The Maldives government has signed an agreement with Adu Dhabi-based property developer Eagle Hills to build a waterfront and marina destination at Rasmal\u00e9, the new city rising out of the Fushidhiggaru lagoon near Mal\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Dubai on Monday by Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Minister Dr Abdulla Muththalib, on behalf of the Maldives government and Eagle Hills founder and chairman Mohamed Alabbar on behalf of the company. The project is entitled Maldives Waterfront and Marina.<\/p>\n
Locally, the deal has been reported as a USD 20 billion investment – approximately MVR 308 billion, a figure which local news outlet Dhiyares reported is more than twice the size of the country’s entire GDP of USD 8 billion.<\/p>\n
Taking the figure just at face value alone makes it the largest foreign investment the Maldives has ever put its signature to. However, with most headline numbers of this kind, the intricacies underneath deserves a stronger magnifier than training the scope’s focus on the flashier number on top.<\/p>\n
The developer’s projections are just how a developer’s projects tend to be: generous.<\/p>\n
According to Eagle Hills, investment envisioned across the various phases of the development totals approximately USD 20 billion. Preliminary projections cited by the developer indicate the project could attract more than USD 30 billion in gross foreign investment over its lifetime, including around USD 18 billion in net foreign investment.<\/p>\n
The development is also projected to generate more than 54,000 direct and indirect jobs. Once fully developed, Eagle Hills expects the destination to receive more than one million visitors annually and generate over USD 2 billion in annual tourism revenue.<\/p>\n
As for what will actually stand on the land, the proposed integrated destination will feature international hotels and resorts, premium and branded residences, a world-class marina, waterfront promenades, restaurants, retail outlets, and leisure and wellness facilities. Speaking to Bloomberg, Alabbar added that the development is set to include thousands of homes, hotels, resorts, shops, schools, clinics, a water park, a marina and other amenities, and that Emaar could also participate in the project.<\/p>\n
The less tidier side of the story.<\/p>\n
While The National in Abu Dhabi, and the Maldivian press following it, reported the project at USD 20 billion, two other major outlets reported a considerably smaller figure on the very same day. Khaleej Times reported that Eagle Hills had signed an agreement to develop Maldives Water and Marina, a USD 12 billion (about 44 billion Dirham) project across its various phases. Bloomberg likewise reported that Eagle Hills is planning a USD 12 billion mixed-use development in the Maldives, eyeing a 5.2 million square meter island that’s about 20 minutes from capital Mal\u00e9.<\/p>\n
That is a difference of USD 8 billion, which is, by the local press’s own reckoning, roughly the size of the entire Maldivian economy, between two sets of figures describing the same signing.<\/p>\n
The most likely explanation is that the lower figure refers to Eagle Hill’s own development spend, while the higher figure captures the total investment envisioned across all phases, including third-party capital.<\/p>\n
However, since nobody has stepped forward to set the record straight, the public has two numbers and no reconciliation between them.<\/p>\n
Not a construction contract, and the mistake would be to take it as one.<\/p>\n
According to the joint statement cited by Khaleej Times, the agreement sets out the shared vision and principal commercial terms, while detailed terms will be developed as the project progresses.<\/p>\n
The Standard, another local news outlet, put the matter more bluntly still: the USD 20 billion figure represents the investment envisioned throughout the project’s different phases, rather than a confirmed upfront capital commitment from Eagle Hills. Details regarding financing, the construction schedule and Eagle Hill’s direct capital contribution have not yet been disclosed.<\/p>\n
So, long story short: Maldives has in hand today is an agreed direction of travel with a very capable developer, and not yet a binding promise of any particular sum arriving on any particular date.<\/p>\n
The most consequential clause in the announcement, is not the investment figure at all, but the tenure agreement.<\/p>\n
Properties will be offered under a long-term leasehold framework governed by Maldivian law, with terms of up to 99 years. On each transfer, whether by sale or inheritance, a new lease of up to 99 years will begin, giving owners continuity across generations.<\/p>\n
The reason for this arrangement is, of course, well known. Maldivian law does not permit foreigners to own land outright, and a developer selling branded residences to buyers in Dubai, Riyadh or London needs something that looks and behaves like ownership. This gap is bridged by a self-renewing leasehold. Whether it ought to be bridged this way, on public land reclaimed at public expense, is a question the Maldivian Parliament may well want to examine (if they ever consider it!).<\/p>\n
A familiar name. Eagle Hills is no stranger to projects of this scale.<\/p>\n
Eagle Hills is a private Abu Dhabi-based property developer founded by Mohamed Alabbar, who also founded Emaar Properties, the developer behind Dubai landmarks including the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall. It has an expanding international portfolio including a USD 2.5 billion Albanian marina project and a USD 1.2 billion waterfront development in Sharjah.<\/p>\n
Minister Muththalib, for his part, said the country had found a partner “whose record speaks for itself”, citing Downtown Dubai and Belgrade Waterfront among the projects that show the authority Alabbar and Eagle Hills carry in building city-scale destinations from the ground up.<\/p>\n
Noteworthy point? How the company’s larger overseas ventures tend to be structured. Several of the largest are undertaken through local project companies jointly owned with governments or government-related entities, with ownership shares that vary by project. Whether the Maldivian state will contribute land as equity, hold a share in a joint venture company, or simply lease the land and collect rent, has not been disclosed. This single piece of detail, also determines the unfortunate party that would carry the risk if the project stalls, and who shares in the gain if it succeeds.<\/p>\n
Before we understand why the agreement matters so much, we need to go back to where Rasmal\u00e9 began: because the project did not begin as a marina.<\/p>\n
Rasmal\u00e9 was a campaign pledge of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, and it was born out of a single, very old problem: Mal\u00e9 has run out of room. The capital is among the most densely populated places on earth, and families have for decades lived in cramped, overpriced rented rooms with very little prospect of a home of their own.<\/p>\n
The president inaugurated Rasmal\u00e9 in December 2023, marking the commencement of the Maldives’ most extensive land reclamation project ever undertaken. The lagoon lies close to Gulhi, accessible via a 17-minute speedboat ride from capital Mal\u00e9. The dredging plan formed a part of the government’s first 100-day pledges.<\/p>\n
The ambitions were considerable, and the president added that the reclamation of 1,150 hectares would generate a land mass approximately three times the cumulative area of the two phases of Hulhumal\u00e9, and reaffirmed his pledge to complete the project within 08 months of commencement. The city was to be developed two meters high on the edges and three meters high in the middle to project it from the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n
It was also sold as an environmental statement, with President Muizzu stating Rasmal\u00e9 would be developed on a zero-carbon, safe island concept, and would be designated as the Maldives Eco City when marketed worldwide. The plans also included an airstrip in the reclaimed lagoon, connected to Rasmal\u00e9 by a bridge.<\/p>\n
Most crucial point to drive home about Rasmal\u00e9, at least at the project’s inception was, that it was a housing project first. Once completed, the government was expected to construct 65,000 housing units comprising plots of land and apartments. Sri Lanka’s Capital Marine and Civil Construction (CMC) was awarded the reclamation contract, and the government committed MVR 1.4 billion over three years, with MVR 400 million allocated for 2024.<\/p>\n
Not quite!<\/p>\n
Although the work initially began on 18 December 2023, it was halted within a short period, and it was reported that a major chunk of the reclaimed area had eroded. After facing severe public backlash, President Muizzu acknowledged in an interview with state broadcaster PSM in April that the project had been put on hold. Reclamation later resumed, and the eight-month deadline came and went.<\/p>\n
The target itself has also shifted, and the President’s Office has since described the project as one that will see the reclamation of 1,009 hectares to develop Rasmal\u00e9 as an environmentally sustainable eco-city; somewhat less than the 1,150 hectares announced at the launch. As recently as November 2025, the government continued to describe the scheme as its flagship project to develop an eco-city as “permanent solution” to the capital’s housing crisis, and the President pledged to invite applications for 15,000 plots of land to be awarded from Rasmal\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Things become awkward and sit awkwardly at this point, especially since Monday’s agreement.<\/p>\n
The Housing Ministry has given assurance that although the project will proceed in the 500 hectare area already reclaimed at Rasmal\u00e9, there will be no reduction in the number of plots and flats previously announced for Maldivian citizens. Bloomberg’s figure of 5.2 million square meters comes to roughly 520 hectares.<\/p>\n
Set that against a city whose total reclaimed area has been variously put at between 1,009 and 1,153 hectares, and the math is plain enough: close to half of Rasmal\u00e9 looks set to go to a single foreign-led luxury destination.<\/p>\n
The Ministry’s assurance may well hold, but a promise of 65,000 housing units was made on the basis of a certain amount of land, and if half of that land now carries hotels, branded residences and a water park, the housing must either be built more densely on what remains or be delivered somewhere else. Neither the Ministry nor Eagle Hills has yet published the masterplan which would show which of those it is to be.<\/p>\n
The Standard observed that if the development proceeds through its planned phases, it would substantially expand Rasmal\u00e9’s role from a solution to Mal\u00e9’s housing and land constraints into a new international waterfront, tourism and investment hub.<\/p>\n
At this point, this should not surprise anyone. Timing is not accidental, at all.<\/p>\n
The island nation’s economy leans almost entirely on tourism; an undisputed fact, and the government has spent the better part of its term trying to widen the base. The project forms part of a broader strategy to diversify the Maldives’ tourism-reliant economy, following a USD 8.8 billion financial center deal with Dubai-based MBS Global Investments in May 2025.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the agreement arrives at a moment when the country badly needs foreign currency. Businesses have been waiting weeks for telegraphic transfers, traders have been buying dollars on the black market pay suppliers, and foreign tour operators have spent this month threatening to stop selling the destination over the new GST rules. A developer promising billions of dollars in foreign investment, a million visitors a year and USD 2 billion in annual tourism revenue is exactly the kind of announcement the Maldivian government wants to be making, given its position.<\/p>\n
However, a signing ceremony does not put a single dollar into a Maldivian bank. In fact, much of the value of a branded-residence development is realized only when the units are sold, and where buyers pay a developer’s account abroad, it remains to be seen how much of that money actually lands in the Maldivian banking system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Maldives government has signed an agreement with Adu Dhabi-based property developer Eagle Hills to build a waterfront and marina destination at Rasmal\u00e9, the new city rising out of the Fushidhiggaru lagoon near Mal\u00e9. The agreement was signed at a ceremony in Dubai on Monday by Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Minister Dr Abdulla Muththalib,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2423,2981,2508,2994,2428,2976,2507,2429,2465],"tags":[3606,3607,1346,1356,1762,2104,2159],"class_list":["post-17720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-government","category-latest-news","category-national-news","category-public-sector","category-social-development","category-top-stories-featured-area","category-tourism","category-world-news","tag-global-tourism-investors","tag-international-investors","tag-maldives-president-dr-mohamed-muizzu","tag-maldives-tourism","tag-rasmale-project","tag-tourism-development","tag-travel-and-tourism"],"yoast_head":"\n