Spatial Planning, Urban Governance and the Economic Context: The Case of ‘Mehr’ Housing Plan, Iran

Abstract

With the increasing concentration of population and economic activities in metropolitan regions, dwelling shortages and housing quality have become critical issues in urban management. Town plans considering social, economic, political, and cultural features of local communities have been developed with the aim of supporting housing, especially in emerging economies. In Iran, the ‘Mehr Housing’ Plan has been considered as one of the most relevant strategies for social housing since the 2000s. However, the acceptance of ‘Mehr Housing’ plans at the community scale has been rather low, reflecting the fact that it is a top-down, non-participatory policy. The present study investigates the most important factors affecting social acceptance of ‘Mehr Housing’ plans by interviewing 45 experts through a structured questionnaire that evaluated multiple analyses’ dimensions of housing and urban planning in Iran. Results showed that six dimensions (physical, institutional-managerial, economic, socio-cultural, legal, and locational) had contributed to social dissatisfaction with ‘Mehr Housing’ local initiatives. In particular, socio-cultural and legal dimensions were demonstrated to have a large impact on local communities’ dissatisfaction.

Evaluating urban housing development patterns in developing countries: Case study of Worn-out Urban Fabrics in Iran

“…Using the purposive sampling method, 40 subject experts were selected and questionnaires were distributed among them. In the AHP analysis and VIKOR technique (implemented in this work), this number is sufficient (see the similar study and sample number of Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020). Accordingly, conclusions correlative to the study can be inferred.…”

“…For this reason, governments of developing countries have implemented various policies in the form of development programs in order to tackle the housing problem and prevent the spread of informal housing. For example, over the last decades in Iran, the government has tried to deal with low-income housing in a centralized way (Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020), initially using two approaches: a) by providing land to specific categories of individuals or housing cooperatives at fixed prices, generally using regional-based criteria; and b) by advancing some housing actions with specific focus on housing tenure (e.g., balancing property and rent), especially through hire purchase. Despite that these two approaches were expected to build more than 1 million dwelling units on land assigned to users (e.g., individuals, cooperatives, constructors), these initiatives did not reach their planned results (Sobhiyah & Radaiee, 2015) and, accordingly, the only plan that is now supported by the Iranian government is for people to build their own homes on land known as the "Maskan-e-Mehr" plan (Sobhiyah & Radaiee, 2015;Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020).…”

“…For example, over the last decades in Iran, the government has tried to deal with low-income housing in a centralized way (Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020), initially using two approaches: a) by providing land to specific categories of individuals or housing cooperatives at fixed prices, generally using regional-based criteria; and b) by advancing some housing actions with specific focus on housing tenure (e.g., balancing property and rent), especially through hire purchase. Despite that these two approaches were expected to build more than 1 million dwelling units on land assigned to users (e.g., individuals, cooperatives, constructors), these initiatives did not reach their planned results (Sobhiyah & Radaiee, 2015) and, accordingly, the only plan that is now supported by the Iranian government is for people to build their own homes on land known as the "Maskan-e-Mehr" plan (Sobhiyah & Radaiee, 2015;Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020). There are of course cases in developing countriessuch as Singapore, Hong Kong and Israelwhere governments have built a massive amount of public rental housing and reached initial expectations (Keivani & Werna, 2001); in these cases, the private sector participation can involve the sale of these units to sitting tenants.…”

Residential satisfaction with affordable housing in northern Iran

“…In this case, various studies reported that residents of Mehr housing complexes dissatisfied with economic aspects (e.g. purchase cost and mortgage payments of the complex), poor access to land uses including shopping, educational, health, recreational centers and public transportation stations (Rezaei and Kamaizadeh, 2012;Pourdehimi, 2011;Shahriari et al, 2014;Azizi and Rahmani, 2014;Jahanshahloo and Daroudi, 2015;Noori and Asadpoor, 2016;Azemati et al, 2017;Zanganeh Shahraki et al, 2020). In contrast, the results of the study conducted by Daroudi et al (2015) illustrated that residents were relatively satisfied with adequate access to land uses and municipal service of Mehr housing complex in Hashtgerd (a small city in Alborz province located in the west of Tehran which is capital city of Iran).…”

“…, 2014; Azizi and Rahmani, 2014; Jahanshahloo and Daroudi, 2015; Noori and Asadpoor, 2016; Azemati et al. , 2017; Zanganeh Shahraki et al. , 2020).…”