These notes explain how the deal is meant to work. They are not legal advice and not a verdict on the project.
Press reports describe an envisioned development scale across phases. That is the estimated value of what might be built and sold over years, often funded by off-plan buyers. It is not the same thing as Eagle Hills depositing $20 billion, or the state receiving $20 billion. Some reports used $12 billion.
Until a contract states a minimum cash equity and a timetable, treat large totals as marketing scale.
Maldivian law does not give foreigners freehold title to land. Long leases are common for resorts. Reports of this project say a lease of up to 99 years starts again on each sale or inheritance. That is different from a clock that only runs down.
On 20 October 2026 President Muizzu described something different. Buyers get 99 years, he said, and at the end they must sell the property back to the state, which then decides whether to sell it on. “There is no auto renewal,” he said. That is closer to the resort model than to a clock that resets on every sale.
Both versions cannot be the final rule. Which one applies, and who must approve each transfer, depends on the lease instrument and the Real Estate Law, neither of which has been published.
A state share of sales and a fee on resales can be a real public return if they apply to gross prices, including hotels, residences and later resales, and if someone can audit the books.
The same formula can yield little if “commercial sales” is defined narrowly, prices are shifted to related companies, or resales are hard to see. The definition belongs in the contract.
Official estimates of the state’s take now differ. In September a ministerial figure of over USD 11 billion during the development period was given. On 15 October the Housing Minister put the 10% share at about USD 3.1 billion over 10 years and called it a “land premium” on gross revenue. The two figures may cover different periods and sources, but no method has been published for either.
Officials now separate two pieces. The marina and luxury waterfront are on about 500 hectares of Ras Malé. The 5,000 three-bedroom homes are described as a Hulhumalé project that Eagle Hills must fund first, at USD 400–500 million, as an “initial commitment.”
The government says it waived the usual lump-sum acquisition fee and land rent, and took a 10% revenue share plus taxes instead. It also says the housing cost will later be deducted from that government share. So the homes are not described as a free gift. They are described as an advance by the developer, repaid from future project revenue.
Housing Minister Abdulla Muththalib has said Eagle Hills cannot treat Ras Malé units as freely transferable to any buyer. The government, he said, approves who may purchase, keeps the power to grant or refuse a visa, and will not allow property ownership to become a path to permanent residency or citizenship. If a visa is cancelled, the holder must leave and the property is to be sold to another approved buyer.
That statement answers a political charge that the project is a covert settlement or automatic-residency scheme. It does not, by itself, prove the clause exists.
This monitor records immigration and sale-control claims. It does not investigate people by religion or ethnicity.
On 29 September 2026 Attorney General Ahmed Usham said the Ras Malé waterfront will not be implemented under the Tourism Act lease model used for resorts. It will be governed by a Real Estate Law that is still being drafted. He said only a commercial terms agreement (a letter of intent) has been signed, that definitive agreements will follow further talks, and that related laws must be passed by the People’s Majlis before the project proceeds. He also said the government will not do anything contrary to the Constitution and existing law.
That statement is a response to opposition claims that the deal is already illegal. It also confirms a gap the monitor has flagged since day one: the 21 September paper is not the final legal instrument.
On 7–8 October 2026 Eagle Hills chairman Mohamed Alabbar came to Malé, met officials and business leaders, and spoke to local media. He said the missing contract text was still being finished and would be published, that the company would not go ahead without public support, and that construction would start in about a year. He repeated that the USD 500 million Hulhumalé homes are paid first and recovered later, from equity, loans and sales.
Two numbers from the same visit do not match. One report quotes nearly USD 20 billion in lifetime taxes. Another quotes nearly USD 2 billion. Job figures were also restated: 40,000 during construction and 15,000 to 18,000 after. Until the definitive agreement is public, these are campaign statements, not obligations.
In mid-October 2026 the Housing Minister published concept designs for the 5,000 Hulhumalé homes. They sit in Urban Isle, a site previously assigned to a financial-centre plan and a commercial-spine contract. The designs show towers, waterfront homes and public facilities. They are not a construction contract, and they do not show which earlier awards on that land have been cancelled.
The same week the minister said the Real Estate Law now being drafted will bar Israeli nationals and Israeli-controlled entities from buying, owning, financing or selling Ras Malé units, and will require buyers to declare every nationality they hold or have held. A false declaration would void the lease. He also said purchase will not create permanent residency or citizenship.
These are drafting promises. They are recorded as proposed until the bill is published and passed.
There was no open tender. In a written reply dated 15 October 2026, the Housing Minister said Eagle Hills submitted its own proposal, and the government accepted it under the public finance rules for private-sector-initiated proposals (PSIP), section 10.22.
A PSIP route lets a government take up an idea a company brings to it, instead of designing a project and inviting bids. It can save time. Its usual weakness is price discovery: without competing bids, the public has to rely on the evaluation to know whether the terms are good. That makes the evaluation paper the key document.
On 20 October 2026 President Muizzu said buyers of Eagle Hills properties hold them for 99 years and must then sell them back to the state, which decides whether to sell them on. He compared this to resorts, where at the end of a lease the state can take the property by paying what was spent, or extend the lease.
The resort rule is written in law. Under the Tourism Act (Law 2/99), when a resort lease ends and the island returns to the state, the state values the buildings and items on it and pays that amount to the former lessee within two years. If the island is leased again, the new lessee pays the state the value of the buildings. The former lessee may bid too. In practice the state can re-tender the island and use the new lessee’s payment to settle with the old one. The value is generally understood as a depreciated value, not a market price. A US government review of the investment climate in 2024 noted that a formula for that value had not yet been developed.
For Ras Malé, none of these points has been stated. The President did not say how the price would be set, how long the state would have to pay, or whether the state could re-tender units and pass the cost to new buyers. The difference in scale also matters. A resort is one lease with one lessee. Ras Malé could involve thousands of separate apartments and villas, each with its own owner, all reaching 99 years at different times.
Tourism Act provisions summarised from the Ministry of Tourism’s unofficial English translation. Later amendments may change details; check the current consolidated text.