Financing Corporation (HDFC), as well as Islamic Bank (MIB), the ‘Hiyaavehi scheme’ provides financing under three main categories;

~ Rahvehi: MVR 1 Million to residents on all islands.

~ Saharu: MVR 3 Million for designated urban areas.

~ Fahi Male’: ranging from MVR 6 Million - MVR 10 million for the greater Male’ area.

Where the Rahvehi category has 363 applicants approved, and does not carry equity, whereas the Saharu category, with 438 approved applicants, and the Fahi Male’ category with 40 approved applicants require equity contributions of respectively 5% to 10%

State Minister Nazim has announced that a new housing initiative with similar cause is expected to be launched within the coming 2 months.