5% of Neighborhoods Account for 52% of Home Contracts in Tehran

EghtesadOnline: Seventeen out of Tehran’s 320 neighborhoods (constituting about 5%) account for 52% of total home deals in the capital city, says an official with Bank Maskan, the state’s agent bank for the housing sector.

News ID: ۷۵۰۱۴۲

01 June 2020

“These 17 neighborhoods are the capital city's best for buyers seeking a deal during all seasons and even at the time of recession,” Davoud Khalajestani was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

The number of home sales and prices in the popular neighborhoods must not be factored in when it comes to calculating the city’s average home deals and prices, he added.

Noting that the same is true about other Iranian cities [where investors flock to hot neighborhoods], the official said, “High demand and low supply of homes in popular neighborhoods have led to the shortage of two million residential properties there.”

Khalajestani advised those willing to make investment in the housing market to take into account both the size and the location of the home they intend to buy.

Prices in 5 Districts Triple Over 2 Years

Over the past two years, five out of 22 districts of Tehran saw housing prices nearly triple.

According to a report by ISNA, home prices in District 18 increased by 227%, District 10 by 214%, District 9 by 203%, District 17 by 199% and District 20 by 197% in the past couple of years.

The lowest price growth from Feb. 20, 2018, to Feb. 20, 2020, were registered for homes located in District 2 with 160%, District 1 with 167%, District 5 and 12 with 171% and District 6 with 172%.

From Feb. 20, 2019, to Feb. 20, 2020, districts 20, 18, 12, 17 and 19 posted the sharpest price rises of 101%, 70%, 54%, 51% and 49% while districts 1, 2, 13, 14 and 22 had the slowest price increase of 37%, 38%, 39%, 40% and 40%.

The average price of each square meter of a residential unit in Tehran stood at 139.4 million rials ($829.76) in the month ending Jan. 20, 146.7 million rials ($873.21) in the month to Feb. 19 and 159.3 million rials ($948.21) in the month leading to March 19, according to the Central Bank of Iran's data.

The annual home price increase was 49% in the month ending Jan. 20, 52% in the month ending Feb. 19 and 48% in the month ending March 19.

The two-year index shows home prices in the month ending Jan. 20 increased by 168% compared with the month ending Jan. 20, 2018; they grew by 173% in the month ending Feb. 19 compared with the month ending Feb. 19, 2018, and jumped by 180% in the month ending March 19 compared with the month ending March 20, 2018.

CBI Monthly Report on Tehran Housing Market

A total of 11,310 homes were sold in the capital during the second month of the current fiscal year (April 20-May 20), registering an 809.9% rise compared with the preceding month. They saw a year-on-year decline of 6.7% compared with the 12,128 deals in the corresponding month of last year.

Data published by Central Bank of Iran on its website also indicate that the average price of each square meter of a residential property in Tehran stood at 169.72 million rials ($981) during the month under review, showing a surge of 33.9% over last year’s same month as average prices were registered at 126.72 million rials ($720) then.

Home prices in the capital city increased by 11% compared to 152.95 million rials ($884) in the first month of the current year.

The CBI data also show that during the month ending May 20, newly-built residential properties up to five years old constituted the highest proportion of deals at 38.8% (or 4,391 deals), down by 2.2 percentage points compared with the same month of last year.

That lost share was added to homes six to 10 years old and those above 15 years. Homes with a lifespan of six to 10 years and 16 to 20 years accounted for 18.3% and 17.8% of total deals respectively.

The share of deals involving homes that were 11 to 15 years old also decreased from 12.6% of the total deals of last year’s same month to 12.5% this year. Homes above 20 years posted a share of 12.6% of total deals, compared with 11.1% of the same month of last year.

The distribution of dealt properties shows that among Tehran's 22 districts, District 5 grabbed the highest share of total deals at 15.2%. It was followed by districts 2 and 4 with a respective share of 9.6% and 8.3%.

All-in-all, 10 districts (five, two, four, 10, 14, eight, seven, 15, one and three) grabbed the lion's share of the deals at 72.8% with the remaining 12 districts holding a 27.2% share.

Among Tehran's 22 districts, District 1 registered the highest average home price of 339 million rials ($1,959) per square meter. District 18 offered the capital city's cheapest homes with an average per-square meter price of 78.5 million rials ($453). The aforesaid figures show a respective increase of 30.3% and 32.8% YOY.

Residential units with an average price range of 120 million rials ($693) to 135 million rials ($780) per square meter were the most popular in Tehran during the Iranian month under review, as it grabbed an 8.8% share of all deals. They were followed by units priced at 90 million rials ($520) to 105 million rials ($606) per square meter with a share of 8.6%.

From the total number of deals, 56.9% belonged to homes cheaper than the average per-square meter price of the city (i.e. 169.72 million rials or $981).

Residential units with a floor area of 50-60 square meters registered the highest number of sales with a 15% share of total deals.

Units with an area of 60-70 square meters and 70-80 square meters came second and third with shares of 14.2% and 11.3% respectively. All-in-all, units with an area of less than 80 square meters had a 53.8% share of total deals.

CBI data further show that Tehran’s homes worth between 4.5 billion rials ($26,011) and 6 billion rials ($34,682) were the most popular with a 10.6% share of total deals. These were followed by homes with a price tag of between 6 billion rials and 7.5 billion rials ($43,352) with a share of 10% of total deals.

Collectively, homes valued under 12 billion rials ($69,364) had a 51.9% share of total home deals in Tehran during the second month of the current year.