Less than two months after the Iran regime’s Ministry of Roads and Urban Development issued a statement denying any government endorsement for the construction of 25-square meter houses, Khashayar Bagherpour, the CEO of Tehran Construction Cooperative Union, announced in the presence of reporters that the Minister of Roads and Urban Development fully supports the plan.
Bagherpour defended the concept of 25-square-meter houses during a press conference, citing their simplicity and their design inspired by the residence of the First Shiite Imam in Najaf.
He asserted that these houses would be constructed using a new housing production concept and emphasized that the project would proceed without any changes or setbacks.
Despite previous denials by officials at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development regarding government involvement in these small house constructions, Bagherpour stated that these houses are built in compliance with legal regulations set by the government.
The CEO of Tehran Construction Cooperative Union announced that, in subsequent phases, “economic housing” would be planned for single individuals, featuring houses as small as 10 square meters.
According to the state-run news agency ILNA, there is currently a queue of 10,000 potential buyers for these 25-square-meter houses, with legal and government figures among them, purchasing these homes for their employees.
Bagherpour believes that the construction of small houses is not a choice but a necessity for the target community, with the aim of reducing housing production costs.
Notably, the construction of 25-square meter houses has commenced, even though, according to the law, houses smaller than 35 square meters are not granted construction permits.
Bagherpour suggested that a solution may have been coordinated with government and municipal bodies, as he mentioned, “These units are built with the permission of hotels and residences,” potentially implying that future homeowners may face difficulties obtaining property ownership documents.
Bagherpour clarified that this project is not directly linked to government initiatives but is being carried out in coordination with government officials and aligned with government objectives.
In the past, when the construction of 25-square-meter houses became a topic of public discussion, Hamidreza Saremi, the deputy of urban planning and architecture at Tehran Municipality, stated during a televised program that no request had been made to the municipality for permits to build such houses in Tehran, and if such requests were made, the municipality would not grant the permits.
The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development also released a statement disavowing any association with or approval of this project.
Nonetheless, Bagherpour has claimed that this plan has been presented to the government and the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and is being executed by the Union of Construction Cooperatives of Tehran.
He also revealed the signing of a contract for the construction of 1,800 residential units measuring 25 to 35 square meters with Tehran’s 19th district municipality. These homes are expected to be available to young couples at a price below one billion tomans.
However, the deputy mayor of Tehran contradicted these claims, stating, “No requests for licenses have been submitted in District 19, and no land with these specifications is available in this region.
Despite these contradictions, the recent press conference held by the CEO of Tehran Construction Cooperative Union and the news of the project’s commencement suggest that the construction of 25-square meter houses, which some media outlets have referred to as “25-square meter matchboxes,” is underway with the municipality and government’s approval.
It’s worth noting that when the 13th government took office, the regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi promised to build one million housing units per year and four million housing units within four years under the “National Housing Movement” plan.
However, more than two years into the 13th government’s term, the promise of providing housing for the less fortunate remains unfulfilled, and the gap between the poor and the middle class continues to widen.
Previously, Iran’s Statistics Center reported in a study titled “Purchasing Power and Waiting Time to Own a Home” that, given current average prices, a minimum wageworker would need to work for 178 years and save a portion of their income each month to purchase an 80-square meter apartment.
The report revealed that housing prices in the country have increased by 3.8 times since 2020, while wage growth has only been 2.11 times. In simpler terms, if a minimum wageworker in 2020 had to wait 99 years to become a homeowner, the waiting time has now extended to 178 years for the same worker in 2023.
