Individuals who invested in apartments of flats being built under the housing project undertaken by the Sea Life Global Inc in phase one of capital city Male’s suburban extension Hulhumale’, have expressed concern regarding negligence on the company’s end in taking payments and failing to respond.
Speaking to RaajjeMV, one of the payers who had made a payment of MVR 50,000 as a booking fee in August 2017, had revealed that a down payment of MVR one million had been made later on in November the same year as well.
According to the person who gave the statement to RaajjeMV, albeit Sea Life having assured that an agreement of purchasing apartments in the flats will be signed on the 15th of January 2018 following which it will officially be handed over to the buyer, no such agreements had been signed thus far. The buyer added that although they had requested the company to pay back the amount compensated, the company is yet to reimburse the amount.
“I visit the company almost every week since the previous Ramadan, till date, they ask me to come back another day to collect the reimbursement. The day is yet to come. I am not employed, that was money I had saved up from rent fees of my small one-room apartment since the past ten years. I had tried so many approaches to get that money back. When I visit their office, it is packed with several others like me, asking for their money back” said a distressed buyer.
According to the agreement, buyers need to pay up a whopping total of MVR 3.4 million. Sea Life Maldives and two companies from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, had created Sea Life Global Inc as a joint venture company. The company green lighted Housing Development Corporation (HDC) in June 2018 to construct a total of 3,000 housing units divided into three blocks along with a 12 storey office building.
Under phase one of said agreement to build the biggest apartment project deemed by Sri Lankan newsprint Daily News, the complex will consist of three lots with three blocks each and two towers to be built in each block. The high-rise building towers will soar up to 14 floors and will be connected from the third floor with a skywalk bridge. Each tower has a multitude of apartments from one room studio units to three room units and luxurious penthouse units. Under the first phase, 1,000 flats will be constructed in the three blocks along with the office building and was estimated to finish within two years, in the end, the entire project stretched to a period of five years.
When it was opened to the real estate market, thousands had poured in to queue up to purchase flats from the housing project, with the company having taken over millions of MVR from buyers with assurance that they will be handed their apartments upon completion, which they said would be by the end of 2018.
With this having been said, President Abdulla Yameen had laid out the foundation of the project.
Bargain hunters of the Sea Life housing project said that while things weren’t going according to the agreements, they have not been given reasons as to why there has been a drawn-out delay in the completion of the construction work by the company.
Speaking about this issue, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Dr. Mohamed Muizzu revealed that the ministry is currently not engaged in any such housing projects.
RaajjeMV was unable to attain a comment from the HDC regarding the matter at the time of publishing.
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