September 21, 2018
Millions of Iranian families are unable to find housing, although the government says one in every 11 residences in Iran is standing empty, in part because the owners are waiting for people who will pay higher rents. Now the Majlis is debating a system that would force owners to rent.
“There are currently 2.6 million residential properties sitting empty in Iran, which is three times higher than what we see in developed countries,” Deputy Abolfazl Abu-Torabi told state news agency IRNA. Abu-Torabi accused property owners of leaving their units empty until they find tenants who can pay high rents or purchase the property for a higher price.
The draft law would create a website that would track empty properties and require owners to rent them out within one month.
Rental prices in Tehran have gone up by a whopping 45 percent since last year, according to a July report issued by the Central Bank.
Deputy Fereydoun Hassan-vand says the high rents are not exclusive to Tehran, and people across the country are facing the same difficulty finding affordable housing.
“There is no balance between people’s incomes and rents, neither concerning the stock of housing for rent, nor home purchase prices in the country. Therefore, state management of home prices and rental rates is an urgent matter,” said Hassanvand.
Based on the draft legislation, if owners of empty properties fail to rent them within the one-month deadline, district prosecutors will be authorized to rent the properties on their behalf on one-year contracts.
The Majlis has assigned the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development to “swiftly” launch the website tracking empty properties.
The number of vacant housing units in Iran increased by 63 percent between 2011 and 2016, according to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), a figure 4.5 times higher than the number of new residential units built during that period.
The 2.6 million homes currently sitting empty in Iran amount to 9 percent of the total housing stock. The province of Tehran leads the nation in vacant units, with 18.9 percent of residences sitting empty, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, followed by Esfahan and Khorasan Razavi provinces with 9.3 percent and 7.5 percent respectively.