Israeli housing crisis, a decade after its ‘tent turn’

In the 2011 “tent revolution” angry young Israelis with a sharp rise in rent built shelters on the Rothschild Boulevard platform in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Soon thousands of protesters took to the streets across Israel, shouting slogans demanding social justice.

This widespread social unrest has not been seen in Israel since the early 1970s, when thousands of people, led by a group known as the Black Panthers, protested against racial discrimination which was a victim of Mizrahi crimes. of Middle Eastern descent.

But many of the demands of the tent revolution remain a dream.

“Since then, prices have continued to go up,” said Stav Shaffir, who was head of the 2011 protests.

“Social housing – important in the 1960s and 1970s – was cut back so that almost everyone is connected to the private market,” Shaffir told AFP.

The private housing market is largely unregulated in Israel.

Shaffir, who was subsequently elected to parliament, introduced the “fair rent law” in 2017 to strengthen tenants ’rights.

Property now needs to be in “good condition and the repairs are being carried out at the expense of the owners … who can no longer evict their tenants as quickly as they used to,” said the tenant. a 35-year-old campaigner, who heads the Israeli Green Party.

But the law had little effect on rent prices, which are not capped in Israel, said Danny Ben-Shahar, director of the Alrov Institute for Property Research, at Tel Aviv University.

Low loan rates combined with population growth – in a country with high birth rates and immigration – mean that demand for flats exceeds supply.

This result is a “huge” rise in house prices, which will affect rents, Ben-Shahar said.

“Housing remains a major concern,” he said.

The problem is particularly acute in Tel Aviv.

The Mediterranean city is ranked as the fifth most expensive city in the world in the latest cost of living report by The Economist magazine – ahead of New York and Geneva.

“Buying a four-bedroom flat costs on average three million pence ($ 920,000) in Tel Aviv, and 1.7 million shekels elsewhere ($ 520,000),” he said.

Such costs cost everything but the rich people.

For rent, the average price of a studio in Tel Aviv is 3,300 shekels (about $ 1,000), twice that of Haifa’s northern port, said Tal Kopel, vice president at Madlan, a major real estate site.

In addition, property tax can add hundreds of extra shekels per month.

An AFP reporter who recently visited several two – room locations in central Tel Aviv found a rent of around 6,000 pence ($ 1,840), including taxes.

But the dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a downward correction in rental prices.

After years of upturns, prices fell 15 percent in May last year, according to the Bank of Israel, although prices have risen again since then.

For those who can afford Tel Aviv, the seaside town next to the cafes, entertainment and bars is an attractive place to stay.

“Tel Aviv is a liberal city,” Kopel said. “It attracts a lot of people who don’t feel they can be themselves within more conservative fringe cities.”

But the pandemic has shaken up the property market.

While demand for small flats for singles and couples remains strong, some families are moving out.

The pandemic “exacerbated a number of deficiencies in the city, including a lack of high – quality open space,” Kopel said.

Yehara Tiram is one of many who, at the time of Israel’s lockdown, wanted change.

In September, she left the hip boulevards behind to settle in a small kibbutz in northern Israel with her lover, searching for a simpler, greener and less expensive life.

“Before I met my girlfriend, I lived in a very small studio in Tel Aviv, and I was paying what I pay today for a house,” said the 36-year social worker.

“Here I have a three-bedroom apartment of 85 square meters, a garden and a view of the sea.”