Building Permits for Villas in Northern Iran: Who Issues Them and What You Need

One of the calls we take most often: “I bought land in a village near Babolsar and want to build a villa — where do I get the permit?”

The answer always begins with a question rather than an address: where exactly does your land sit on the legal map?

In Iran there is no single permit-issuing body. Depending on whether the property lies inside a city boundary, inside a village with an approved Hadi plan, or outside both, you deal with three entirely different authorities — different documents, different steps, and in one case a real possibility that you will not be permitted to build at all.

This article separates those three cases.

First: establish which zone your land is in

This is the only genuinely critical step; everything else follows from it. There are three possibilities:

Looking at the deed and a map is not enough to determine this. You need a formal enquiry (استعلام): from the municipality if near a city, from the dehyari and the county Housing Foundation if rural. It is free or inexpensive, and it is the only reliable answer.

Case one: inside a city boundary

The simplest case. The municipality issues the permit.

Article 100 of the Municipalities Act is explicit: a permit must be obtained before construction begins. Building without a permit, or contrary to one, obliges the municipality to halt work and refer the file to the Article 100 Commission.

A procedural point that is rarely mentioned: the Article 100 Commission must notify the party of the alleged violations before issuing its ruling and allow 10 days to respond. If you ever end up there, that window is a legal right, not a courtesy.

Case two: a village with a Hadi plan

This covers most villas on the Caspian coast, and it is where most of the confusion lives.

What a Hadi plan is

The Hadi plan is the village’s governing document: it sets the development boundary, the street network, land uses and construction rules. Under Article 7 of the Housing Foundation’s charter, preparing and implementing it is the Foundation’s responsibility; under Article 79(8) of the Councils Act, the district Islamic council approves it.

Who actually issues the permit

Here is the key point, and a common mistake: the Housing Foundation prepares the Hadi plan, but the dehyari issues the permit.

The legal basis is Article 78(11) of the Act on the Organisation, Duties and Elections of Islamic Councils (1996), which places the opening of files and issuing of building permits within the village’s legal boundary with the dehyari. Advisory Opinion 7/1401/444 of the Judiciary’s Legal Department confirms it.

So if you are told the rural permit comes from the Housing Foundation, that is imprecise. The Foundation has a technical and supervisory role; the issuing authority is the dehyari.

Documents usually required

The exact list varies slightly by county, but these are asked for almost everywhere:

• Title deed or valid proof of ownership
• Confirmation that the plot falls within the Hadi plan boundary
• Architectural drawings stamped by a qualified engineer
• Natural Resources clearance (confirming the land is not state land)
• Roads and Urban Development clearance where the plot adjoins a road
• In some cases, Cultural Heritage or Environment clearance, depending on location

Take the Natural Resources clearance seriously. Discovering a plot is classified as state land after purchase is the most expensive news available — and on the northern coast it is not rare. We cover this at length in the pre-purchase land checklist.

Case three: outside both boundaries

Here the rules change. Land outside both boundaries is in most cases agricultural — and building a villa on agricultural land without following the legal route is unauthorised change of use.

The Article 1, Note 1 Commission

Decisions on changing the use of farmland and orchards rest with a commission defined by Note 1 of Article 1 of the Law on Preservation of Agricultural Land and Orchards. In each province it comprises:

• The head of the provincial Agriculture Jihad Organisation — chair
• The director of Land Affairs
• The head of the Housing and Urban Development Organisation
• The provincial director of Environmental Protection
• One representative of the provincial governor

The same law requires the Agriculture Jihad Organisation to respond, in line with the commission’s decision, within two months of receiving the application. That deadline is statutory and you may rely on it.

But note what the commission decides: whether the change of use is necessary. Approval is neither automatic nor guaranteed. Many applications to build private villas on good farmland are refused — which is precisely the law’s purpose.

If you build without authorisation

Construction violations outside approved city limits fall to the Commission under Note 2 of Article 99 of the Municipalities Act, seated at the provincial governor’s office and composed of representatives of the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, and the Judiciary.

Two things to know about it:

• Its rulings are final.
• It can order demolition, not merely a fine.

Separately, unauthorised change of agricultural land use is its own criminal matter, pursued through the Agriculture Jihad Organisation.

The correct order of operations

Most of the trouble we see comes from one thing: doing this in the wrong order. The right sequence:

1. Before buying the land — zone enquiry, Natural Resources clearance, land-use check. Not after.
2. Identify the issuing authority — municipality, dehyari, or the commission route.
3. Obtain the construction rules — density, site coverage, storeys, setbacks. These are design inputs.
4. Design to those rules — rather than designing freely and then trying to make it fit.
5. Have drawings prepared by a qualified engineer and submitted.
6. Obtain the permit — and only then start work.

Step three matters more than it looks. A zone’s rules are the ceiling on what is possible; getting them before design begins is the difference between a smooth project and one redesigned three times. We explain this further in the villa design and construction process, and part of the mistakes that raise build cost comes from exactly this disorder.

Some honest caveats

Procedures are local. The legal framework is national, but the operational detail — exact document lists, fees, the order of enquiries — varies between counties and even between village administrations. What is here is the map of the route; the final checklist must come from the body that will actually issue your permit.

Laws are amended. This text rests on the statutory provisions cited above. Verify they remain current before acting.

This is not legal advice. If your situation is complicated — shared ownership, registry disputes, or unclear land-use status — consult a lawyer or a licensed expert.

In short

The whole article reduces to one line: before you think about the plan, find out where your land stands on the legal map.

Land inside a city, land inside a Hadi plan, and land outside both are three different projects — even if they sit side by side with the same view. The difference is not how the villa looks; it is whether it can be built at all.

If you own a plot and want its status clarified before spending anything, get in touch. Our office is in Babol and most of our projects are built in Babolsar and Sarkhorud.