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Part Five - The Economic Plan
Housing
Zehut's vision is a reality in which the purchase of an apartment in Israel will be possible for every adult Israeli with an average salary, without being enslaved to a mortgage for most of his life. In order for this reality to materialize, Zehut will remove the three barriers that block residential construction in Israel and raise its prices to an intolerable level:
The monopoly – almost all the land that can be built on it (93%) is registered under the ownership of a single "owner": the Israel Land Authority, in other words, the state. This authority releases land for construction stingily and subject to high taxation, creating a tremendous and constant price pressure on all the land for construction in Israel.
The bureaucracy – the planning and approval procedures for residential construction are built so that the process of approval of construction through them takes years – far more than is customary in other countries. The excessive regulation and the many restrictions on construction prevent developers from meeting market needs, and make construction more expensive.
The freeze – more than 20 years since Rabin, Peres and Netanyahu recognized the "Palestinian people," Israeli governments are preventing or delaying new construction in the heart of the Land of Israel – in Judea, Samaria, and even in Jerusalem, thereby substantially reducing the possibility of building on the national level.
Each of these factors separately reduces to a large extent the supply of land for residential use in Israel and raises the price of housing. The result of the three of them together is a severe and ongoing failure that affects all of us seriously.
How to solve the housing crisis?
The Zehut Party is proposing a comprehensive policy that will eliminate these three barriers and thus enable an extensive nationwide construction boom that will quickly solve the current housing crisis. The program will be based on the following principles:
The land belongs to the citizens, not to the state. Zehut will dismantle the Israel Lands Administration and will transfer the vacant land it holds to control of the citizens. Beyond the economic and moral significance of the return of the land to the citizens of Israel, this move will allow the land to be traded on the open market and will significantly increase the supply of land for construction, thereby lowering land prices in Israel.
Zoning and building restrictions will be determined by the local community. State and local authorities will not be able to determine what use will be made of private land and what restrictions will apply to the construction. The community of landowners in a particular area will determine whether to limit the land use to industrial, commercial, residential, agriculture and so on. The community will also decide on the imposition of restrictions on the building, such as a limit on the maximum building height. This will allow the flexibility necessary to the development of building in communities, to match the demands and needs of the community. The phenomenon in which land is poorly utilized or even stands empty in anticipation of a zoning change will end. Many of the communities are likely to respond to market demands and increase the number of designated areas for housing, thereby reducing the cost of land.
Reduction of bureaucratic barriers. The processes of obtaining building permit will be considerably shortened and simplified, and many regulatory restrictions will be eliminated or transferred to a more local level (local authority level or community level). Regulatory bodies will be eliminated or reduced accordingly. This will make the construction process faster, easier and more lucrative for the benefit of construction developers and the public interest.
Application of full sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. With the application of sovereignty, the construction freeze will be eliminated, and in fact, all of the restrictions and special powers in Judea and Samaria will be eliminated. In this way, free construction will also be allowed in our heartland[15].
Zehut plan for solving the housing crisis
(The plan presented below is based directly on the plans of engineer Motti Heinrich, as published on the "Kav Yashar" site, with his kind permission.
His plan has been prepared, processed and included within the Zehut platform)
The model for the new era in the Israeli housing market is based on a sharp reduction in the involvement of government institutions in the field of real estate. In the next chapter we present a new concept that will lead to a reduction in housing prices and an increase in the quality of life of the Israeli citizen, and will enable the supply of apartments to keep pace with demand. The chapter consists of three parts:
Reforms in the construction sector, which focus on urban construction
Reforms in real estate
Elimination and/or reduction of regulatory bodies whose activity will become redundant in the proposed model
[15] Sovereignty is part of Zehut's political-security policy in this platform.
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