Sevenfold increase in housing prices in seven years; "6.5 million people are tenants in Iran"

A member of the Parliament's Construction Commission says that housing prices have increased by more than 700 percent over the past seven years.

Mojtaba Yousefi told ILNA news agency on Monday, February 6, that 6.5 million people are renters in Iran.

According to Central Bank statistics, housing prices in Tehran have nearly doubled in the past year compared to 2019 and nearly tripled compared to 2018.

The report says that rental rates increased by a little over 30 percent last year compared to 2019.

Yousefi says that one of the determining factors in rental prices is the price and value of the property.

According to him, the annual need for housing construction in the country is about one million units, and we are "far behind" this number.

This member of the Civil Affairs Commission continued to say that, given people's income in the current situation and the recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak, even if a 10% rent increase is set, people will not be able to pay.

Last year, Hassan Rouhani's government announced a 25% ceiling for rent increases, but ILNA says rents have increased by more than this amount.

Yousefi says the market does not accept a mandated rate.

He also said that a tax on empty houses will soon be implemented in the country, claiming that with such laws, we will "remove brokerage" from the housing market.

Source: Radio Farda