"The Israelis like their houses. More than 72% of the Israelis own their apartments, being one of the highest rates in the world. In order to compare, the ownership rate over apartments in the U.S. is up to 68%, in Britain 69% and in France 54%. Every year, Israeli contractors invest about 36 billion N.I.S into construction, approximately two thirds go into the domesticating market
The recent Israeli elections were followed by a number of pronouncements by US officials praising democracy in Israel. However democracy is much more than elections, and many freedoms that Americans take for granted are not available in Israel.
ACBI president Aharon Cohen: Taxes in Israel account for 41% of the price for a new apartment. A study by BDO Ziv Haft for the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel (ACBI) found that an Israeli wage-earner has to work 9.3 years (112 months of full-time work) to buy an average apartment.
The IDF will vacate the so-called “small block” in the north Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tel Baruch in 2007, making the land available for the construction of thousands of housing units.
Controversial architect Ilan Pivko, the Aviv architect firm, and former Israel national football team player Itzik Zohar are organizing a consortium to bid for a two-dunam (half-acre) lot on Amichai Paglin St. in Tel Aviv’s New Ramat Aviv Gimmel neighborhood. The Israel Land Administration (ILA) is selling the land.
The plan calls for four 40-storey high-rises along Begin Rd., 12-storey buildings along Carlebach St. and Hashmona’im St., and 15 dunam of open public space.
The owner of this Jerusalem apartment spent the first 90 years of his life in England. Two years ago, fulfilling a lifetime dream, he made aliya and happily settled in Rehavia, close to his daughter and her family who had made aliya several years earlier.
Five real estate developers have bought the 19-dunam, or about 4.75 acre, Kfar Shmaryahu plot on which the American International School currently stands. The group, which paid $21 million for the land, has the right to use already-approved construction plans to build 17 single family homes on the site. However, they have announced they plan to build their own homes there.
On July 25, in second and third readings, the Knesset plenary approved Amendment Number 147 to the Income Tax Ordinance, thus enacting a multi-year tax plan that will outline Israel’s tax policy for the coming five years.
An over-worn popular saying about Israel's three major cities is that Haifa works, Jerusalem prays, and Tel Aviv plays.
Of course one can find workers, prayers, and revelers in all three cities, but Tel Aviv can offer something tangible the others cannot - the largest collection of Bauhaus-style buildings in the country, a virtual outdoor museum that never closes its doors and charges no fee.
Now that elevators have become standard in almost all buildings, stairs have become a drawback. About 10 years ago, they reduced an apartment's price by 5 percent. Today that figure stands at 20 percent or more.
The municipal area of Jerusalem, says Israel Kimhi, a veteran urban planner associated with the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies (JIIS), is similar to that of Paris. Yet the population of Paris is several times larger than that of Jerusalem.
