Israel Land Authority (ILA) director general Yaakov Kvint spoke today about the land tender on Kibbutz HaOn at the "Globes" Kibbutz Momentum conference, held in cooperation with Israel Discount Bank. Kibbutz HaOn is being broken up and becoming a community settlement and entering insolvency, he explained to "Globes" editor Bar Lavi. He said that the criticism of the ILA charged that the land being marketed for 248 lots on HaOn will only be bought by the wealthy, and that priority was not given to discharged soldiers and reserve duty soldiers.
They are angry with you about the ILA tender on Kibbutz HaOn.
"It wasn't written in my job description that I had to be nice, so I attach less importance to that. We work in a professional and serious way. There are parallel cases to Kibbutz Ha'on, such as Kibbutz Mishmar David which disbanded in the past. Kibbutz HaOn went into insolvency, and the state reached an agreement with its members. The state financed pensions for them and the development of the infrastructure and the transfer of the agricultural land to the Jordan Farms Association. This is how the lots on Kibbutz HaOn will be marketed. We honor agreements. We are also making arrangements similar to HaOn to create a reserve of land, with other public bodies including the Ministry of Defense, universities and also private organizations such as kibbutzim or other associations.
"Land resources on the Sea of Galilee (Kibbutz HaOn is near the lake) - if I had to plan it, I would plan it as a public beach. Today by the Sea of Galilee I have to wait half an hour to get to the beach. Since it has been determined that there is a settlement there, we are in favor of any equitable solution.
"The tender went out giving priority to reserve duty soldiers, even before October 7. We gave discounts and priority in the tenders, and 63% of the lots go to reservists and disabled IDF soldiers, which is an unprecedented number. There are no tycoons, oligarchs, nor Saudi sheikhs, nor their children. Families came from all over the country, and the offers (on land prices) there were very reasonable."
"We see a fall in land prices"
The criticism of you is that you look at excel spreadsheets and mainly want to rezone land for housing construction
Kvint: "The estimates here among the public has been that housing prices will rise significantly. Our job is to provide land for all needs in the economy. Of course also to provide land for residential construction - first and foremost. It is not easy to do that. We need to take agricultural land, certainly with the kibbutzim who are the top players in agricultural land There is a new spirit in the kibbutz movement, and they are ready to think about new arrangements regarding the center of the country."
Yet still housing prices only go up.
"We are seeing a fall in the prices of the land we are marketing. Over the last four years we have marketed land for 400,000 housing units, and we have seen a 20% drop in land prices. However, construction processes are taking longer, and together with the high interest rates that make financing costs more expensive, and the high input prices, housing prices are rising. The contractors are also selling using the 10/90 method (10% payment on signing the contract to buy the apartment). This has large financing costs that the contractors take on. This is a discount of 8% or more on the apartment price."
How do you halt this trend of rising prices?
"We must continue to increase the supply, including expanding the 'Target Price' program. We need to give a bigger discount in the periphery, in order to create priority there. We have difficulty in this with the Ministry of Finance. It is true that housing prices will be much lower in the periphery. We thought of subsidizing land marketing in the periphery together with land in the center, we called it Dimona/Sarona. We need to give lower prices in the periphery and make them attractive."
Full disclosure: The Kibbutz Momentum conference was held in cooperation with Israel Discount Bank, Doral Group, the Kibbutz Movement, Kibbutz Industries Association, and the Kama Fund.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 18, 2024.
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