Despite the role of land scarcity in the significant cost of housing, Iran’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development holds more than 1.8 million hectares of land.
The state-run ISNA news agency reported on Sunday, November 10: “With the release of less than six percent of the land acquired by the Ministry of Roads, the housing deficit of seven million units across the country could be resolved.”
Domestic newspapers have also highlighted this issue in their latest editions, with Quds Daily publishing a piece titled “The People’s Lands Held Under the Government’s Key” and Farhikhtegan Online reporting that “Land equivalent to 30 times the size of Tehran has been hoarded.”
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the regime’s Majlis (parliament), also stated last week at the annual conference of the Housing Foundation of the Islamic Revolution that the National Land and Housing Organization holds twice the area of all residential land in the country in vacant land.
Land scarcity has consistently been cited as a barrier to housing development, and ISNA reported that in 2023, land accounted for more than 42% of the final cost of housing in urban centers and over 55% in Tehran.
These figures indicate a direct correlation between housing prices and land prices, suggesting that one solution to the housing crisis lies in addressing land costs.
Meanwhile, Massoud Pezeshkian, the regime’s Iran, stated during his election campaign this June that “solving the livelihood problems of the people” and “reaching the disadvantaged” are his top priorities in managing the country.
On November 4, Pezeshkian also remarked, “We are not afraid of military conflict,” but “what could bring us down are economic problems.”
At the same time, the Iranian Statistics Center reported in September that, as in the past, housing continues to account for the largest share of monthly inflation for households.
The center further reported that approximately 57% of the country’s monthly inflation in September was due to housing inflation, with housing’s share of monthly inflation rising since the beginning of the current year.
Additionally, a report from the Majlis Research Center in early November showed that, with Iran’s poverty rate solidly at over 30.1%, one-third of the country’s citizens are unable to meet their basic needs.
According to this report, Iran’s poverty rate reached 30.1% of the population in 2023, and estimates from the Majlis Research Center indicate that this rate will remain at its current level in 2024.
The center, reviewing the latest economic developments in Iran, emphasized that policymakers should avoid inaction and delays and pursue gradual reform policies to address some of the existing imbalances.
In 2018, the World Bank reported that about 420,000 people in Iran were living below the absolute poverty line. According to a 2018 report from the Majlis Research Center, between 23% and 40% of Iran’s population were living below the poverty line.
