Financial Tribune - Close to 50% of the population in Iranian metropolises are living in rented homes, a deputy roads and urban development minister said.

Mahmoud Mahmoudzadeh added that findings of the National Population and Housing Census in the year ending March 2017 show 31.7% of the country’s homes and 43.5% of those in Tehran are rented.

“Our experts believe households in the 4th to 7th income deciles will face growing housing difficulties in the absence of an appropriate response [on the part of the government]. Nevertheless, the ministry’s Housing Department is putting together a bill to regulate housing and rental markets,” he was quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.

The Ministry of Roads and Urban Development has come up with a roadmap to streamline the country’s tenancy market.