The Iranian government has released some $417 million in rental assistance under the country’s coronavirus rescue package.
The allocation of the fund was finalized on Monday during a meeting of Iran’s National Headquarters for Battling Coronavirus.
It was decided during the meeting chaired by President Hassan Rouhani that a total sum of 100 trillion rials be allocated as assistance to renters who have been struggling economically because of measures imposed to curb the spread of the disease.
Renters in the capital Tehran, where housing prices have soared in recent months, will be able to use loans worth 750 million rials ($3,125) as direct payment to their landlords. The figure will reduce to 400 million rials and 250 million rials for tenants in two groups of smaller cities.
Banks will continue to process rental assistance requests until late September 2021, said an announcement by the Iranian housing and transportation ministry.
The ministry said that it will insist on its decision to impose an eviction moratorium on rent contracts that expire during the time of the pandemic.
That comes as courts in Iran have mostly refused to enforce the moratorium which aims to help millions in large cities who have fallen behind their rent payments.
The rental relief program in Iran was launched last year during the initial months of the spread of the pandemic in the country. The Monday announcement showed that loans granted under the scheme would increase by 50% this year.
Iran has introduced an array of rescue measures to tackle the economic impacts of the pandemic. Those include grants to millions of households and cheap loans to businesses hit by the disease.