Owners of unoccupied housing units will be required to pay taxes, based on the new direct taxation law. The Ministry of Roads and Urbanization has set up an online platform to collect taxes from empty houses across the country.
“The first version of the real estate system will go online and delivered to the Tax Affairs Organization by July 2017. In order to complete the system we require information about real estate throughout the country based on people’s postal codes in order to know if the residents are owners or renters. This way we can determine which units are unoccupied”, said The Director of the Planning Office at the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization, Ali Chegini.
Since this system requires a wide array of data, the Ministry of Roads and Urbanization need the help of related organizations. To complete the data, assistance from the Organization for Civil Registration, Department of Real Estate Registration, Tax Affairs Organization, National Geographic Organization, Iran National Cartographic Center, Iran Postal Services and other executive organizations are required.
The Tehran Union of Mass Property Developers has announced that approximately 2.5 million residential units are unoccupied across the country. This corresponds to a 200 million dollar investment. It is estimated that nearly 500,000 apartments are empty in Tehran.
The Ministry of Roads and Urbanization claims this system is a powerful tool in carrying out social welfare projects which can assist the Government in preparing and executing projects in areas of housing and healthcare for the poor.
