TEHRAN- Transport and urban development minister said that 1.35 million units of National Housing Movement are currently under construction throughout the country and the number is increasing every day.

Making the remarks in a ceremony to break the ground for starting the construction operation of 15,000 units of National Housing Movement in Chitgar region, northwest of Tehran city, Rostam Qasemi referring to the registration of 5.2 million people in National Housing Movement, said: "By the end of [Iranian current month) Khordad (June 21), the filing of all registrants will be completed and it is predicted that four million people will be selected."

“With the support of the parliament and the credit provided for the facilities of National Housing Movement, we will proceed according to the schedule”, the minister further underlined.

After National Housing Action Plan (started in 2018), National Housing Movement is the government’s second major program to provide affordable housing units for the low-income classes.

The operation for the construction of 209,212 residential units of National Housing Movement began in early February.

The ceremony to begin the mentioned operation and also to launch some development projects in the housing sector was attended by the transport and urban development minister.

National Housing Movement to construct four million housing units in four years is one of the major plans of the current government in the housing sector.

According to the plan, out of these four million residential units, 3.2 million units will be constructed in cities and 800,000 units in villages, some of these units are currently being constructed after providing lands and preparing the necessary conditions.

Land supply was the first condition for the realization of the national movement plan and housing construction, in this regard, a series of measures were taken by the government and Ministry of Transport and Urban Development. According to the latest statistics, the lands of 2.8 million housing units of National Housing Movement have been provided by the ministry.

Although, studies show that the provision of land and financial resources are two serious obstacles to the construction of this number of residential units.

Three weeks ago, Mohammad-Saleh Jokar, a member of the parliament, said that the young people are having trouble paying the National Housing Movement installments.

Referring to the difference between the implementation of Mehr Housing Plan (initiated in the previous government) and National Housing Movement, he said: "Today, a young man with a monthly salary of between 50 million-60 million rials (about $190-$230) has very difficult conditions for the installments of this plan, which should be considered to solve this problem”, the MP criticized.

MA/MA