For many Iranians, buying a house remains a massive challenge.
U.S.-led sanctions on Iran have shrunk the value of its currency, pushing prices to soar.
Iran's 2023 annual inflation hit 52.3 percent, making the country's housing crisis even worse.
Some experts say the government's involvement in constructing housing projects drove the private sector away, thus further slowing down the progress of the country's housing programs.
"I think that the problem of housing is one of the major problems of Iranian juniors, and it would be better for the next president if he has a good plan to build more houses or give logical loans to Iranian people to build houses. I think that's one of the biggest reasons that Iranian young people can't get married," said a resident in Tehran.
The price of one square meter of housing in Tehran jumped from about 1,000 U.S. dollars in 2018 to more than 1,450 dollars in 2024.
One local researcher says that an average Iranian needs to save for 112 years before they are able to buy a house in the capital city. That figure was 22 years in 2005.
Housing crisis major concern among Iranian residents
Persistent heavy rainfall has led to rising water levels across the Yangtze River basin, creating significant flood control challenges for the areas along the main streams and tributaries.
The Three Gorges Reservoir, located upstream on the Yangtze in central China's Hubei Province, has been gradually reducing its discharge rate to alleviate pressure on downstream areas. On Thursday, the outflow was reduced from 24,000 cubic meters per second to 18,000 cubic meters per second and was further lowered to 14,000 cubic meters per second on Friday. This has caused the reservoir level to rise by approximately 2.9 meters, storing 1.46 billion cubic meters of floodwater.
One of the Yangtze's major tributaries, the Zijiang River in central China's Hunan Province, has also experienced significant flooding. The Shaoyang hydrological station recorded water levels exceeding the warning level, triggering the fourth flood event of this year on Zijiang.
The Miluo River, another river flowing through Hunan, flows from east to west into Dongting Lake before joining the Yangtze River. On Monday afternoon, the water level at the Pingjiang hydrological station on the Miluo River hit 77 meters, exceeding the warning level by about seven meters.
Torrential rains have affected over 200,000 people in Pingjiang County, with more than 1,000 roads and bridges damaged and public transportation disrupted. No casualties have been reported so far.
In east China's Anhui Province, the town of Huikou in Susong County is the first town the Yangtze enters as it flows into Anhui. Water levels at the Huikou hydrological station have been rising continuously, exceeding the warning level by about one meter by Monday afternoon. The water levels along the main course of the Yangtze River in the province have all exceeded the flood warning levels and continue to rise.
Additionally, 19 tributaries including the Shuiyang River, Chuhe River, and Xihe River have also surpassed their respective warning levels.
Yangtze River basin battles severe flooding after intense rainfall
