Financial Tribune - The objective of empty home tax is to return empty properties or second homes [under-used properties] as rental homes. More than 2.1 million homes in urban areas are empty while there are about two million second home-owners

The nationwide online database of all residential properties across the country will be completed and put at the Iranian National Tax Administration�s disposal by next week, Mahmoud Mahmoudazadeh, the head of Housing Economy Department at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, said on Sunday.

�In so doing, INTA will be able to mine the database to track vacant homes subject to Vacancy Tax in less than two weeks,� he added.

In the Iranian year ending March 2016, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development was tasked with designing, in cooperation with a number of other affiliated organizations and entities inside and outside the administration, a database containing information on all residential units and homeowners across the country and handed it to the tax administration.