Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Temkin Jafarov, Saeed Isayev - Trend:
Currently, 59 percent of Iran's population live as tenants, Deputy intelligence minister for municipal and city issues, Hamid Reza Saromi said, Iranian ISNA news agency reported.
This is while, according to Saromi, in developed countries, tenants amount to 30 percent of a country's total population.
"Back in 1996 Iran had the house-owners at slightly under 70 percent of the overall population," Saromi said. "In the last 15 years this percentage has reduced."
He went on to add that every year about 1 million of marriages are arranged in Iran, which results in more people searching for permanent place to stay.
It should be noted that about 34 percent of total house rents in Iran occur in the country's capital of Tehran.
ISNA reported on Feb. 4, citing statistics, that more than 190 000 rent contracts were signed in Tehran in the first 10 months of the current Iranian year, which started on March 21, 2013.
The number of signed contracts increased to 42 000, compared to the same period of last year.
The Statistical Center of Iran said in June 2013 that house rent prices in Iran have increased in the last 7-8 years. The cost of pre-built homes increased three fold during the mentioned time period, according to the report.
Since Autumn of 2011, real estate prices in Iran's major cities, especially in Tehran, skyrocketed, turning developers into overnight millionaires.
The increase is in part due to a rise in the price of housing materials and land, which was triggered by a cut in fuel subsidies and a sharp drop in the Rial's value against foreign currencies.
Some economists say that the huge level of liquidity, which has reached 346 billion dollars during the two termed presidency of Mahmoud Ahmajinedad is the main cause of the rise in housing prices.