Housing in Israel refers to the history of

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

History

After the establishment of the State of Israel, hundreds of thousands of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

from all over the world began immigrating to the new state. Many were housed in temporary camps known as

ma'abarot Ma'abarot ( he, מַעְבָּרוֹת) were immigrant and refugee absorption camps established in Israel in the 1950s, constituting one of the largest public projects planned by the state to implement its sociospatial and housing policies. T ...

, where they lived in huts, tents, and packing crates until permanent housing could be built. In September 1948, the

Ministry of Labor The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

established a National Housing Department to supervise development on a nationwide scale. The

Amidar ''Amidar'' is a video game developed by Konami and released in arcades in 1981 by Stern. The format is similar to that of ''Pac-Man'': the player moves around a fixed rectilinear lattice, attempting to visit each location on the board while a ...

housing company was founded that year and plans were drawn up for the construction of 16,000 housing units in and around the country's urban centers. The Absorption Department of the

Jewish Agency The Jewish Agency for Israel ( he, הסוכנות היהודית לארץ ישראל, translit=HaSochnut HaYehudit L'Eretz Yisra'el) formerly known as The Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. ...

imported 6,000 cabins from Sweden for temporary accommodation. In cities and

development town Development towns ( he, עיירת פיתוח, ''Ayarat Pitu'ah'') were new settlements built in Israel during the 1950s in order to provide permanent housing for a large influx of Jewish immigrants from Arab countries, Holocaust survivors from E ...

s all over the country, rows of concrete tenements began to be hastily erected to address the severe housing shortage. These government-funded low-cost housing projects were known as ''shikunim.'' In the late 2000s and 2010, the real-estate prices in Israel appeared to be inflated compared to the long-term average, other developed economies, rents and average income. This

real estate bubble A real-estate bubble or property bubble (or housing bubble for residential markets) is a type of economic bubble that occurs periodically in local or global real-estate markets, and typically follow a land boom. A land boom is the rapid increase ...

was blamed on the country-wide housing shortage. However, many economists and

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s do not see it as a bubble. In response to the global economic recession in 2008, Israel's central bank governor,

Stanley Fischer Stanley Fischer ( he, סטנלי פישר; born October 15, 1943) is an Israeli American economist who served as the 20th Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fisher previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel fro ...

, lowered

interest rate An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, th ...

s to an all-time low of 0.5%. That resulted in prices rising very fast in 2009, after rising steadily in the preceding decade. Most

mortgages A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any pu ...

taken out in 2007–2009 were

adjustable-rate mortgage A variable-rate mortgage, adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM), or tracker mortgage is a mortgage loan with the interest rate on the note periodically adjusted based on an index which reflects the cost to the lender of borrowing on the credit markets.Wie ...

s pegged to the

prime rate A prime rate or prime lending rate is an interest rate used by banks, usually the interest rate at which banks lend to customers with good credit. Some variable interest rates may be expressed as a percentage above or below prime rate. Use in dif ...

, which at the low was 1.75%.

Home ownership

In 2012, 67.9% of Israelis lived in homes that they owned and 26.9% in rented homes.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Israel's housing market under pressure

Insights on Israel's Real Estate Market
Real estate bubbles 2011 Israeli social justice protests

History

Home ownership

See also

References

External links