TEHRAN, Iran, June 15
Trend:
The Iranian government plans to curb housing prices by increasing house construction for low-income class, said the government spokesman.
"The housing issue has been discussed during several government meetings; a workgroup is to be set up to control prices and decide over incentive policies for house construction," said Ali Rabiei, Trend reports citing IRNA.
"The approach is to support tenants, while the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development is obligated to provide houses to low-income families. The national housing plan has targeted 400,000 housing units to be constructed, and banks, municipalities and the Ministries of Economic Affairs and of Energy will also take necessary measures," the spokesman said.
"It has been agreed to provide houses for retired as well as workers and employees; meanwhile, the government is committed to building 200,000 houses for the low incomes in agreement with Iran State Welfare Organization," he said.
"To reduce the price of houses, the Interior Ministry has signed an agreement with Iran Constriction Engineering Organization to reduce costs of construction permits and engineering services; furthermore, attempts were made to reduce the price of construction material," he said.
"Total of 1.6 million applicants have registered online for the national housing plan and they have been introduced to Maskan Bank to open an account and follow the procedure," he said. " Despite the recession in house market and construction, bank loans to this sector increased by 19 percent."
"The increase of house prices is partly caused by people's investments, so we seek to launch house market in stock exchange to trade houses by square meters," he said.