"Being Minister of Finance is a good job, but it's hard. You start in the morning with Mega, strikes and the disabled. You have to deal with defense and the army, and a lot of other things. But there are times like today when you see the work of months reach the final stage. Eight months ago, when the cabinet was formed, we decided to tackle housing. Within two months, they started marketing apartments through the buyer fixed price plan. Without that, eliminating land speculation, giving housing to young couples lacking it, instead of to speculators, they couldn’t have dreamed about an apartment, and certainly not in Herzliya. Small apartments will be sold here in town for NIS 900,000 over the coming year. A young couple couldn't have afforded that otherwise. Like in Rishon Lezion, where there has already been a tender, here, too, the prices will be low. There is a special independent committee in the Herzliya municipality, and this morning I authorized another five years for this special committee. There are a few such committees with widespread authority. We're going ahead, despite the skeptics. Our job is to accomplish things. It's not easy or simple, but we began, and instituted reforms and changes. You see it all over Israel. We tell the contractors that we'll cooperate, and we work hard to release foreign workers. There are more obstacles, but with a little patience, we'll achieve the goals," Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon said at today's ceremonial signing of the umbrella agreement between the state and the Herzliya municipality, the ninth such agreement signed between the state and local authorities for the purpose of promoting construction of tens of thousands of apartments and financing infrastructure. Under the agreement signed today, the state undertook to pay hundreds of millions of shekels for two interchanges, as well as financing development of the new neighborhoods and more. The agreement concerns a number of neighborhoods in the city in which 7,443 housing units will be marketed. The bulk, if not all, of the housing units marketed will be in the buyer fixed price format.
Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant, who was also present at the signing ceremony, added, "We were faced with a difficult situation eight months ago. Housing prices doubled, hundreds of thousands of housing units were needed, and the planning processes were very long. We're dealing with all of these things. The buyer fixed price plan is restraining the high prices. We're lowering the price of land and the cost of the construction. By the end of the year, 70,000 housing units will be marketed at prices 20% below the market price, and 30% in some cases. We're on the way to creating a new horizon."
Israel Land Administration (ILA) director Adiel Shimron said at the ceremony, "We have been formulating the agreement for a long time, maybe even too long, but today there is great satisfaction. It took many efforts and overcoming difficulties to reach this agreement. The housing cabinet and the Ministry of Construction and Housing are working together to extend the roof agreements to many local authorities in Israel, and are taking care to achieve a balance between the central region and the outlying areas. Herzliya is one of the local authorities in the very center of the country to which the agreements have been extended, and the tenders will be issued soon. There can be no doubt that this agreement is of very great significance, and it is only the beginning."
Herzliya Mayor Moshe Fadlon said at the signing ceremony, "This is a historic change in Herzliya that will dramatically increase the number of residents and change their composition. It will provide a solution for young couples having difficulty in buying an apartment. Our vision is beginning to materialize today."
Umbrella agreements have already been signed with the municipalities of Rosh HaAyin, Kiryat Gat, Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut, Kiryat Bialik, Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, Rishon Lezion, and Ramla. Other participants in the signing ceremony in Herzliya included Special Committee to Discuss the National Authority for Urban Renewal Bill chairman MK Eli Cohen (Kulanu) and Israel National Planning and Building Commission head Avigdor Yitzhaki.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 19, 2016
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