Tehran housing market faces extreme rental and purchase affordability crisis

The housing market in Tehran is facing extreme affordability challenges regarding both renting and purchasing. In luxury districts such as Tajrish, Vanak, and Pasdaran, rental costs have reached record levels. For residential units less than 10 years old in Tehran's Districts 1 and 3, the average required deposit is approximately 6.3 billion tomans, paired with a monthly rent of 96 million tomans.

Regarding home ownership, housing policy expert Farshid Ilati notes a massive gap between household income and property prices. Based on current market rates where land/property costs approximately 120 million tomans per square meter, purchasing an 80-square-meter apartment in Tehran would cost roughly 9.6 billion tomans. Using the minimum Ministry of Labor wage, it would take between 116 and 133 years to afford such a unit. Even with a monthly savings of 6 million tomans from a higher income of 18 million tomans, the timeline remains over a century, significantly exceeding the national life expectancy of approximately 74 years.