Apartment rental fees in Yerevan double in expectation of the Iranian tourists
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The rental fees for apartments, especially those available for daily rental, have doubled ahead of Nowruz holiday, which the Iranians come to celebrate in Armenia [Persian New Year begins on March 21].
Nowruz begins on the 4th week of March and lasts for 13 days. Armenia will host about 20,000-25,000 Iranians in those 2 weeks.
Tert.am studied the apartment rental ads available on List.am website and published some of them:
Certain Maria was renting our a 1-bedroom apartment in Yerevan center for AMD10,000 (approximately US$20) per day. However, from March 20, the rental fee for the same apartment has increased to AMD24,000 (US$49).
Mari, a broker agency employee, was renting out a 1-bedroom apartment in Abovyan street [one of Yerevan’s central streets] for AMD 15,000 [approximately $ 31) per day before March 19, whereas from March 20 the rental fee increased to AMD 31,000 [$ 64].
The number of Iranian tourists visiting Armenia has considerably increased over the recent years. According to the experts, they stay in Armenia for about 4-5 days and each time spend up to $ 800.
Over 160,000 Iranian tourists visited Armenia in January-September 2016.
At the same time, due to the sanctions, Iranians still can’t book rooms in Armenian hotels online, using Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
The Iranians, who preferred to be anonymous, told JAMnews that Armenian banks refused to open accounts to the Iranian nationals in fear of facing problems. Mellat Bank CJSC, which is operating based on Iranian assets, is so far the only bank in Armenia that provides services to the Iranian nationals.