The newly appointed CEO of Iran Mercantile Exchange has defended the creation of the real-estate bourse, saying it would not cause a hike in housing prices.
Hamed Soltaninejad said in his first press conference on Sunday that since only big properties will be traded at the real-estate bourse, it will not “disrupt” the housing market.
“Real-estate bourse will not bother with small homes and if a bank or another institution wants to sell its property through the real-estate bourse, it has to be worth over 100 billion rials ($34.4 million),” Soltaninejad said.
He added that the current recession in the housing sector has made it difficult to establish the much-debated bourse.
“The IME is not after offering property through the bourse perpetually since all over the world offerings are made only at times of boom,” he said.
The establishment of real-estate has drawn criticism from some, saying that it has no precedence in other countries.
Hesam Oqbaei, head of Tehran Association of Realtors, recently predicted a dismal state for housing prices once a real-estate bourse is launched, claiming it would open the doors to speculators and shrewd brokers, sending residential prices soaring.
Currency Bourse
Soltaninejad said the Central Bank of Iran is the body responsible for regulating the policies of a currency bourse, adding that IME is ready to launch it.
“We have made our proposal to CBI officials for the establishment of the real-estate bourse since the mercantile bourse has endowed us with valuable experience in gold bullion futures,” Soltaninejad said, hoping they could build on that experience to make the currency bourse a successful project.
He noted that CBI’s cooperation in regulating the market would be key to the success of the currency bourse, saying that when the foreign exchange rate is finally unified, the currency bourse will be the platform for setting forex rates.
“It is imperative that suppliers of foreign currency, including CBI and buyers, will have an active presence in the market so it will be appealing to exporters,” he said.
“For the time being, only the US dollar and euro will be traded in the currency bourse but if forex trade expands, it could be possible to introduce other currencies as well.”
Soltaninejad said CBI is positive about launching the currency bourse and explained that currency futures trading will be conducted online. “But when it comes to the oil market, bureaux de change will play a more prominent role,” he added.
Soltaninejad hoped that the currency bourse would promote transparency in foreign exchange market and help ease the process for setting forex rates.
