Demand for new apartments is breaking record: working to publish lotteries for more than 30,000 discounted apartments

Demand for new apartments is breaking records, and at this stage, the efforts of Housing and Construction Minister Zeev Elkin are focusing on cooling demand. The director-general of the Ministry of Housing, Aviad Friedman, is working to publish lotteries for more than 30,000 discounted apartments during the year.

There was a lottery of 28,000 apartments in one year.
The first batch of the lotteries will be announced in March, in which about 9,500 apartments will be raffled off. Among others, about 1,200 in Lod (out of 2,865 each year), 860 in Ashdod (out of 1,165 each year), 500 in Ofakim, and 400 in Safed. During the year, lotteries are expected for about 6,000 apartments in ultra-Orthodox communities, a much larger amount than the former Minister of Housing, Yaakov Litzman of Agudat Israel, was able to market. In Elad, for example, 1,685 apartments will be marketed in this way for the time being. There will also be a relatively large portion in Arab localities, including Umm al-Fahm and Nazareth. In Haifa, the Ministry of Housing means 1,320 apartments, in Dimona 1,490, on Sderot 1,031, in Yavneh 1,125 apartments, in Rishon Lezion 712 and in Jerusalem - 548.
This move is expected to lead to a cooling of demand, as it is assumed that the winners of the lotteries and may even be eligible to participate in them have left the housing market for at least some time. But they will get the apartments at best in four years.
The flood of lotteries is made possible thanks to a dowry left by the previous minister, Yaakov Litzman to Elkin - closed tenders or on the verge of closing for thousands of apartments in the format of his housing program at a reduced price. But also thanks to the efforts of the Israel Land Authority and the fact that it succeeded last year in issuing tenders for plots where more than 100,000 apartments can be built,
The first lotteries will still be for the purchase of apartments in the form of early government plans, mainly a reduced price but also leftovers from the price per occupant. Starting in March, the Israel Land Authority will close the first tenders for residential construction in the new method led by Elkin - target price. It is estimated that by July these complexes will also be ready for the lottery.
In most target tenders, not even the tender brochure has been published. In addition, there are currently tenders in the air for a little over 40,000 apartments. However, in the target price program, only about 60% of the apartments in each complex are discounted and allocated for a lottery, the rest of the apartments the developers can sell on the free market. In other words, there is currently potential in the air for about 24,000 apartments in the lottery.
The Ministry of Construction plans to advertise the apartments in these tenders for lotteries within a short period of time from the date of signing a binding agreement with the company that won the tender and long before a building permit is issued. Companies are required to transfer payments for land lease and demarcation of an agreement with RMI within 90 days, and the ambition is that immediately upon payment the planned apartments will already be raffled off among the beneficiaries of the Ministry of Construction.