The scientific-specialized meeting entitled "Strategies for addressing the Housing Supply Crisis" was held with the presence of Mr. Rouhollah Akbari, Special Assistant to the Minister and Secretary of the Committee of Housing of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, as the scientific director, Dr. Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan, Professor at Shahid Beheshti University and former Minister of Welfare and Social Security, and Dr. Abolfazl Norouzi, Advisor to the Minister and Director General of the Housing Economy Office of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, as speakers.

At the beginning of this conference, Mr. Akbari stated that the issue of housing in the country has various dimensions such as culture, land use, migration, etc. This issue includes policy opinions at the sectoral level as well as the macro policies of the country. Whether activity leads to settlement or settlement leads to activity is a matter that should be considered. He continued: “If sectoral policies are not accompanied by macro policies, we will face inaction; therefore, it should be considered that if a problem is far from its solution, we need to move towards renovating the solution. In fact, in these situations, we need a shift in our paradigm.”

The Special Assistant to the Minister and the Secretary of the Committee of Housing of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development stated that previous methods of solving the housing problem are no longer effective and that the government must prevent monopoly in the production and distribution of housing. According to the law, the government must also be accountable to specific groups in society for the housing issue. Mr. Akbari continued by saying that currently, the country has the capacity to build 400 to 450 thousand residential units based on construction permits issued. Therefore, if we assume the construction of one million houses per year, the government has no choice but to create a supply-demand balance by empowering the private sector. Referring to the country's economic situation, he said: "In these special economic conditions, the government cannot wait for the market to play its part. Instead, it must act directly according to the law for the housing of special groups and compensate for the imbalance created in supply and demand."

The special assistant of the Minister of Roads and Urban Development also spoke about the issue of land supply. He stated that on one side, available lands are not sufficient, while on the other side, these available lands are also subject to monopolization. Referring to the phenomenon of migration to rural areas, he added: "In line with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the tendency to live in villages with good capacity is increasing. However, in the plans for rural development, no measures have been taken for balanced development of villages. Most of the consulting plans and rural development plans in the country are designed with an approach from the Second Industrial Revolution. We need a shift in our paradigm in the field of consulting and development plans." Mr. Akbari continued by saying that if the logical gap becomes too large, the law will not be implemented in practice. Therefore, in the field of housing, the intervention method must be such that we can cover people's needs.

Dr. Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University and former Minister of Welfare and Social Security, also spoke at the conference. He expressed various aspects of the housing issue and stated: "We must know that the housing issue is also considered a part of the macro economy". Therefore, we must consider the issue of housing from social, cultural, and other perspectives. Referring to the concept of responsibility inversion in the country, he said: "We must pay special attention to the study of the housing issue. For example, we are currently trying to establish a field such as housing planning at universities."

Dr. Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan stated that the goal of social policy is to improve the welfare of citizens and that some economic decisions may harm vulnerable sections of society. "We must address the discussions and problems created with social support policies. In this regard, according to Articles 28, 29, 30, and 31 of the Constitution, we must pay special attention to the issue of social welfare," he said.

Dr. Sharifzadegan also referred to the fact that more than 60% of government revenue comes from oil resources and said: "such governments are considered rentier, meaning that their sources of income are not the result of direct work, and for this reason, governments are moving strongly towards welfare states and people constantly look to the government for housing, education, and health."

This former official referred to the concept of inefficient urban spaces and poverty statistics in Iran. He said: "In 1978, 40% of the people were below the poverty line. At some point, this number dropped to below 10%, and in 2020, 37% were below the poverty line, which has been officially published." He continued by analyzing the concept of market failure: "When certain groups cannot participate in the market, supply and demand fail. That is, some segments of the population cannot participate in the housing market, and this market failure allows the government to intervene in the market." Referring to the reasons for the formation of informal settlements, he added that economic inefficiency, poverty, rural and urban erosions, and so on contribute to this phenomenon.

Dr. Sharifzadegan criticized the multiplicity of housing policies in Iran. He said: "We have implemented 17 housing policies in the country over 44 years. On average, a policy is implemented every two and a half years while housing policies require more than ten years for implementation." He mentioned several examples of these policies such as housing cooperatives, new cities, Mehr housing, land preparation, density reduction in Tehran, and social housing.

Referring to the government's housing policies in different periods, Dr. Sharifzadegan added: "Why should we follow 17 policies in 44 years? Each government thinks it should present a new action plan in the field of housing so they refuse to pursue previous policies. For example, the previous government criticized Mehr Housing for excessiveness but we did not see a positive performance in implementing the social housing plan."

Dr. Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University and former Minister of Welfare and Social Security, recently spoke at a meeting about the housing crisis in the country. He stated that the lack of a general welfare theory is the main problem of the diversity of policies in the housing sector. Dr. Sharifzadegan cited global experiences in the field of housing and said: "Governments in other parts of the world usually make policies and do not directly intervene in housing construction." He also mentioned that we cannot provide a home for everyone who does not have one in Iran and suggested focusing on rental housing instead of homeownership. "This concept can be considered as a shift in our paradigm since the issue of homeownership will not be easily solved. In this regard, the government can move towards professional rental housing models with proper policy-making," he said.

In the last part of his speech, Dr. Sharifzadegan mentioned national and international experiences and the importance of changing housing policies. He suggested several solutions for managing the housing issue such as establishing urban reserves, housing savings, housing financial institutions, allocating suitable lands to the government and municipalities, diversifying innovative banking methods, using the capacity of dilapidated areas, planning and designing a rental system in Iran, comprehensive planning for financial support, allocating land to income groups of one to three deciles, and diversifying affordable housing construction methods. He also noted that housing is a complex issue that includes economic, engineering, financial, social, cultural, and other aspects and that we must pay attention to its complex issues. "We should know that housing is one of the most important political and social issues which unfortunately we have not taken seriously in Iran and have not paid attention to all its dimensions," he said.

Dr. Abolfazl Norouzi, the advisor to the Minister and Director-General of the Housing Economy Office of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development described the current situation and stated: "We must have a correct understanding of the housing situation in the country and then face the challenges, strategies, and ultimately take actions that are appropriate to the current situation." He continued by saying that since 1992, the cost of housing has risen from 17% of the household basket to 35%, which reaches over 70% for some groups. In Tehran, the ratio of renters to homeowners has reached 51%. He referred to the two concepts of mandatory rental and optional rental and said that Iranian people culturally prefer to be homeowners and that the current rental model is almost considered a mandatory model. "When people want to be homeowners, we cannot offer them a rental option," he said.

Dr. Norouzi further noted: "For example, in our society's general culture if a person has been working for thirty years, is married, and does not own property, he/she is considered unsuccessful. Therefore, the rental model is not considered desirable by people in our country as a cultural matter." He also stated that due to the economic situation people cannot afford to be homeowners with past savings but should be able to become homeowners with a future savings model such as a loan. "The useful life of buildings in Iran is less than thirty years which is a problem," he continued. "Also, our architecture is not based on Islamic Revolution patterns and we have not had a model for national architecture so far."

Dr. Abolfazl Norouzi referred to comprehensive housing plan studies that took place in the previous government and said: "According to that study, more than 900,000 housing units should have been built annually from 2016 to 2026. This is while the average construction of housing units was 400,000 during the previous government. Therefore, we had an annual shortage of 600,000 housing units during that government, and supply and demand were not coordinated at all."

Dr. Norouzi referred to the challenges in the housing sector and added: "The challenge of unofficial documents is an important issue. For example, if we could solve the pre-sale issue, many small financial resources of people would enter the production of housing." He referred to the challenge of high prices of housing and renting and said: "The strategy for this challenge is to supply land and distribute housing properly. We must seriously provide the prerequisites for land and property supply. We should pursue both sufficient supply and proper distribution, meaning we should organize supply and demand policies simultaneously."

Dr. Norouzi continued by stating that we need to know in what situation we are in. He added that an online system of population and housing should be formed. "Therefore, we need to have online data first," he said. "Also, official and unofficial documents should be precisely identified, and we can use taxation tools to bring empty houses into the market." He suggested pursuing taxation on vacant residential land along with this policy and creating transparency. Referring to the natural vacancy rate of five percent for houses, he said: "This number is ten percent in our country. In Ardabil alone, we have 600 hectares of residential land that has not been offered for sale; meaning that six hundred hectares of land in a city like Ardabil have been hoarded, most of which belong to private cooperatives." Dr. Norouzi added: "The discussion of capital gains tax and transaction tax can keep speculators away from the housing market. If we facilitate production and make storage without use expensive, and in fact postpone taxation until after the construction process, the housing production cycle will gain strength. Therefore, we need to promote production in the simplest and least restrictive way possible and combat hoarding strictly."

Dr. Norouzi highlighted the revival of the National Real Estate and Housing System in the country. Despite the previous government’s lack of faith in the system, the current administration has urgently pursued its implementation. The system now holds 400 million data records from various sources, identifying the living and residential details of seventy-five million people. More than six million heads of households have confirmed the system’s information.

Dr. Norouzi also put forward that over 700,000 luxury properties have been identified, and warnings have been issued to individuals owning more than 100 vacant houses. Financial tax determination sheets have been issued for over sixty thousand properties, and more than ten million text messages have been sent to property owners. The system has identified over 500,000 empty houses, with efforts underway to utilize these properties. Addressing the issue of residential land hoarding, he pointed out that 15 to 20 percent of residential land in Ardabil city is vacant. Similar situations exist in Shahroud and Kashan, where high-rise residential lands remain unsold.

Dr. Norouzi expressed optimism about the law regulating the land, housing, and rent market. With its approval, the government will be equipped with effective tools to facilitate successful real estate transactions on innovative platforms and tackle major profiteers. During this period, strict action has been taken against real estate firms disrupting the housing market. Firms operating without a license or illegally charging transaction fees have been dealt with severely. Of the 164,000 active firms in the country, sixty thousand have been inspected and thoroughly examined, resulting in four thousand firms being sealed.

In conclusion, Dr. Norouzi highlighted the success of the Mehr Housing project. The project provided housing for approximately four hundred thousand low-income individuals, with a total of sixteen million people currently residing in these units.