Rewritten Title: Navigating Tehran’s Housing Market: The Reality of a 1 Billion Toman Loan
Article Content:
The Stark Arithmetic of a Housing Loan
According to official data, the current ceiling for a spousal housing purchase loan in Tehran stands at 1 billion tomans. This financing comes with a 22.5% interest rate and a 12-year repayment term. However, before receiving the full amount, a buyer must first allocate approximately 250 million tomans to purchase priority rights bonds. This prerequisite reduces the final usable loan sum to around 750 million tomans. Even when combined with a separate renovation loan, the total accessible funds, at best, reach 1 billion tomans. With the average price per square meter of housing in Tehran reported at 100 million tomans, this substantial loan is ultimately sufficient to purchase a mere 10 square meters of property.
The Core Challenge: A Structural Supply Gap
Experts point out that the low loan-to-value ratio is only one facet of a deeper challenge. The annual production of housing units in Iran is estimated at 300,000 to 400,000. This figure stands in stark contrast to the assessed real need, which exceeds one million units per year. This persistent annual shortfall has led to an accumulated deficit in supply, creating constant upward pressure on prices and making affordability a central policy issue.
Policy Coordination and Infrastructure
Analysts like Gholamreza Eslami Bidgoli highlight a lack of coordination between monetary and developmental policies in Iran’s housing sector. While successive administrations have often focused on initiating large-scale projects, the absence of complementary “transportation infrastructure, urban services, and suitable land” can hinder their long-term success. Furthermore, the high yields on financial bonds, reportedly between 30% to 40%, divert capital away from productive investment in housing construction. This dynamic structurally constrains the public’s purchasing power and complicates the path to homeownership for many citizens.