Tehran property prices pick up as gold loses shine

{"text":[[{"start":7.85,"text":"Tehran’s long-stagnant housing market has seen an unexpected revival despite 40 days of US and Israeli bombardment, as Iranians look beyond gold to property as a refuge from inflation."}],[{"start":19.35,"text":"While official figures are yet to be released, the capital’s real estate agents union estimates house prices and rents have risen by 80 per cent since the war started in late February — a pace that appears to be outstripping inflation."}],[{"start":32.75,"text":"Agents and buyers say the renewed interest in property — which has seen real-terms declines in recent years — is more a reflection of economic anxiety than confidence, with transaction volumes remaining relatively thin in the 10mn-strong metropolis. "}],[{"start":48.85,"text":"Government data this week showed year-on-year inflation running at about 84 per cent, the highest level in decades. Gold prices, a popular asset in Iran, have also fallen sharply this year from historic highs, explaining some of the interest in finding alternative stores of value. "}],[{"start":66.45,"text":"“An apartment that was worth 30bn tomans before the war was sold this week for 58bn tomans. The war brought nothing but higher prices,” said a Tehran-based real estate agent, using the colloquial currency unit, worth 10 rials. "}],[{"start":81.15,"text":"“Sellers are holding back, expecting prices to rise even further, while buyers are desperate to convert their [rial-denominated] cash into assets before inflation erodes its value. The market is in chaos.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":94.95,"text":"Popular destinations in the countryside surrounding Tehran, as well as resort towns along the Caspian Sea coast that became sanctuaries for those fleeing the conflict, have also recorded steep increases."}],[{"start":108.5,"text":"With no developed mortgage system to finance transactions, Iran’s housing market largely relies on cash purchases. Many buyers are required to pay the full price over several months or, in some cases, in a single payment."}],[{"start":123.4,"text":"Iran’s economy has also long been grappling with persistent double-digit inflation, monetary imbalances, a fragile banking system and entrenched corruption. "}],[{"start":133.05,"text":"“For years, officials blamed sanctions for every economic problem to cover up their own inefficiency. Now they are hiding behind the war,” said Saeed Laylaz, a reformist analyst of Iran’s political economy."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":147.15,"text":"“We have not yet seen the full economic consequences of the war, and those effects will become more visible in the coming months.”"}],[{"start":155.45000000000002,"text":"Households have been scrambling to protect their savings from chronic inflation and a rapidly weakening currency, which has fallen by about 53 per cent against the dollar in the open market over the past year. "}],[{"start":167.20000000000002,"text":"Food prices have already entered triple-digit territory, hitting lower-income households particularly hard. Official figures show vegetable oil prices rising by 354 per cent year-on-year, eggs by 343 per cent, chicken by 287 per cent and imported rice by 223 per cent. Dairy products have increased by as much as 139 per cent."}],[{"start":191.00000000000003,"text":"“The idea of buying a home in Tehran has become a fantasy,” said a 58-year-old housewife living in a middle-class neighbourhood of the city. “We should consider ourselves fortunate if we can still afford food. Buying property is out of reach forever.”"}],[{"start":207.40000000000003,"text":"Iran’s housing market, which has a history of speculative bubbles, had been largely stagnant over the past five years as the economy struggled and investors looked to gold or foreign currency holdings. The latest official prewar data showed housing prices rising by about 35 per cent nationwide year-on-year, well behind inflation."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":228.55000000000004,"text":"Not everyone is convinced such strategies will provide protection. Siamak Ghassemi, a business consultant, told his followers in a video on Instagram that households are unlikely to outrun inflation this year, regardless of whether they invest in property, cars, gold or foreign currencies."}],[{"start":253.55000000000004,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780642748_9796.mp3"}