National Housing in Coma; Khamenei Approved $2 Billion for This Plan

The leader of the Islamic Republic allowed the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development to use $2 billion from the National Development Fund to finance part of the 'National Housing Movement' projects. This news comes as Iranian media reported the inability of applicants for 'National Housing' to pay their share. According to a report by Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper, two years into the plan to build one million homes per year, the effective supply is 600,000 units, and the effective demand is also 650,000 people. The newspaper emphasized that the national housing construction plan has become two years old; however, both 'on-site demand' and 'construction volume' are less than half of the approved target. According to this report, construction of about 600,000 residential units has started, and on the demand side, out of 1.7 million eligible applicants, about 650,000 households have 'boarded the national housing vehicle.' Donya-e-Eqtesad noted that these figures indicate that only one out of every three applicants for state housing can afford their down payment, and it is predicted that the total cost of national housing will increase to 15 million tomans per square meter. This forecast of increasing the total cost of each square meter of national housing to 15 million tomans comes while initial contracts for national housing construction in 1400 were based on 4 million and 500 thousand tomans per square meter. Meanwhile, the head of the Tehran Builders Association announced on June 7 this year that the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development had agreed to a price of 10 million tomans for the construction of 'national housing.' Experts believe that national housing will not make progress under Raisi's government, and the fate of the $2 billion from the National Development Fund, along with 10.5 thousand hectares of surplus land identified for this purpose, will ultimately remain uncertain. Economic experts: Public dissatisfaction will increase due to livelihood problems. The single-page marriage certificate; concerns about creating restrictions for registering 'conditions' in the marriage contract. Rental prices in Tehran have broken a 30-year record. A member of the High Council of Labor: We demand wages based on various industries. Forced change of housing 'taste'; poverty has reduced the size of houses to below 40 square meters. Urban marginalization has increased from 600,000 to 25 million people over three decades.