The average Consumer Price Index for rents in urban areas in the year ending Dec. 21 increased by 23.5% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
The Statistical Center of Iran had put the annual inflation rate for the preceding quarter, which ended on Sept. 22, at 24%.
The highest and lowest average annual inflation rates were registered for Lorestan and West Azarbaijan provinces at 32.5% and 9.9%, respectively.
According to the SCI report, CPI for rent levels in urban areas (using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) reached 162.8 in fall, the third quarter of the current Iranian year (Sept. 23-Dec. 21, 2019), indicating a 7.2% increase compared with the previous quarter.
Hamedan and West Azarbaijan provinces registered the highest and lowest quarter-on-quarter inflation rates for tenants in urban areas with 13.7% and 1.7%, respectively.
The consumer rent price index in urban areas increased by 21.6% in Q3 over the same quarter of last year.
SCI had put the year-on-year inflation rate for the preceding quarter, which ended on Sept. 22 at 23.1%.
The highest and lowest inflation rates on a YOY basis in the third quarter of the current year were posted by Lorestan with 34.8% and West Azarbaijan with 10%.
CPI measured for housing in urban areas was 162.9 in Q3, indicating a 7.2% rise compared with the previous quarter and a 21.6% growth over the same quarter of last year.
The annual housing CPI increased by 23.6% in Q3 compared with the similar quarter of last year.
CPI calculated for maintenance and repair services of residential units, including plumbing, plastering, home electrification and insulation services, in urban areas stood at 171.7 in the same quarter, indicating a 5.2% rise compared with the previous quarter and a 26.1% growth over the same quarter of last year.
The annual CPI for maintenance and repair services increased by 32% in Q3 quarter-on-quarter.
According to the Central Bank of Iran's latest housing market report, the price of rented residential units in Tehran and across all urban areas in Iran increased by 28.2% and 30.1% respectively during the ninth month of the current Iranian year (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) when compared with the similar month of last year.
Plan to Streamline Tenancy Market
The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has come up with a roadmap to streamline the country’s tenancy market.
Taxing vacant homes, finishing homes authorized to be constructed under the Mehr Housing Plan, pressing ahead with the National Housing Initiative and introducing a professional home leasing system by creating property rental companies are short- and long-term plans the ministry has in mind, IRIB News reported last month.
According to Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh, the head of the ministry’s housing division, to tax owners of empty homes, a database will be developed and launched by March 19, 2020 (the end of the current Iranian year) and put at the disposal of Iranian National Tax Administration.
There are currently more than 2.6 million empty homes in Iran, 500,000 of which are in the capital city Tehran.
"The number of empty homes in Iran is three times the global average," he said, adding that directing 40% of empty homes into the tenancy market would help meet the housing needs of Tehran’s residents.
“Like all other countries, a house must be considered a durable consumer good instead of a capital good. More than 75-80% of vacant homes across the country have been tracked,” he was quoted as saying by News.mrud.ir.
Due to rising home and rental prices, many investors in Iran have put their money into the real-estate market.
Mahmoudzadeh noted that by speeding up the construction of a significant number of homes of Mehr Housing Plan initiated by the previous administration and delivering them to their owners by the yearend, today’s renters will be able to move to their own homes.
According to housing experts, homes belonging to Mehr Housing Plan with no occupants account for a big share of vacant homes in Tehran Province.
In 2007, former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, offered free land and cheap credit to contractors to provide two million low-income Iranians with housing units. But that national project slowed down due to lack of finances.
Meanwhile, registration for the new government-sponsored affordable housing development project, the National Housing Initiative, started last month.
The initiative is aimed at supplying a total of 400,000 affordable homes to the market, the construction of 180,000 of which has already begun.
Out of the total of 400,000 homes planned to be constructed as per the Roads and Urban Development Ministry’s project over two years (March 2019-21), New Towns Development Company will build 200,000, the Urban Development and Renovation Company 100,000 and the Housing Foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran will construct the remaining 100,000 residential units over three years.
Nearly 20,000 of these residential units will be constructed in new satellite cities, including 7,134 in Fooladshahr in Isfahan Province, 4,448 in Parand in Tehran Province, 2,762 in Golbahar in Khorasan Razavi, 1,547 in Sahand in East Azarbaijan Province, 1,497 in Sadra in Fars Province, 800 in Amirkabir in Markazi Province, 520 in Hashtgerd in Alborz Province and 150 in Pardis in Tehran.
The residential units' rent index for Iran's urban areas using the Iranian year to March 2017 as the base year) stood at 151.9 in summer, the second quarter of the current Iranian year (June 22-Sept. 22, 2019), indicating a 23.1% rise compared with the same quarter of last year.
