Landownership in Iran: an Analysis on the Relationship between Characteristics of the Head of Households and Housing Ownership

Housing is one of the basic needs for every household and the formation of new households means more demand for new residential units. When the nuclear family with an independent and neolocal residence pattern becomes prevalence, possessing a private housing is amongst the important priorities that families tend to have during their life cycle. This paper examines how the characteristics of the head of households are related to the probability of dwelling tenure in Iran. Using individual-level data from 2011 national census, the paper estimate bivariate and multivariate models to assess how the probability of dwelling stock according to tenure is related to differences in the economic, social and demographic characteristics of the heads of households. to the characteristics of the heads of households in terms of his/her gender, place of residence, rual-urban origin, marital status, employment status, educational attainment, age and the household size. Around 29% of the variance in housing ownership possibilities can be explained using these variables. More researches is needed to examine the role of housing in the basket of household spending priorities, pressures of housing costs on family economy, and even the relation of housing ownership status to such demographic decisions of couples and families as marriage and family formation of youth, having or not having children, the number and timing of children and so on.