The Research Center of Iran’s regime Majlis (parliament) reported an intensifying housing crisis in the country, stating in its latest report that in 2023, the proportion of tenant households living in poverty reached a historic record of 40%.
This data is from two years ago, and experts estimate that the current rate is even higher.
The release of this report comes as the official housing statistics blackout in the Iranian regime has reached 14 months, and the Majlis research center removed its report on worsening tenant poverty from its website just hours after publication.
According to the report, in 2023 around two million tenant households—equivalent to 7.6 million people—were living in poverty.
The center wrote that the country’s housing crisis and unprecedented rent increases have pushed many households below the poverty line due to housing costs, leaving them in a state of housing poverty.
Calculation Based on the “Complementary Method”
The parliamentary research center stated that using the conventional estimation method, tenant household poverty stood at around 27%. However, the center used a “complementary method” in its study, which raised this figure to 40%.
According to the report, the complementary method pays particular attention to housing costs and to households whose income is above the poverty line but who fall below it due to rising rents.
These households were not considered poor before accounting for housing expenses.
According to the report, in 2023 the largest number of tenant households in poverty were four-person families.
The heads of household in most poor tenant families were between 35 and 44 years old.
Overall, in 2023 the distribution of poor households shows that three-quarters of tenant households in poverty were those where the head of household was under 55 years old.
Tehran Has the Highest Number of Poor Tenants
Tehran province has the highest number of poor tenant households, while the lowest number is in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
According to the report, in 2023 a large portion of tenant households in poverty belonged to the bottom five expenditure deciles.
The Majlis research center warned that many tenant households have been pushed out of the housing purchase market or, due to persistent inflation, the income gap, and high rents, cannot afford to participate in national housing programs.
Repeated Warnings from the Majlis Research Center
This is not the first time the parliament’s research center has warned about the housing crisis in the country.
In August 2024, the center reported on Tehran’s housing situation, stating that the price of one square meter of housing was more than seven times a worker’s minimum wage and that “more than half of Iranian households live in inadequate housing.”
Mohsen Bagheri, a labor activist and workers’ representative in wage negotiations, described the problem of housing for workers as a “serious crisis” and revealed that about 75% of workers in Iran do not own a home.
On May 2 this year, Bagheri told the state-run ILNA news agency: “They have done nothing for workers’ housing. Even after all these years, we still don’t know who is responsible for workers’ housing. For years they have made promises, but nothing happened… they have not built even a single house for workers.”
In August 2023, the Iranian regime’s parliamentary research center released a report assessing government and municipal housing policies as flawed.
The report stated that projects such as the mass housing construction under the Maskan Mehr scheme, the National Housing Movement, or Tehran Municipality’s “Jihadi Housing Headquarters” initiative have entirely harmed low-income and vulnerable groups without housing.
In May 2023, Babak Naghadari, then-head of the parliamentary research center, said that the absence of effective taxation in the housing sector in recent years has increased its appeal, and as a result, housing prices in Tehran have increased 52-fold over the past 17 years.
In June 2025, Mizan News Agency, affiliated with the regime’s judiciary, wrote: “A look at some online platforms shows that part of the housing rental ads are published in U.S. dollars or euros.”
The report added: “In these ads, houses in northern Tehran or certain specific parts of the city are rented to foreign nationals and citizens, with rental prices ranging from $2,000 to about $4,000 or euros per month.”
