failure of the government’s monopoly in acquiring “land”; The forgotten solution for providing housing – Tejaratnews

According to Tejarat News, wrong policies in the field of housing, along with high inflation during the last decade, have made housing the first headline of many news.

Hamidreza Arami, the Secretary of the Civil and Urban Development Working Group of the Islamic Council Research Center, in an interview with Tejarat News, explained about the impact of land on the cost of the basic elements of the country: “Goods, services and housing are the three basic elements of our country’s economy, and land plays a key role in all of them. has it. Although the investigation of the impact of the increase in land prices as an important element in the puzzle of the price of goods has been neglected, it must be accepted that the role of housing inflation lies in all the goods that reach us. As a result, land monopoly will cause price inflation in these three elements.

Vertical growth of cities over 7 decades

According to this expert, looking at the maps of the country from 1335 onwards shows the vertical growth of cities. This issue has had various consequences for us in the fields of mental health, environmental quality, social damage and generation development. The volume of liquidity has been directed towards real estate and has caused housing to become more expensive.

Who played a role in land monopoly?

Stating that the urban space is a limited and exhaustible element and its distribution should be in such a way that the public can benefit from it, Arami believes that the phenomenon of monopoly does not only occur in land, but we also need to talk about the keyword of urban space monopoly.

He also mentions the policies adopted by the government as one of the main reasons for the monopoly of land and urban space and says: “The government, fearing urban sprawl and land speculation, has bolded the boundary line by setting laws.”

Arami emphasizes: “Also, government-affiliated organizations, especially banks, have been effective in this phenomenon; Because urban space is valuable and profitable due to its limitedness. That’s why the funds that should enter the production cycle have been directed towards property and real estate.”

Various methods for land acquisition

The Secretary of the Civil and Urban Development Working Group of the Majlis Research Center believes that the problem of land hoarding has three modes; Arami explained: “First of all, we are dealing with waqf lands. “Some waqf lands in the country have remained stagnant and unused and do not provide any capacity for agriculture, production of goods, services and construction.”

He added: “The second issue is land owned by businessmen and capitalists. It means real and legal persons who do not offer their properties and land and are waiting for the price of land and properties to increase more and more.

According to Arami, the third and last category are people who consider land as a capital commodity; This group buys and maintains land and housing just so that the value of their money does not decrease.

Lack of land for horizontal development of cities?

The Secretary of the Civil and Urban Development Working Group of the Majlis Research Center added: There is a kind of claim against vertical development. First, we don’t have enough and suitable land for the horizontal development of cities and we can’t take such a solution.

This expert explained: According to the announcement of the plan and budget organization, 15% of the country’s area is desirable for urban construction and development. This percentage of Iran’s area is enough for the establishment and residence of one billion people; Therefore, we will not face any problem in terms of suitable land for development.

Also, according to some people, the horizontalization method requires a lot of infrastructure costs, but comparing these two methods of urban development, the cost of building a multi-story building is one-third more than that of single-story houses. As a result, horizontal development requires less cost in terms of construction.

It should be mentioned that according to the text of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, having a housing that fits the needs is the right of every Iranian individual and family. The interpretation and legal points about Article 31 of the Constitution indicate that the government should remove any deprivation in this field and give priority to the needy groups such as villagers and workers.

From the Arabic point of view, according to the mentioned principle, the failure of land monopoly means the supply of land as needed; In such a way that a balance is established between supply and demand, so that false demand and the phenomenon of hoarding are eliminated.

Read more reports on the housing news page.