Economics
Iran's Sanctions Payoff: Real Estate Is Hot
Buying gold, dollars, and euros is out. The only option is to build
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Contractor Mehdi Eslamipour stands amid piles of bricks and abandoned furniture at a Tehran building site where his company just knocked down a three-story villa to build a nine-story apartment building. “Everyone’s looking to build,” he says, pointing to three similar projects on the same street.
Iranians are turning to real estate to protect their savings as beefed-up international sanctions weaken the rial. The first reaction of Iranians to the new sanctions was to buy more gold, dollars, and euros as a hedge. Then the government restricted currency trades to government-run exchange bureaus, which offered unfavorable rates. Officials also made investors wait months to buy gold.