New Housing Plan Outlined
EghtesadOnline: The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has devised a plan to build 686,250 residential units to meet the housing needs of the country in the current Iranian year (started March 20).
According to the ministry’s plan outlined on its official news website, 100,000 homes will be built as part of the Social Housing Plan while the National Land and Housing Organization of Iran will provide the land and build 75,000 residential units.
The Social Housing Plan is used to refer to all measures taken by the government to provide homes for low-income families, meaning that all schemes implemented since the 1979 Islamic Revolution such as lease-to-own, rental assistance programs and Mehr Housing Plan fall under it.
The construction of 200,000 homes in rural areas and 150,000 in distressed urban areas as well as 31,250 apartments in new cities during the current year is also projected in the new plan, according to Financial Tribune.
Finally, the completion of 130,000 residential units of Mehr Housing Plan will round up the construction of 686,250 new homes to meet the country’s housing requirements.
The controversial Mehr Housing Plan was launched by the administration of former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and has been in the works for nearly a decade. Although opposed to the project, President Hassan Rouhani’s administration vowed to see it through.
This is while the sixth five-year development plan (2017-22) has envisioned the construction of 900,000 residential units in the country.
Bank Maskan, the agent bank of the housing sector, will also allocate about 1 million loans during the current Iranian year to jumpstart the stagnating housing market and provide people with cheaper loans to boost their purchasing power.
According to the ministry, 165,000 loans will be extended as construction loans while loans to purchase homes account for 186,000 facilities.
About 126,000 loans will be extended for repairs and a majority of loans–523,000–will be for sales in the form of installments.
The administration recently strengthened Bank Maskan by adding 50 trillion rials ($1.33 billion) to its capital. Roads and Urban Development Minister Abbas Akhoundi noted that in order to ensure that the bank does not face any shortage of funds in allocating loans, the ministry will add another 50 trillion rials to its capital in the foreseeable future.