Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Yehuda Ariel was absent from today's Knesset Finance Committee's urgent meeting on the housing shortage. At the start of the meeting, Finance Committee chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) said that Ariel could not attend, because of "urgent discussions by the ministerial committee for equality in sharing of the burden."
Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer, who was present, called on the government to increase the pace of construction. "There is an increase in the pace of construction, which is an important factor, because we must build faster and a lot more to supply housing for young couples," said Fischer. He added that the amount of mortgages granted by banks had increased 226% over eight years. "The lowest interest rate in the economy is the mortgage interest rate," he said.
Commenting on bank credit to contractors, Fischer said, "There is an argument that contractors are not receiving enough credit to build. Not only are they obtaining credit, they are also getting guarantees. There is NIS 200 billion in credit to contractors on the books. The construction industry is the riskiest sector in terms of problem credit. 10% of it is at risk, which is the highest proportion of any kind of credit - and this is at a time when the construction industry is booming. We must not reach a situation in which the next time we'll ask why the banks are writing off loans to contractors."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 29, 2013
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