Housing Outlook Uncertain

Real-estate market is in the grip of recession these days, as builders are not interested in starting new projects given the back-to-back rise in the prices of construction materials, wages, services and permits, Mohammad Mortezavi, the head of Iran Mass Builders Association, said in an article for the Persian daily Jahan-e Sanat. A translation of the text follows:
The decline in financial resources and banks’ reluctance to extend loans to the construction sector are a tangible reality. Even the provision of loans to the government-sponsored project, the National Housing Movement has come to a halt. 
Bank Maskan, the state agent bank of the housing sector, occasionally injects some loans; other banks don’t. They neither offer loans to those active in the construction sector, nor do they supply working capital to other sectors.