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Housing Hurdles to Marriage

Housing Hurdles to Marriage
Housing Hurdles to Marriage

Housing is one of the essential prerequisites for a young couple to get married and start a family, say experts. But the unaffordable prices in real estate are demoralizing and reduce the desire of the younger generation to want to start a family. In fact, it has often resulted in marriage break-up, hiked divorce rates and led to social corruption and misbehavior.

The general public has gradually got used to the inflationary trends in the real estate market. On the other hand with salaries increasing at a snail’s pace, young couples are left wondering whether they will ever own a home of their own, particularly in the metropolises. Renting houses and moving from one location to another every year has become a routine part of Iranian life, especially among the young generation, Alef news reported.

The significant imbalance between supply and demand leads to a twenty percent inflation growth in the real estate market every year.

Experts believe solutions must go beyond short-lived and temporary plans and construction projects. They are of the opinion that if a long-term plan based on scientific calculations is to be evolved, it would be necessary to look first at the available statistics which indicate that annually one million marriages are registered. This would mean that each year, new houses approximately in the same range will be needed.

 Different short-lived schemes such as Mehr, Youth, and Social housing projects, far from providing comprehensive solutions to tackle the real estate crises, have at best given the “unrestrained market a feeble shock.” Needless to say, change in administration “has also played its part in the haphazardness and lack of resolution of the housing problem.”

Planning must help achieve the target of one million houses, a number which in reality is far removed from the actual figures.

 Young Losers

On the other hand, given the profitable state of the market, homeowners up their rental demand every year and it seems as though homeowners and builders are in cahoots, with “the losers always being young home-seekers who look for stability and are keen to start a family.’ In smaller cities and rural areas, those who are lucky to own land, are unwilling to take the risk of building homes for they know only too well that inflation and volatility in prices also affect the market of construction materials.

Owning a home and having a steady job are the prerequisites to start a family and if either one does not exist marriages come to the brink of failure. The government has introduced bonus plans to facilitate marriage. What still needs to be done is for the authorities to introduce short, medium, and long-term plans to remove major hurdles in the way of youth marriages and establishing families.

Financialtribune.com