Financial Tribune- A total of 19,004 residential deals were registered in Tehran in the tenth month of the current fiscal year to Jan. 20, indicating an increase of 13.5% compared with the same period last year.

That is according to the latest data released by the Central Bank of Iran as part of its monthly “Trends in Tehran Housing Market” for the capital city. The report on the website of the regulating entity in charge of publishing official economic statistics, details the volume of housing deals, price changes, 10-month developments in housing deals and rents.

The year-on-year increase is notably shy of the 50% yearly surge registered in the ninth month to Dec. 21, but was not unexpected as officials had predicted it to balance out. Nevertheless, they review the continued hikes as signs of the ailing housing sector exiting the long and painful slumber.

Data show that from the more than 19,000 deals registered in Tehran, newly-built homes built during the past five years had the highest share at 49.5%. That is a 3.4% decline compared with the same month last year as the share of units older than 15 years increased from 8.6% to 11.9%.

However, units aged six to 10 years and 11 to 15 years still boasted a higher share with a respective 14.4% and 14.8% while homes older than 20 years had a 9.4% share.

From the 22 districts in Tehran, the highest number of home deals were reported in District 5 with a 13.6% share. Districts 4 and 2 came second and third with respective shares of 11.2% and 9.3%. That is while 10 districts grabbed the overwhelming share of housing deals at 73.9% and the remaining 12 accounting for 26.1%.

In the month to Jan. 20, the average price of one square meter of a residential unit sold through realtors stood at 52.4 million rials ($1,164), showing a rise of 3% and 16.7% respectively compared with the previous month and same month last year as average prices in the aforementioned months were quoted at 50.8 million rials ($1,130) and 44.9 million rials ($998).

At 27.3%, District 5 was again distinctive in that it showed the highest growth in the average price compared with the previous month and District 20 registered the lowest increase at 5.5%.

Highest Prices in District 1

As always, the northern affluent District 1 registered the highest average per square meter home prices at 111.7 million rials ($2,482), whereas District 18 had the lowest rates at 24.7 million rials ($548).

These numbers are indicative of a respective rise of 10.3% and 13.1% compared with the same month last year.

Residential units with an average price range of 30-35 million rials ($666-$777) per square meter had the highest share of housing deals in the tenth month at 9.9%.

This is while in the same month, residential units with an area of 60-70 square meters attracted the highest share of deals at 15.3% and homes priced at 1.5-2 billion rials ($33,300-$44,400) got the biggest portion of the deals at 11.6% in what is an indication of the people's purchasing power that still remains low.

In the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, a total of 150,541 housing deals were registered, showing a 12.2% year-on-year increase. During that period, the average price of one square meter of a home stood at 47.5 million rials ($1,055) which points to an 8.9% increase compared with the same period last year.

In the tenth month of the year, data show that rents went up by a respective 10.3% and 9.3% in Tehran and in all urban areas. As the central bank noted, rents are highly influenced by policies of taming inflation and have risen in line with the inflation rate that currently is around 10%.

According to official statistics calculated with the previous fiscal year as the base year, Iranians allocate 33.1% of all their expenses to housing.