Research objective: the present study seeks to assess and analyze the status of residential quality indicators in the 22 urban regions of the Tehran metropolis. Methodology: 79 residential quality variables are classified into the four indicators of physical, economic, ecological, and socio-cultural indices. Shannon entropy model, the coefficient of variation, TOPSIS, hotspot analysis, and Moran spatial autocorrelation were used for data analysis. Results: Results of the present study indicated a TOPSIS score of 0.58 for the integrated indicators which revealed region 1 had the best and region 15 had the worst status. In fact, a sort of divergence and heterogeneity rules residential quality indicators in Tehran urban regions, so that among the 22 urban regions of the city, around 4.5% were advantaged while 13.6% were relatively advantaged, 77.3% were semi- advantaged, and 4.5% were less advantaged. Results of statistical spatial analysis also indicate that the advantaged clusters were located in northern and northeastern parts of the city while the less advantaged and extremely less advantaged clusters were more focused in the southern and southeastern parts of the city, and residential quality indicators followed a cluster pattern. Conclusion: A spatial difference and inequality in residential quality index distribution were observed in the 22 urban regions of Tehran so that the regions located in the southern and southeastern parts of the city had an unfavorable status in terms of residential quality indicators while the northern and northeastern regions were more advantaged in this regard.

Increasing urbanization, a massive migration to the big cities, and an imbalance between supply and demand for housing have introduced a housing shortage over the past few decades. The housing issue in Iran has been addressed through government housing provision and development programs. A brief review of the government's policies on development programs shows that government-based and market-based approaches are the two main types in the housing sector. Although the government initially had a primary role in housing provision, this responsibility was gradually transferred to the private sector, but without a proper balance between housing supply and demand. In this article, we will explore the different housing policies and examine the successes and failures of each one.