Homeownership through the government's rental plan: Will tenants finally become owners?

Remarks by the Minister of Roads and Urban Development on the government's shift from direct housing construction to providing residential shelter have sparked a new debate about the future of homeownership for citizens.

The new statements of the Minister of Roads and Urban Development about changing the policy from housing construction to only providing housing have caused feedback in the public atmosphere of the country.

The Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Farzane Sadegh, has said in her latest statement that "the housing policy should change from building units to providing settlements."

At the same time, according to the housing production surge law approved in 1400, the government was obliged to build an average of at least one million housing units annually for qualified applicants.

But the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, in line with its new policy, has put forward a plan such as rental housing, which is supposed to make the government the largest landlord in the country.

"By God, I am ready for the government to give me land, and I will build it myself little by little, but I will no longer be a tenant." This is the statement of Farhad Qiyazavand, one of the tenants of the country.

The Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Farzaneh Sadegh Malvajerd, says that due to the lack of liquidity, the high cost of providing infrastructure for many lands, and the responsibility of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development in providing housing (not just building it), a project like rental housing can be an opportunity for families to buy a house with their savings after renting it for a few years.

However, the former director general of the housing economics office, Abolfazl Nowrozi, believes that housing construction and land supply are the most important solutions for permanent housing for people. Because a plan like rental housing only increases the number of tenants, and the annual inflation and the limitation of the supply of houses according to people's financial ability, makes them further away from owning a house every year.

The important question, however, is that if the government itself becomes the largest landlord in the country, and earns money from the people by charging rent and benefits from the increase in housing prices, what other incentive will it have to intervene and control prices in the housing market? And in the absence of monitoring the prices, after, for example, 5 years, tenants can become landlords or not.