"Home prices will not drop in 2017 or in 2018, and people should stop making such promises to the public." With these words, Real Estate Appraisers Association in Israel chairman Ohad Danus opened the 31st Real Appraisers Conference in Eilat's Royal Beach Hotel yesterday.
"Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon is one of the best ministers of finance we have known. I consider him to be an intelligent person, a gifted politician with decent and honest intentions who has done much in the last 18 months in the fields he is responsible for, including real estate," Danus said.
"At the same time, Kahlon is also wrong. It will be right to decide on a U-turn on the bill to tax three apartments and up. This bill, in its current formulation, is not pro-equality, is not proportionate, does not create even one additional apartment. And, if it is approved and succeeds, it will only raise rents for the weakest, most disadvantaged sections of the population in Israel. On this issue, I feel obliged to propose to the minister of finance that even if this bill has become a matter of principle for him, he should still consider implementing it only in two years. During this period the state could prepare and generate a stock of public housing for rent, which will make up for the expected shortages because of fewer homes being for rent on the market.
Danus added, "The buyer fixed-price program should be diversified, and also applied to move-up home buyers and investors, and the earlier the better."
Head of the National Housing Board Avigdor Yitzhaki said at the conference, "The real estate market is not bureaucracy-ridden; it is paralyzed. A decision on a plan like Tama 38 [earthquake retrofit plan] takes about six months. The market is paralyzed and someone has to make decisions, and that someone is the minister of finance." Yitzhaki mainly talked about the work of the Housing Board: "At present, we are working on increasing the supply of homes in Israel; this year and last year the supply has grown by an annual average of 100,000 homes," Yitzhaki said. "In addition, we are dealing with the issues of credit, workers and more." Yitzhaki said that the Ministry of Finance was focusing on the shortage of construction workers and the effort to bring as many workers to Israel as possible.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 21, 2016
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2016