Tel Aviv - Yafo Municipality announced this morning that it is allocating NIS 100 million over the next 10 years to renovate 1,000 apartment buildings per year. The incentives include a grant of NIS 5,000 for each tenant and a grant of NIS 10,000 as part of community projects for shared apartment buildings. The municipality's Ezra Ubitzaron housing company will implement the plan.
The municipality spokesperson said, "The enlarged incentives are only one measure in the municipal plan, which has set as a target, moving away from years of an approach of sporadic and local renovations to an approach of sustainable maintenance. At the center of the urban policy will be a community aspect, including strengthening the feeling of partnership in shared buildings. According to research that the municipality conducted, the feeling of belonging and the desire to invest in the residential surroundings rises the more that residents feel a stronger and more positive community connection. Alongside the incentives, the municipality will approve in the coming few months an additional raft of instruments including increasing enforcement, creating unified standards of renovation, and more."
The municipal spokesperson added that as part of the survey that was conducted on the initiative of Ezra Ubitzaron, it found that the value of homes that had been renovated rose by an average of 3.4%.
As part of the package of incentives, it was decided that the firsat 50 buildings that request a grant each year will enjoy a special benefit of a grant of up to NIS 10,000 for financing a community project on jointly owned property. This project includes developing gardens, joint storage areas, bicycle storage accessories. Applicants can also receive up to NIS 20,000 per building, subject to starting work within six months.
The municipality will also help housing committees to cope with those individual tenants who refuse to cooperate with the renovations. Providing there is a 70% consensus in an apartment building, the municipality will temporarily fund the share of the refuseniks so that the renovation will not be delayed.
Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai said, "The new plan changes the rules of the game. After two decades in which we have been implementing the overall upgrading of public infrastructures, on sidewalks and roads, boulevards and parks, taking care over street furniture and the appearances of public spaces, we will now work intensively with homeowners to properly strengthen and renovate the homes they are living in. We are not only talking about aesthetics - although that is not a dirty word but a genuine urban value, the visible appearance of public spaces will restore entire areas in the city to their residents, contributing to a vibrant community life, raising the attractiveness of the city street and contributing to businesses and trade, and strengthening the feeling of personal security and wellbeing. And yes it is also aesthetics, which will create value for tenants and homeowners."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 14, 2021
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