The online enrollment for the government-backed housing development project, the so-called “National Housing Project” started on Saturday.
However, the question which has not been clearly answered so far is how different it is from the controversial Mehr Housing scheme initiated by the government of former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?
In 2007, Ahmadinejad offered free land and cheap credit to contractors in a bid to provide two million low-income Iranians with housing units. But that national project slowed down due to lack of finances.
The officials of President Hassan Rouhani's first government, particularly his former roads minister, Abbas Akhoundi, repeatedly blamed the project for having injected too much money supply to the market and having pushed inflation as high as 40% as a result of the government’s massive borrowing from the Central Bank of Iran.
Now Mohammad Eslami, Akhoundi's successor, seems to be willing to represent the National Housing Project as his signature achievement as the roads and urban development minister.
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