TEHRAN – The first phase of the National Housing Action Plan, which started in August 2019 to provide affordable houses to Iranians, are completed in the southern Kerman Province and will soon be handed over to the owners, IRNA reported on Saturday.

According to the Managing Director of National Land and Housing Organization of Iran Ali Nabian, some residential units of the National Housing Action Plan have been completed and landscaping operations are underway for them.

They will be inaugurated in the coming days as the first opening of the National Housing Action Plan units, Nabian said.

Back in August 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani officially launched the government’s National Housing Action Plan, by inaugurating a project for constructing 110,000 affordable housing units across the country.

Speaking in the inauguration ceremony which was held in Tehran, Rouhani issued directives for the start of construction operations in several provinces including Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, Isfahan, Hormozgan and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Kerman.

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 homes will be constructed in Tehran’s suburban “new towns” such as Parand and Pardis, respectively located in the west and east of the city.

According to Iran's Minister for Transport and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami, the government plans to complete the new units by April 2021.

While the ministry will provide the land for the new developments, it will only supervise construction, enlisting private sector construction firms who will bid for contracts that entitle them to receive state loans and subsidized building materials. 

As reported, the government’s investment in construction will help create new jobs across the country and is expected to boost wages among laborers.

Providing housing to low-income families could also help alleviate economic hardship, especially if government’s assistance can help inflation-hit renters become homeowners.

EF/MA