The Ministry of Construction and Housing today announced that it was completing the signing of development agreements with the local authorities in Yafia, Sakhnin, Tira, and Nazareth for planning and marketing hundreds of housing units and commercial and industrial zones. The Ministry of Construction and Housing said that these plans would supplement 15 plans signed with large Arab communities within a six-month period. Agreements will later be signed with 50 more local authorities.
The agreements are the first implementation of Cabinet Resolution No. 922, passed last January, in which the government will aid in the development of minority communities through 2020. The Ministry of Construction and Housing will provide NIS 1.41 billion during this period for housing solutions in the Arab sector.
One clause in the plan for aid to the sector focuses on encouragement of the planning and marketing of thousands of high-density construction housing units on state land, and on the removal of barriers for thousands more housing units on private land in those communities. The Ministry of Construction and Housing will subsidize development costs in these communities for this purpose, subject to increasing the density of construction, in line with the cabinet resolution.
The plan also mentions increasing the budget for public buildings already under construction and new construction; planning approval for over 30,000 housing units on private land and state land in Yafia, Sakhnin, Nazareth, and Tira; budgeting detailed plans on private and state land; budgeting plans for registration and regulatory purposes; use of a pool of building management companies to promote planning, help the local authorities, and finance outline and detailed plans for high-density construction.
As part of the agreements, the Ministry of Construction and Housing has formulated a multi-year working plan that will include needs and budgeting for development and construction of public institutions in the sector according to the size and needs of the community. This working plan outlines the budgets totaling NIS 710 million for public institutions in each of the agreements to be signed with all the communities included in the cabinet resolution.
Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant said, "We are working in close cooperation with the leadership in Arab sector communities. Prosperity in the Arab sector is an interest of Israeli society as a whole. The measure comes on top of a series of housing solutions being formulated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing for all population groups and sectors in Israel. The process will ease the housing crisis in communities in the sector.
"In the next 20 years, Israel will need one million housing units, including 200,000 for the Arab sector. We are therefore devising long-term solutions that will facilitate a substantial improvement in housing conditions by increasing the number of housing units, planning high-density construction, and developing new public in according to community needs."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 25, 2016
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