Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Parvaneh Aslani has clarified exceptions to mandatory extension of home lease agreements approved by the government during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The termination of tenancies can be enforced if the landlord has secured a demolition and construction permit for their property, or if the tenant has rent arrears from before the extension of the lease and has failed to pay the rent one month after the extension of the new lease agreement,” she said.
“Landlords won’t be subject to mandatory extension if they prove that they need their properties for the use of their sons, or if the tenant does not agree with the government-mandated rent hike,” she was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Tenants who have caused financial losses for landlords or failed to comply with their rent commitments won’t be entitled to the extension of their rental contract either.
The mandatory extension of lease contracts was announced by the government last year and will remain in force in the current Iranian year (started March 21). The measure suspends landlords’ ability to forfeit a lease as long as the country is battling Covid-19, apart from giving a three-month reprieve from the end of the health crisis.
Related government officials have yet to release the new rate increase in rents in the current fiscal year (started March 21).
The average Consumer Price Index for home rent levels in urban areas during the four-quarter period ending March 20 increased by 27.5% compared with the corresponding period of the year before.
The Statistical Center of Iran had put the annual inflation rate for the preceding quarter (Q3), which ended on Dec. 20, 2020, at 26%.
The highest and lowest average annual rent inflation rates were registered for Hamedan and Sistan-Baluchestan provinces at 35.7% and 14.7%, respectively.
According to the SCI report, CPI for rent levels in urban areas (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 218.3 in Q4 (Dec. 21, 2020-March 20), indicating a 4.4% increase compared with the previous quarter.
SCI had put the quarter-on-quarter rent inflation rate for the preceding quarter, which ended on Dec. 20, at 6.8%.
Semnan and Lorestan provinces registered the highest and lowest quarter-on-quarter inflation rates for tenants in urban areas with 10.51% and 1.22%, respectively.
The consumer rent price index in urban areas increased by 28.9% in Q4 over the same quarter of the year before.
SCI had put the year-on-year rent inflation rate for the preceding quarter at 28.4%.
The highest and lowest inflation rates on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of the last year were posted by Hamedan with 39.4% and Sistan-Baluchestan with 12.9%.
According to the Central Bank of Iran, the price of rented residential homes in Tehran and across urban areas increased by 31.4% and 35.2% respectively during the 12th month of last Iranian year (Feb. 19-March 20) compared with the corresponding month of the year before.
