Financial Tribune - The objective of empty home tax is to return empty properties or second homes [under-used properties] as rental homes. More than 2.1 million homes in urban areas are empty while there are about two million second home-owners

The nationwide online database of all residential properties across the country will be completed and put at the Iranian National Tax Administration’s disposal by next week, Mahmoud Mahmoudazadeh, the head of Housing Economy Department at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, said on Sunday.

“In so doing, INTA will be able to mine the database to track vacant homes subject to Vacancy Tax in less than two weeks,” he added.

In the Iranian year ending March 2016, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development was tasked with designing, in cooperation with a number of other affiliated organizations and entities inside and outside the administration, a database containing information on all residential units and homeowners across the country and handed it to the tax administration.