lotteries on discounted apartments are back: Registration opens Sunday al over Israel

The big lotteries on discounted apartments are back this week. On Sunday, registration opens for a large raffle of about 10,000 discounted apartments in 150 different projects in 31 localities across the country, in the north, in the south and also in the center. The lottery comes after a long period in which large lotteries for discounted apartments were not held under government housing programs, for several reasons, including political instability, government turnover and housing programs, and, of course, bureaucracy.
The current big lottery is the first in the new "Target Price" program, or as it was given by the Ministry of Construction and Housing, headed by Minister Zeev Elkin - "Apartment at a discount". The ministry has promised 30,000 apartments that will be raffled off in the coming year, which means that this lottery will not be the last, as the ministry's director general, Aviad Friedman, explains: We are working around the clock in collaboration with all relevant parties so that 2022 will be a turning point year. We already reached the peak of marketing last year, and I am sure that more records will be set in the coming year, during which additional lotteries will be opened all over the country. "
The current lottery includes 10,028 new apartments, all remnants of previous plans ("price per occupant" and "housing at a reduced price") and not the result of tenders for the new plan, which was only approved and launched recently. This is the reason why you can also find 163 discounted apartments in Tel Aviv-Yafo and in some other locations that the new plan will no longer reach.
The largest complexes participating in the current big lottery are Lod (1,420 housing units), Acre (1,035 housing units), Ashdod (860 housing units), Dimona (733 housing units), Ofakim (521 housing units), Beer-Yaakov ( 512 housing units, Jerusalem (462 housing units) and Rishon Lezion (409 housing units).
Although the lottery includes a respectable number of housing units, this is not a single move that will solve the housing crisis. In fact, this is not the first big lottery for discounted apartments to take place. The celebration of the big lotteries was led by the Housing Headquarters, the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon as early as June 2017, in an attempt to increase the impact of a price-per-tenant program on the market.
At the beginning of the price-per-tenant process, it was determined that after a tender was successfully closed, the planning and licensing processes would be promoted, and only a plot in respect of which an application for a building permit was submitted or had already received a permit could be drawn. This is the right and sensible decision, which ensures that what is being grilled is at an advanced and safe stage. The problem was that each time a lottery came out with a few housing units and with the masses of eligible people competing for them. In one of the first tenders to go to the lottery, for example, about 24,000 eligible bidders competed for less than 400 apartments.
After a series of such lotteries, the initiators of the program came to the conclusion that in order to influence demand and consequently prices, large lotteries are needed. Thus, in June 2017, the first large lottery was launched, which included about 15,000 apartments in a long line of localities. The advantage was a large supply of discounted apartments, but the disadvantage was that not only projects that had already advanced at the planning and licensing level went out to the lottery, but also those that had only been purchased in a tender yesterday and the road to a permit was still far away.
Since then, more big lotteries have been published in the same format, and the result can still be seen today: alongside projects that have been completed and populated, there are also quite a few that have not yet been completed, and there are also some that have not yet begun. It should be noted that before the new program, "Discounted Apartment", was launched, the Ministry of Construction and Housing considered returning to the initial model where only a project with a building permit or close to the permit could be drawn for a lottery. In the end it was decided to go for a larger amount of apartments and a lesser amount of certainty. This is also to signal to those who are eligible that there is a large stock of discounted apartments, and to stimulate demand from the free market.
According to updated data from the Ministry of Construction and Housing, about 96,000 homeless people hold a certificate of eligibility and will compete for the discounted apartments that will be drawn by lottery. That is, almost ten potential competitors per apartment. That is why we are already talking about another lottery in a month and a half or two months. Meanwhile, sales of new dwellings in the economy continued to be high in January - 5,163 dwellings, and high demand led to a continued rise in prices. In December and January, housing prices in Israel rose by 2.1% and completed a jump of 13% within a year, with the sharpest increase since August, 2011 on the eve of the social protest.
The high demand for apartments is also reflected in the rate of issuance of eligibility certificates for discounted housing, which last February recorded a record 6,544 eligible people - the most since the Ministry of Construction and Housing began issuing eligibility certificates for discounted housing plans at the end of 2015.
Another point to emphasize about the upcoming lottery is that these are apartments that will be sold under the terms of the previous auctions of which they were a part - price per occupant and housing at a reduced price. These were closed many months ago and even years ago, so while the new plan, a discounted apartment, gives a discount of up to NIS 300,000 - the current lottery may include much more significant discounts, according to the old tender rules. Eligible to register for the lottery for homeless people who have not owned an apartment (or more than a third of an apartment) in the last three years, who have not rented an apartment with a key fee in the last three years, who do not have permission for a farm housing unit In residential land, and which have no rights in the apartment through a purchasing group or a group of purchasers.
To register for the lottery, an eligibility certificate must be issued online at the digital branches of the Alonim, Malgam and Amidar registration companies, for NIS 240. The issue is made within ten days, and the approval is valid for one year.