TEHRAN –Transport and Urban Development Minister Rostam Qasemi said the construction of 700,000 affordable housing units has begun across the country under the framework of the new phase of the National Housing Plan Action.

Speaking to the press on the sidelines of the second meeting of the government’s Supreme Housing Council, Qasemi said the land for the construction of 2.4 million housing units has been prepared and allocated, Mehr News Agency reported.

Pursuing the National Housing Plan Action, which is aimed to provide people with affordable housing units, the new government has defined a comprehensive program to construct such housing units all over the country.

The official noted that in the first phase of our new program for the National Housing Plan Action, the construction of two million housing units has been started across the country and the share of each province has been determined.

"In today's meeting, which was attended by governors of different provinces in the form of video conferences, it was decided that the land allocations for the construction of four million housing units will be determined by the end of the current [Iranian calendar year] year (late March 2022)," the minister said.

He further mentioned a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the Mostazafan Foundation, noting: “According to the signed memorandum, 900 hectares of the foundation's lands throughout the country will be handed over [to the Transport Ministry] free of charge to be allocated for the National Housing Action Plan.”

Commenced in winter 2018, the National Housing Action Plan aims to construct 400,000 small and medium-size apartments (70-100 square meters in size) across the country and particularly in Tehran, where housing prices have risen most sharply.

Nearly half of the total number of the said houses will be constructed in Tehran’s suburban “new towns” such as Parand and Pardis, respectively located in the west and east of the city.

Back in March, former Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami had announced that 510,000 residential units will be provided for the applicants under the framework of the National Housing Action Plan during the current year.

In early September 2019, the registration of the National Housing Action Plan was started from Kerman Province. The second round of registration began in ten other provinces in November that year.

Applicants in Sistan-Baluchestan, Qom, North Khorasan, and South Khorasan provinces registered first and those from Kordestan, Kohgiluyeh-Boyerahmad, and Golestan came in the second stage, while from Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Hamedan, and Yazd provinces came in the third stage.

EF/MA