TEHRAN — Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi’s campaign office presented a housing plan to the public on Tuesday.

Afshin Parvinpour, a member of Raeisi’s popular campaign, stated that house construction will positively stimulate the economy. 

“Due to the needs of the country and the shortcomings of the last few years, it is necessary to strengthen the constructions by implementing strong plans,” he said. 

Parvinpour said that a team of experts and researchers in the field of economics and housing has been working on a project for about 7 months, which is an upgraded and strengthened version of the Mehr housing project, and is currently on the agenda of Ayatollah Raeisi as one of the main programs of his possible government. 

“The solution to the housing problem in the country is to create a housing movement, the principles of the mentioned plan are the same as the principles of Mehr housing; that means free land, low-interest construction loans, and the use of private sector capacity to build houses,” he said. 

The Mehr housing project was introduced by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2007. It was to build around 2 million housing units within 5 years for low-income families.

The first Rouhani administration however, took the project off the balance sheet of the Central Bank of Iran. Rouhani announced that by 2017 the Mehr housing project will be replaced with cheap loans to needy families with the stated objective to build only 150,000 homes on a yearly basis.

Parvinpour said that the new plan is to build 4 million housing units in 4 years.

The project will be financed by banks and will be crafted by a very strong financial team, he stated. 

“In preparing this plan, we have assumed that Iran will be under sanctions for another 100 years and that the United States will impose sanctions on us,” the campaign member added. 
 

SA/PA