Loans for Non-Payment; Money Spraying from the People's Pockets

The inflation in the housing sector has made homeownership unattainable, and the government is attempting to alleviate the situation by increasing the amount of housing loans. In this regard, Mehrdad Bazrpash, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, announced a 35% increase in the ceiling for housing loans through industrial methods, suggesting that the ceiling for these loans has risen from 600 million to 800 million tomans. While this increase in the loan ceiling may seem beneficial at first glance, the questions surrounding this issue make it more thought-provoking. The biggest question regarding such loans is undoubtedly how they will be repaid. The housing loan, which is issued at an 18% interest rate, has an initial installment calculation of nearly 9 million tomans, which will rise to over 10 million tomans with the increase of the loan to 800 million tomans. This installment amount is significant considering that workers' salaries, even with all benefits, do not reach 9 million tomans, and an average employee earns about 12 million tomans. If a family has also taken a marriage loan simultaneously, they would need to pay nearly 13 million tomans monthly. According to the Central Bank, the installments for the 2023 marriage loan are still calculated with a 4% fee and a 120-month repayment period. The minimum amount that banks are offering this year for marriage loans is 180 million tomans. Consequently, the installment for the 2023 marriage loan stands at 1 million 634 thousand tomans. One user on Twitter commented on the installments and interest of this loan: 'Is it really true that a 440 million loan (+additional costs) would only yield about 580 million in interest by the end?!' Another user wrote: 'Loans with interest are given to people for marriage and childbearing... A life started with interest and a child born with loans and usury is forbidden... The Islamic government should provide free money and housing from the public treasury to families.' Another point regarding such banking facilities is the effectiveness and accessibility of these loans. In this context, the Fars news agency reported in April of this year that 'an examination of the amount of loans provided by the banking network indicates that a small portion of the banking network's loans pertains to housing loans, which are mainly granted by the Housing Bank, while other banks do not provide housing loans.' Mohammad Reza Rezaei, the head of the Parliament's Civil Commission, reacted to this behavior of banks, stating to the Mehr news agency that according to the law, banks are obligated to allocate 360 trillion tomans in the first year to the housing sector, but he emphasizes that 'unfortunately, banks have not cooperated sufficiently in recent years, and we reiterated this again this year.' The Central Bank also announced on May 17 that in April 2023, a total of 13,800 childbearing loans were issued by 24 banks in the country. According to this bank's statistics, the amount of loans issued stands in contrast to the 417,865 eligible applicants for childbearing loans, whose files are still gathering dust on the banks' desks. The Central Bank's statistics show that last year, 896,052 people successfully received marriage loans, and the number of recipients of these facilities in 2021 was 924,144, indicating a trend of increasingly difficult access to loans from the country's banking network. Meanwhile, reports indicate that in recent years, banks have issued the highest amount of loans to their employees, a topic that has caused considerable uproar in recent weeks. The Mayor of Tehran speaks of 350,000 empty houses in Tehran; housing becomes an 'unattainable dream.' The average loan for employees of some banks in Iran reached 847 million tomans. The minimum price of 'national housing' in Tehran reached 10 million tomans per meter; 51% of people are renters. The policy of encouraging childbearing continues in Iran; compulsory military service has been removed as a condition for receiving loans. The Mayor of Tehran: Citizens should buy 'metered housing' on the stock exchange; Iranian media: With a housing loan, one can buy '3 meters' of a house.