After claims by Ehsan Khandouzi, the Minister of Economy of the Iranian regime, regarding the government’s optimal performance in the area of rental rates, the state-run Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper questioned this claim in a report, stating that investigations show, “In the thirteenth government, the housing rental market has recorded the highest growth in rental rates in history, according to official rental data.”
According to an April 17 report by Donya-e-Eqtesad, official figures related to housing rent inflation in Tehran indicate that from 2021 to the end of 2023, “rents increased annually by 45 percent, 44 percent, and 52 percent respectively.”
The report emphasized that the “most inflamed period of tenancy” has been during the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, and judgment based on “official data” shows that this government has not succeeded in “regulating rental rates.”
In this context, in November 2023, Iranian media, citing official statistics published in this section, emphasized that the contracts of tenants in 2023 saw a 55 percent increase compared to the previous year, which is more than twice the “historical average of this rate.”
Donya-e-Eqtesad had also written at that time that in the past four and a half years, the rate of increase in rental costs in Tehran has been higher than the rate of increase in prices of other household items.
According to this report, the increase in rental rates has been affected by the increase in housing prices, which has also led to the disruption of housing market rules.
In the same vein, on November 6, 2023, Donya-e-Eqtesad wrote that statistics indicate a record registration of residence in houses up to 40 square meters in the capital during the current year.
The report stated that the share of “very small” houses of up to 40 square meters in Tehran’s transactions has increased from 3.3 percent in 2018 to over 5.2 percent.
The critical conditions of housing and rental rates have also been evident in the official reports of government centers, to the extent that the Majlis (parliament) Research Center also referred to the issue of increasing evictions from the housing market in August 2023 in a report and wrote that deciles one to three are not absolutely able to provide the necessary housing for their residence, and even some of the sixth decile are “relatively” unable to provide the housing needed for their residence.
