Dr. Mohamed Muizzu pledged on Tuesday night to reimburse Hiya flat residents for finishing work expenses.
Speaking at a campaign event in Hulhumale', Muizzu said that the former Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) government decided to hand over the flats after completing interior work and secured USD 46 million for the purpose.
But the current administration handed over the social housing units without any finishing work and forced the public to bear the burden, he said.
"The poorest people have still not been able to properly finish the flats. There are still people who sleep on linoleum on the floor," Muizzu said.
The average cost of the Hiya flats finishing work will be paid to residents and an additional elevator will be installed in each tower, he pledged.
The compensation for each flat would be MVR 200,000 per unit as the average cost, he said, which amounts to MVR 1.34 billion for the 6,720 flats.
"I am saying very clearly, we will give the average cost. By giving I mean how to recover the price paid by the public as well as possible at an average cost. Some people have finished the apartments very expensively. So it might not be covered in whole. But when we set an average price - based on the calculations we made then, that's MVR 200,000 on average. So that will be given back. We will cut the cost," Muizzu said.
Launched while Muizzu was housing minister, the Hiya project's original scope did not include finishing work.
At the time, Muizzu said finishing work was not included when the project was awarded in order to avoid disputes between the contractor and developer as a result of changes brought by the tenant.
The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) under the previous government decided to obtain a further loan to finance the finishing work. The current administration also favored this option.
But after difficulties in HDC securing the loan for various reasons and complaints over the delay in handing over the flats, the government decided to hand over the flats without the interior work.
A six-month rent-free period was provided for tenants to complete the finishing work.
