This page is about long-term letting
Reside is a long-term residential rental site for the Maldives. Every listing on it is a home somebody will live in, in Malé (Male), Hulhumalé or on the islands. There is no nightly rate, no calendar, and nobody reserves anything by the night. Renters read your listing and contact you directly.
If you let by the night or the week, this is the wrong site. It is worth knowing that the Residential Tenancies Act does not cover day-rate room rentals, tourist hotels and guesthouses, staff accommodation at resorts or employer-provided staff housing either. Those sit outside it entirely.
When you list, you set the shortest tenancy you will sign. One month, three, six, twelve, twenty-four or more, or flexible. It shows on the listing, so a renter on a six-month posting and a family looking to settle both know where they stand before they message you.
Listing is free, and we take nothing from the rent
No listing fee. No commission. No agent fee, no cut of the deposit, no percentage of the first month. Your number goes on the listing and renters call or message you on WhatsApp. Nobody from Reside sits in the middle of that conversation.
There is one paid thing on the whole site and it is optional. A Featured listing carries a gold badge and takes turns at the top of search and on the homepage with the other Featured listings: MVR 75 for seven days, MVR 125 for fourteen, MVR 225 for thirty. On top of that you can add a video reel and story set on Instagram and Facebook, a place on our main Instagram grid, a fresh post in our Telegram and Viber channels, a fixed place at the top of reside.mv/bio, or a three-day Meta ad, and you pay only for what you pick. If the home rents early, the paid days left are saved as credits for your next listing. It never changes whether a listing is published, and it buys no leniency at review.
There is no payment gateway. You pick a package, pay by bank transfer, and somebody here switches it on.
Set the deposit before a tenant has reason to dispute it
This is the part most worth getting right on the day you list, because a wrong figure now is an argument three months later.
The Residential Tenancies Act, Act 21/2021, was ratified and gazetted on 18 November 2021 and stands unamended. Section 18(a) gives the landlord discretion to set a security deposit of not more than two months' rent. Read that precisely. Two months is a ceiling on what you may ask, not a figure you are expected to reach, and there is no minimum at all. The form suggests one month.
Our form stops at two months for that reason. If you type a custom amount instead, the server checks it against the rent in the same currency and refuses anything over the cap, in MVR and in USD. We would rather refuse it at the form than have a tenant refuse it at the door.
| What the Act says about the deposit | Section |
|---|---|
| Not more than two months' rent | s.18(a) |
| Paid to you, or into an account you name | s.18(b) |
| You must give the tenant a written receipt for it | s.18(c) |
| Return it within 15 days of the tenancy ending, for whatever reason it ended | s.18(d) |
| The only deductions allowed are unpaid utility bills, damage to fixtures through the tenant's negligence, repair of movable property you provided, and unpaid rent. Nothing else. | s.18(e) |
| You may not deduct ordinary deterioration from long use | s.18(e)(3) |
| If nothing falls to be deducted, the whole deposit goes back in a single payment | s.18(f) |
| A clause making the deposit non-refundable is prohibited | s.16(e) |
The Act sets up no escrow, no council custody and no tenancy board. The deposit is yours to hold, and a tenant who disputes a deduction has to pursue it.
Two practical things follow. Attach an inventory of the contents to the agreement, which section 15(b)(5) requires anyway, because it is the only document that settles an argument about damage later. And keep the rent records. Both sides must keep a written record for the whole term, and rent paid in cash needs a written receipt (s.21).
The English wording above is our own. There is no official English translation of the Act. We are a rental site and not a law firm, so read the Dhivehi text or take advice before you sign anything.
Advance rent, and what the agreement can ask for
Advance rent is not banned in the Maldives. That belief comes from the 2020 bill, which never became law in that form. Section 22 allows rent taken for the whole term in one payment, or taken in advance for a period both sides have agreed. What it forbids is money demanded in advance outside the agreement. So if you want advance, agree it and write it down.
The form asks whether you take advance rent as a plain yes or no, then the amount, then whether it can be spread over two to six months. The deposit can be spread the same way. Spreading changes when the money arrives, never how much of it there is. A renter sees the answer on the listing either way, which is one message you do not have to reply to.
Two more provisions are easy to trip over. A tenancy agreement cannot require the tenant to pay anything beyond the rent and the deposit, apart from utility bills and repairs that necessarily fall due at the end (s.16(d)). And where concluding the agreement costs something, that cost is the landlord's (s.14(f)).
On raising the rent: you cannot, not during the term. Section 20(a) says the rent stated in the agreement cannot be changed while that agreement runs. There is no notice period for an increase because there is no lawful mid-term increase. If you want the rent to step up, write the steps into the agreement at the start (s.20(b)). At renewal you and the tenant agree a new figure, and the Act sets no ceiling on it.
What verification gives you
Verification is free and optional. It has two parts. You send a one-time code from your own number on WhatsApp or Telegram, which proves the number is real and reaches you. Then you upload a government-issued ID, and we check it against the details on your listings. A person reads those listings before the badge is granted.
We review within 24 to 48 hours. Approved, the badge appears on your profile and on every listing you have at once. Rejected, we tell you why and how to try again. Your ID is never shown to anyone and is deleted after review.
What it buys you is narrow, and worth saying plainly. A renter can see that someone here checked who you are. In a market where a lot of listings are three photos and a number, that is the difference, and it costs nothing. Verification is here.
What happens after you submit
- The form is three steps and takes about four minutes. No account, no password.
- A person reads what you sent. Every submission, not a sample of them.
- You hear back on WhatsApp within 24 hours, on the number you gave us.
- If something is missing or unclear we message you and ask. We do not reject quietly.
- When it goes live you get your own link to the listing. Change the rent, confirm it is still available, or take it down the day it is rented, still without an account. A new rent goes back to review before renters see it.
If you would rather have an account from the start, you can post a listing from the main site instead. Same review, same rules. That route replies in 24 to 48 hours.
What a person checks before it goes live
The checklist is short and it is applied to everything. The monthly rent has to be named: no rent, no listing. The deposit has to be inside the cap. Every listing needs at least two photos. The island and a map pin have to be there, along with a contact number that works. Descriptions that say nothing get sent back for a rewrite. A listing that duplicates one already up is turned away.
Most submissions clear this. The ones that do not usually need one more photo or a real rent figure. The standards are set out here, and they are the same for everyone.
Keeping it current
Every 30 days we ask you to confirm the place is still available. Confirm and it carries on. Ignore it and the listing comes down. That is the only way a rental site stays honest, and it is why what renters see is mostly places that can actually be rented.
The paperwork is yours, not ours
Reside publishes listings. It does not sign your tenancy or deal with your council. A few duties under the Act sit with you.
- A council permit is required before you let a property, and the premises must be on the council's register (s.8, s.10, and regulation 2022/R-23).
- Any letting longer than six months needs a written agreement signed by both parties in front of two witnesses (s.14(a)).
- Tell the city or island council within 10 days of signing (s.14(c)), and again when the tenancy ends (s.27(g)).
- Ending a tenancy during its term needs a reason the Act or the agreement allows. Three months' notice if you are ending it to do major repairs, to live there yourself, to house a parent, spouse or child, or to sell. At least two months if the tenant is in breach. Those are floors, and an agreement cannot go below them. The tenant's one month is a default that an agreement can vary (s.27, s.28, s.29, s.16(g)).
- Take a property back on one of those grounds, then let it to someone else or put it to a different use inside a year, and on a complaint a council can fine you up to MVR 50,000 (s.27(d)).
Complaints go to the city or island council first, and the council has seven days to decide (s.41(b)). That is what the law provides. How quickly a council handles one in practice is a separate question, and we are not going to tell you otherwise.
Reside is new, and small
We are not going to claim an audience we do not have. Reside is a young site. It grows one listing at a time, each one read by a person, and the honest cost of trying it is four minutes of your evening and a day of waiting. If nobody suitable turns up, that is what you have spent. There is no contract, no exclusivity and nothing to cancel.
What we can promise is narrow. Your rent and deposit are shown in full. Your number is not sold. No agent is put between you and the renter. A person reads your listing before anyone else sees it.
List your place
The form is at list.reside.mv. Have the rent, the deposit, the address and a couple of photos to hand and it is a four-minute job.
If you have questions first, or something that does not fit the form, support is here, or message us on WhatsApp on 737 7433.