TEHRAN – Iranian Transport and Urban Development Ministry plans to establish 40 new residential towns across the country in which affordable housing units will be built under the framework of the ministry’s National Housing Movement.

According to Transport and Urban Development Minister Rostam Qasemi, over 600,000 housing units will be constructed in the mentioned towns under the framework of the National Housing Movement, the Transport Ministry’s news portal reported.

Speaking in a meeting for reviewing the progress of the housing unit projects awarded to the Headquarters for Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, Qasemi said: “In the new towns, using the lands allocated to the National Housing Movement, in addition to the construction of housing units, income must be also generated and the proceeds must be spent in order to advance the National Housing Movement.”

Earlier this month, Deputy Transport and Urban Development Minister Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh announced the definite allocation of about 980,000 land lots with residential use for the construction of National Housing Movement units across the country.

Mahmoudzadeh said that 1.4 million land lots have been also identified that their usage should be determined, or they should be added to the area, or be investigated technically by the provincial planning councils and the Supreme Council of Architecture and Urban Planning.

If the final task is determined, the land has been provided for the construction of 2.3 million housing units, he added.

According to the deputy minister, out of the four million units that are to be built in four years, 3.2 million are in urban areas and 800,000 in rural regions.

The provided lands are the lands of the Ministry of Transport and Urban Development and so far, no land has been provided by other organizations, the official further stated.

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

EF/MA