"The solution to the housing crisis is not a minister of finance who introduces 0% VAT, or a minister of housing who introduces target prices, but a prime minister who makes a decision to lower prices, and I will be a prime minister that makes this decision," Isaac Herzog, Zionist Camp chairman told the “Globes” Real Estate Summit - Israel Real Estate and Infrastructures Conference in collaboration with Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) in Tel Aviv today.
Herzog said, "Netanyahu is always blaming everybody else but himself. Who will he blame after the State Comptroller's report? Six years you have been prime minister ….. are you prepared for four more years of nothing? At first, he said that he didn't have the time, and now he says that Olmert is to blame."
Herzog continued, "The rental market is absolutely crazy and we must intervene through the fair rents law being led by Stav Shafir and Tzipi Livni." Referring to the prices of land tenders at the Israel Lands Authority, he said that he would introduce a bill in the Knesset to cut the price of land tenders in half, through an emergency order. He said, "We are going for four points. To subject the Planning Administration and the Israel Land Authority to one minister, speed up construction of apartments, and create supply. Secondly, the Israel Land Authority is the biggest robber of Israel's citizens. It's not possible that land in remote settlements costs NIS 800,000, and we will cut that in half. Thirdly, we plan intervention in apartment rentals because the market is crazy. And the fourth point is affordable housing - the government will provide land for free, and contractors will build affordable apartments."
Herzog added, "Already in my first year in power, I believe we will see a changing trend in the housing market. In my opinion, social-democratic ideology says that we want to divide up resources and capital fairly - and our economic plan intends to do exactly that. That's social justice. Public housing in Israel has been eradicated and we must bring it back through flexible criteria and reducing gaps."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 23, 2015
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