The Grand Ambitions of Mehrdad Bazrpash
More than a year has passed since Mehrdad Bazrpash took office as the Minister of Roads and Urban Development in the thirteenth government. A look at Bazrpash’s record during his ministry reveals his extremely weak performance in one of the most important ministries of Ebrahim Raisi’s government. This ministry was supposed to fulfill Raisi’s most important electoral promise, which was the construction of 4 million housing units. However, more than two and a half years later, this promise remains unresolved.
Mehrdad Bazrpash took the helm of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development in December 2022, replacing Rostam Qasemi, who passed away after a controversial and illness-ridden tenure as a veteran manager of the Islamic Republic. However, a look at Bazrpash’s one-year performance indicates his inefficiency and also the political maneuvering and factional dealings in one of the most specialized ministries of the government.
Bazrpash’s record during his tenure as Minister of Roads and Urban Development can be examined in three main areas: the first is the clarification of the promise to build 4 million housing units, the second is the unprecedented surges in housing prices and the rising trend of inflation in the housing market, and the third is the factional and systematic maneuvering within the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development. This report examines all three areas.
Bazrpash’s Fantasy
Ebrahim Raisi assumed the presidency of the thirteenth government with the promise of building 4 million housing units in his first term. Therefore, many expected Raisi to at least introduce a specialized and non-political candidate as the Minister of Roads and Urban Development to the eleventh parliament. However, amidst the astonished and worried looks of the public and the media, Raisi sent the controversial oil minister of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to parliament for the position of Minister of Roads and Urban Development.
If we overlook the controversies of the confidence vote session, Qasemi’s performance during his more than one-year ministry not only had many political controversies but with his death in the fall of 2022, the file on efforts to fulfill the promise of building 4 million housing units was effectively closed.
Mehrdad Bazrpash replaced Rostam Qasemi at a time when the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development’s efforts to provide the necessary land for the National Housing Movement plan had failed. Rostam Qasemi had complained about governmental and authoritative bodies, reporting only a 4% success in providing land for the housing plan. Given these circumstances, everyone expected Bazrpash to at least make an effort, even superficially, to implement the National Housing Movement.
But astonishingly, not only did he not make such efforts, but he also dashed everyone’s hopes by stating that it was not possible for the government to implement such a plan. In fact, it seems Raisi replaced Rostam Qasemi with him so that with the same bluntness and audacity of Ahmadinejad’s spiritual son, he could clarify the fate of Raisi’s fantasies.
In the following months, Bazrpash, Raisi, and even Mohammad Mokhber blamed the banking system of the country for the failure to implement this plan, with Bazrpash frequently using the keyword ‘necessity of increasing housing loans up to one billion tomans’ to speak of the banks’ obstruction in the path of the 4 million housing construction plan.
Subsequently, under Bazrpash’s management, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development began to distort reality and present a new narrative of Ebrahim Raisi’s 2020 electoral promise. The Minister of Roads and Urban Development and some other government officials claimed that Raisi had not promised that the government would build 4 million housing units but had promised to support people to build this number of housing units over four years.
Although this revolutionary government’s strategy was neither unknown nor unfamiliar, in the case of building 4 million housing units, such a tactic could not be effective. As predicted, immediately after Bazrpash made such a claim, Iranian users on social networks began circulating videos from the 2020 election debates where Ebrahim Raisi promised in various ways that his government would build 4 million housing units.
Finally, more than a year after Bazrpash began working in the Ministry of Housing, it seems that the file on building 4 million housing units has essentially been closed. Therefore, it can be said that he failed to fulfill Raisi’s most significant promise, which was clear to everyone, and there is no clear prospect for its implementation.
Bazrpash’s Surprise
One of the most important responsibilities of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development in managing the country’s housing is to strive to control housing inflation in the market. Because with the tools available to the government, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, as one of the influential players in this field, has a wide scope for maneuvering. For example, Mehr Housing constitutes a significant portion of the housing market, so even completing and delivering the unfinished phases of Mehr Housing could have been an effective effort to stabilize inflation in the housing market.
But what did Bazrpash do? The second Minister of Roads and Urban Development in Raisi’s government immediately halted all cooperation with the Central Bank regarding the provision and publication of housing inflation data. The Central Bank and even the Statistics Center were prohibited from publishing or even calculating housing inflation. This situation continued for over 8 months, and for the first time in 30 years, there was no available data on the housing market.
Meanwhile, various media outlets, including the Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper and the EkoIran website, reported record-breaking housing point inflation during Nowruz 2023. According to these statistics, the housing point inflation rate in many areas of Tehran exceeded 120 percent. However, not only did the Central Bank and the Ministry of Roads not confirm these reports, but they also accused the media of blackening against Raisi’s government.
However, after 8 months, under significant media pressure, the Central Bank finally published the horrific statistics of the housing market inflation. According to this report, housing inflation in September of the current year had exceeded 60 percent, and the average housing price in Tehran had surpassed 70 million tomans.
Although many Tehran citizens and housing market experts questioned the authenticity of these figures, even if the Central Bank’s report is accepted, the published news indicated record-breaking housing inflation in contemporary Iranian history. This means that Mehrdad Bazrpash not only did not take action to increase housing supply in the market through the implementation of the National Housing Movement but also set an unprecedented record in housing inflation in less than a year.
But it doesn’t end there. Recently, in the final days of December 2023, a report was published indicating that the housing inflation record in the capital market had broken 85 percent. It should be noted that Bazrpash took the helm of this ministry when the inflation rate was fluctuating between 45 and 50 percent, but now, only about a year later, the average housing price in Tehran has exceeded 80 million tomans, and the housing inflation rate has risen to over 85 percent.
Mehrdad’s Position
Following the pattern of other members of Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet, Bazrpash, from the very beginning of his tenure in the ministry, put political and factional actions on his agenda. Carrying the title of Ahmadinejad’s spiritual son, he immediately began purging specialized personnel and middle managers of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, replacing them with non-specialized and incompetent but politically aligned and like-minded options.
But it didn’t stop there. Bazrpash engaged in a strangely unprecedented and clearly channeled political activity, with his associates founding a party called the Strategic Network of Islamic Revolution Allies in March of the previous year. Although the unpopular central council members of the network denied any connection between Bazrpash and this radical movement, experts believe the network is the same failed experience of Bazrpash from 17 years ago. An experience that had extensive organization under the name of ‘Rayeheh Khosh-e Khedmat’ but ultimately ended in failure.
Furthermore, many of the newly appointed managers in the Ministry of Roads astonishingly participated in the ceremonies of this party, strengthening the thesis that the network revolves around Mehrdad Bazrpash. However, amidst the stunned looks of the media, for the first time, a minister who was still at his desk fully participated in the ceremony announcing the existence of a political party.
Mehrdad Bazrpash officially attended the gathering of the network members and celebrated the launch of this controversial and ultra-radical offshoot of the Endurance Front. Many analysts believe Bazrpash is actually one of the main pillars of the purification project in Ebrahim Raisi’s government. Therefore, by forming the network, he intends to allocate a significant share to his supporters in the twelfth parliament to secure a stronger position in the power hierarchy.