The government has included a provision in the rules under its "housing for all" policy to allow land to people who have never lived in Male'.

According to the rules publicised by the Housing Ministry, two categories of people can apply for land. They are Male' natives and people who have lived in Male' for 15 years.

But an article was added to allow land to be allocated to additional categories selected by the government. The conditions and procedures for the categories will be made public by the ministry.

The rules do not have details about the additional categories and they were not discussed during the launch of the housing policy on Sunday.

It is unclear why the government wants to allocate land to people who have never lived in Male'.

The Housing Ministry said the policy aims to ensure that every Maldivian family can live with dignity by establishing housing accessibility and affordability.

Although this is the government's overall housing policy, the first and most important scheme under this policy is the family housing program. They are the land allocation scheme and the flat allocation scheme targeting Male'.