Abolfazl Norouzi, Director General of the Housing Economics Office at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, stated that there are more than 500,000 vacant housing units in the country, owned by no more than 90,000 individuals.
On Friday, August 23, Norouzi warned the owners of vacant homes, saying that the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development is identifying these empty houses under certain articles of the Direct Tax Law and reporting them to the Tax Administration.
He added that the necessary warnings have been issued to the owners of the identified units, with priority given to those who own more than 100 housing units.
According to this official from the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, among the owners of these 500,000 vacant homes, some possess more than 50, 20, 10, or 3 vacant houses, and they are next in line to be reported to the Tax Administration.
Mr. Norouzi says that the government’s approach to this issue is “not revenue-oriented,” but rather aimed at bringing these homes to the market. However, he had previously predicted that “30 trillion rials (approximately $50 million)” in taxes could be collected from vacant homes.
In June 2023, Abolfazl Norouzi announced that the Ministry of Roads had “detailed residency information for 73 million Iranians” and warned that if heads of households did not register their home information in the “National Real Estate and Housing System,” they would be fined.
Ebrahim Raisi’s government claimed that the plan to tax vacant homes was an effort to reduce the rising prices of housing and rent. However, more than a year after the implementation of this plan, reports indicate that housing prices continue to rise.
Less than three years after Raisi’s government took office, the housing crisis in Iran has reached unprecedented levels, with an ordinary worker now needing to wait over two centuries to buy a standard apartment in Tehran.
Davood Beigi-Nejad, Vice President of the Real Estate Union, also reported on August 18 that the market for rent, buying, and selling properties is experiencing stagflation, noting that the average rent in Tehran has increased by over 50%, and considering the rising housing prices, renters no longer think about buying a home.
Moreover, Central Bank statistics show that under Raisi’s government, housing prices in Tehran have increased by 2.7 times.
