Rents up to triple; tenants from Tehran to Ahvaz under pressure

Rents and housing deposits in many Iranian cities have risen up to threefold compared with last year. A number of tenants in Tehran, Karaj, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Shiraz, Mashhad, Lahijan, Langarud, Mahshahr and Sistan and Baluchestan province, in messages to independent Persian-language media, have described increases in housing costs ranging from 50 percent to two- and threefold, and some have reported jumps of four to five times.

One tenant in Tehran says the monthly rent has gone from 7 million to 21 million toman. In Karaj one rent rose from 5 million to 13 million toman, and in Mahshahr from 4 million to 8 million toman. A tenant in Shiraz who last year paid a 100 million toman deposit and 14 million toman in rent must this year pay a 250 million toman advance and 25 million toman in monthly rent for a one-bedroom basement. In Ahvaz, according to its tenant, the combined deposit and rent for one home has risen by 500 percent.

Three people work to pay the rent

Tenants say a large share of their income goes on keeping a roof over their heads. One said three family members work so that the rent can be paid; another said 20 days of each month's work go on rent and 10 days on bills. A pensioner in Mashhad with a pension of 24 million toman pays 21 million toman a month in rent.

Some landlords have multiplied the deposit: a tenant who had paid an 800 million toman deposit is this year caught between paying 2 billion toman and moving out. A number of families have left Tehran for cheaper cities, moved back in with their parents or started sharing a home with others. A shopkeeper also says the rent on the shop has tripled and it has to be vacated.

A 27 percent cap on paper

The Islamic Republic has set the permitted ceiling for rent increases this year at 27 percent, but in practice the cap is not enforced. The Islamic Republic's Statistical Centre put annual rent inflation in August–September 2026 at about 32 percent, a figure strikingly far from what tenants see on the market. According to the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, about 7 million households, nearly 22 million people, rent their homes in Iran.

The surge in rents comes as the rial's value collapses; the dollar has passed 270,000 toman on the Tehran market and families' food costs have also multiplied.

For millions of renting households, rent now swallows a larger share of monthly income.