A total of 80 trillion rials ($310 million) have been injected by Bank Maskan, the state agent bank of the housing sector, in the National Housing Initiative, the government-sponsored affordable housing project, Mahmoud Shayan, the bank’s CEO, says.
Noting that financing the housing project is one of the key items on Bank Maskan’s agenda this year, the official said, “The bank is tasked with financing 140,000 out of 400,000 residential units that are scheduled to be constructed under the initiative. Qualified applicants are required to open bank accounts with Bank Maskan and make an initial deposit of 400 million rials [$1,551]. The bank will then grant 1 billion rials [$3,878] in financial facilities for the construction of the residential property.”
“Thus far, 202,000 people have registered in this system and more than 50 trillion rials [$193.94 million] have been deposited by the applicants. In return, Bank Maskan has paid 30 trillion rials [$116.36 million] from its loan resources. Bank Maskan will contribute a total of 140 trillion rials [$543.05 million] to the project, i.e., 1 billion rials per residential property,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
The construction of 104,000 housing units under the National Housing Initiative is underway throughout the country. The National Land and Housing Organization of Iran has provided plots of land for the construction of 150,000 units so far,” Shayan said.
Registration in the NHI, which aims to supply a total of 400,000 affordable homes to people, started in November 2019.
Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami says 436,000 people who registered for these units were found eligible.
According to Bank Maskan, the state agent bank of the housing sector, 138,563 applicants have deposited 58,760 billion rials ($235 million) for the initial investment in the project.
President Hassan Rouhani marked the launch and completion of a series of government-backed housing projects via videoconference on Oct. 22.
A total of 11,600 residential units out of 400,000 homes for middle-income households built under the National Housing Initiative were inaugurated across eight provinces, according to Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh.
“The government provided 14,000 billion rials [$56 million] of the total 55,000 billion rials [$220 million] investment needed to complete these residential units in the form of granting land as per the 99-year lease agreements to housing cooperatives. Construction of these residential units, which started in early 2019, created 33,000 jobs,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
In the second segment of the ceremony, 135,000 building plots were handed over to real-estate developers (one plot of land for a group of three or more developers) as government partners in the National Housing Initiative.
According to the housing official, 14,500 residential units are under construction in slum areas, of which 6,700 were inaugurated at the ceremony.
“The execution operation of 69,000 residential units to be constructed as per several memorandums of understanding with state bodies was also flagged off on Thursday. A total of 30,000 units will be built for employees of the Education Ministry, 37,000 homes will be constructed for those with the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and 2,000 will be built for workers as per an agreement with the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. The construction of 14,500 residential units for the employees of Education Ministry has already started,” Mahmoudzadeh said.
The total value of the National Housing Initiative is 2,400 trillion rials ($9.6 billion), of which 600 trillion rials ($2.4 billion) are attributed to the value of land and 1,800 trillion rials ($7.2 billion) to the cost of construction and materials.
Mehr Housing Project
A total of 2.2 million residential properties constructed under the government-sponsored Mehr Housing Project have been delivered to their owners thus far, of which 1.35 units were built during the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, says Deputy Roads Minister Ahmad Asghari Mehrabadi.
“There are 39,000 unfinished Mehr housing units across the country, but they are expected to be completed by September 2021, when this government’s term of office ends,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The Mehr project is a large-scale construction program initiated in 2007 by the previous administration to provide 2.2 million low-income people with housing units through free land and cheap credits.
President Rouhani also marked the completion of 40,108 homes constructed under Mehr Housing Project on Oct. 22. The protracted Mehr Housing Project was concluded in a number of provinces.
All in all, 53,000 units of the Mehr project remain unfinished, news.mrud.ir quoted Mahmoudzadeh as saying.
“Of the 2.2 million Mehr Housing units, 690,000 were completed under the previous administration. In actuality, it was the Government of Prudence and Hope [his own administration] that carried the burdens of the project,” President Rouhani said.
“As such, 1.35 million residential units of Mehr project were constructed and delivered to investors. The remaining 50,000 units need to be finished by the end of this administration. There are about 100,000 units that either don’t have any applicant or have legal problems.”
