(live here in real estate) - From data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, it appears that despite an annual increase in the prices of apartments in Haifa by almost 20%, even in the last quarter the prices went up compared to the same quarter last year. If you compare the prices in Haifa in the months of September - October and October - November, you find an increase of 1.1%. If you compare the annual increase in apartment prices in Haifa from September - October 2021 to September - October 2022, you can see an increase of 19.9% during the whole year.
Every 15th of the month, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports that the increase in real estate prices does not stop, and moreover, if you look at the Consumer Price Index, which includes many parameters that affect the cost of living in the country, you can see that what pushes it up the most is the constant increase in the prices of the apartments.
It should be noted that in the segmentation of the apartments, it turns out that the increase is almost the same whether it is new apartments or second-hand apartments, and the prices of all apartments are on the rise.
A comparison between the major cities shows that in the last year the increase in apartment prices in Tel Aviv and Haifa stands at 19.9%, Jerusalem with a more moderate increase of 16.6% and in the north of the country and the center (excluding Tel Aviv) there was an increase of 22.5%.
Haifa - ghost apartments and stuck projects
Haifa has two unique problems compared to the rest of the country. The first problem is the ghost apartments, apartments that stand empty, usually because they are in bad condition. These are thousands of apartments, most of them concentrated in the lower city and the Hadar neighborhood, but not only. Over the years the municipality tried to find ways to force property owners to make them livable or sell them, by double property taxes, but in practice there was not much progress. Every time another green lung is turned into a residential building, people get up and ask if it wouldn't be better to inhabit the existing apartments, which are currently empty, instead of continuing to turn green to gray, but in practice this does not happen.
While the problem of ghost apartments exists in other cities, albeit on a relatively large scale in Haifa, there is another problem that is unique to Haifa. In Haifa, there are many residents who in the past decades bought or inherited land in the city and thought that these lands would become a joint venture that would yield a return or allow them to live there. In practice, there are lots in the city that have been standing for very long periods and there is no way to know when construction will begin.
Lands bought over 5 years ago and construction is not in sight
One of the examples is the Lincoln Hills, which is below Harofeh Street in the Ahuza neighborhood. About 5 years ago, land was sold there for the construction of two-family houses. The developers who sold the land did not commit to the start date of construction and of course not to the end date. At the same time, the assumption was that it was a construction that would start within a few years.
"I live not far away, and when the land sale started I bought two plots of land in order to build two two-family houses," says Sharon, who lives a little above the Lincoln slopes. "You have to understand that although we invested hundreds of thousands of shekels in each piece of land, the potential there is enormous. This is a neighborhood that is right in the center of the city, it's not that I bought land on the outskirts of the city and you have to drive to get everywhere, absolutely not. Not to mention that there is a very, very beautiful view, and in my opinion the houses This will have an even more beautiful view, because they are closer to the sea, and at this stage, nothing will block the sea for them. The developer who sold me the land did not tell me when the construction would start."
Sharon continues: "The contractor indicated that there is a process of approving the plans, and when everything is approved they will go on the ground and begin construction. I am not stupid, and I knew there would be many objections from the residents of Harofeh Street, but in my worst dreams I did not believe that I would put more than a million NIS, And more than 5 years later I will not see any progress! My situation is still good, I live in an apartment that I own and just want to see results for my investment. There is a much more serious problem for those who hoped to live in these apartments, and surely realize that this is not going to happen in the coming years."
"I don't blame anyone, she says, "No one lied to me, I just don't understand why in Haifa everything has to take so many years. It is upsetting that those residents who oppose the project and submit objections, if it was a TMA in their building, then they would probably be satisfied. Why is it so hard to accept that this is the way it is in the city? They are building and there is nothing to do."
An equally complex problem is faced by those who won an apartment in the Price to Tenant project in Neot Peres B. Most of the winners are young couples who do not yet own an apartment and this is their first residential apartment. When they won the lottery, they thought that within two or three years, they would be able to move into a new apartment in one of the sought-after neighborhoods in Haifa. In practice, in recent years, instead of excitedly following the progress of construction, they mainly follow what is published in their WhatsApp groups and in the local media while the state and the municipality argue among themselves about who is responsible for the infrastructure in the new neighborhood, and construction does not begin, because the basic things that the contractors need to build do not yet exist .
As far as the winners are concerned, it doesn't matter who will install the water pipes or pave which road, and they don't change more and more letters that go out from the municipality regarding the municipal responsibility versus the responsibility of the other parties, they want to see work and the execution of construction. In practice, progress of one kind or another is occasionally achieved, but working tools in the field are still not visible.
Alongside all of these, there is also a very large amount of buildings in Haifa whose residents yearn for urban renewal and do not get it. In some cases, it is a building that is so old and there are even buildings whose condition raises questions about their safety, and the projects are still stuck and the tenants complain about a never-ending delay, which does not allow for construction evacuation to begin.
"Lack of hundreds of thousands of apartments"
Following the publication of the apartment price index, the president of the Association of Builders Contractors Ha'aretz, Raul Sargo: "No temporary figure will change the simple fact that Israel lacks hundreds of thousands of apartments. Every day that passes there are more people who need apartments and fewer apartments available to them. The new government must set a goal of increasing the amount of land that the state will sell and releasing the regulatory bottlenecks that prevent construction, otherwise we will see an outbreak here Another price increase later in 2023."
There is a problem with transportation from Harofeh Schechter and Lincoln streets. In the morning, the traffic jam from Kharov/Gat approaches the doctor/Shachter. And this is without buildings that are already in various stages of construction.
The objections to additional construction are understandable.
No one will settle in the lower city or in Hadar without children's schools and kindergartens when the only option in Hadar for the Jewish public is a private school in the Reali or in the dense and distant dust in Maale Arlozorov.
Mitzna and Yahav of Harsi Hadar in Carmel closed 6 schools in 20 years. They closed cinemas, clubs, basement 10 and more in Hadar and in the lower city, how do you want to bring a Jewish population there without synagogues, without schools and without police with gangs that exterminate in broad daylight.
Shut up - it's hopeless until the municipality returns to functioning for the residents and not only for itself and the welfare of its employees only
People here write that ghost apartments will be inhabited first, but as written in the article, these are mostly apartments in the lower city and in Hadar Hatton, how many Haifaites from the Carmel or couples who are interested in starting a family and children will move there? These are apartments that are usually intended for investment as a rental for young people who come to Haifa for studies and leave. On the contrary, I wish that couples from the Jewish sector would also raise families with children and settle down in the lower city like in the beautiful early years of the city in the 50's and 60's.
If anything, Haifa needs urban renewal in its saturated and uncrowded areas - in the coastal neighborhoods. Meanwhile, everything is stuck, no renewal is starting even though many of the residents of the coastal neighborhoods are signed with the majority of signatures in various agreements with entrepreneurs and there are organized plans that have not moved in the municipality for many years. And I am not optimistic as a resident of Haifa In the actions of our municipality in the whole issue of urban renewal.
Regarding the winners of the price for the tenant in Naot Peres, they do wait too many years, but I think that in their case time plays in their favor, the agreement for the price for the tenant states that the apartment can be sold after 7 years from the day of winning (or 5 years from receiving form 4), which means that they will automatically be able to Sell the apartment as soon as the issue is resolved and construction will begin there. This is an expected profit of about a million shekels between the price they won and today's prices, and they will be able to buy a second-hand apartment in Haifa in cash without a mortgage for a million shekels (and wait another 30 years until the Haifa municipality also approves urban renewal in the old neighborhoods ..)
Haifa with thousands of empty and second-hand apartments is enough with the problem of lack of apartments
There is no shortage of buyers flocking to the price...
There is no point in new construction and adding tons of unnecessary concrete instead of trees, when there are thousands of empty apartments that the municipality has not yet been able to get the owners to rent or sell.
Assistance with municipal taxation or at least proper use of the inflated taxes you collect in a way that slightly reduces the burden on the resident,
Is this something that needs to be explained to you or do you know very well and are simply not interested?
You will be fired, evicted from your home and foreclosed on by the municipality, who will.
happy holiday to you and the menorah that consumes the electricity of a refugee camp.
Maybe I'm actually paying rent per molded square meter and not per built square meter?