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Photo: Effi Sharir
Netanyahu during his speech in the north
Photo: Effi Sharir

Netanyahu encourages purchase of Galilee apartments in anticipation of price boom

PM promises to invigorate the north as he did the south; 'Invest in the Galilee,' says Netanyahu. 'We want to build a future here, and the future is young people, the future is employment.'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu elaborated on his new financial plan to invigorate the north on Monday, focusing—among other issues—on the price of housing in the region.

 

 

The prime minister’s speech came during a ministerial visit to the northern city of Ma'alot-Tarshiha.

 

"A few years ago—and you, my minister friends must remember this—we said and I said down south, 'Buy apartments, not just in Be'er Sheva, buy apartments in Dimona, in Yeruham. Buy apartments.' Some heeded the call and did so, and some did not."

 

Netanyahu during the event up north (Photo: Effi Sharir)
Netanyahu during the event up north (Photo: Effi Sharir)

 

Netanyahu added that "I am telling all the residents of the north, and particularly the very young. Buy apartments, invest in the Galilee, invest in it for it is the future."

 

He told the audience that he routinely has finance-related conversations with other world leaders. "I always ask them what the GNP (gross national product—ed) per person is," he said. "What the defecit is, what the debt-to-GDP ratio is. I more or less ask this like a doctor measures your pulse and blood pressure, but I always ask another question—the big one, whose answer lets you know whether the place is on the rise or the decline: I ask them how much a square foot costs."

 

Netanyahu was joined by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) and Internal Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) in presenting the government's new plan to develop the Galilee region, an area which has remained on Israel's economic periphery since the stat'es inception.

 

He unveiled his plan to "do in the north what we did in the south, and we mean that. We want to build a future here, and the future is young people, the future is employment. We want to combine governmental infrastructure with entrepreneurship and an open market. We're talking about security plants that will relocate to the north, which will produce innovation and advanced equipment."

 

Carmiel (Photo: Doron Golan)
Carmiel (Photo: Doron Golan)

 

The new plan's budget will cost an estimated NIS 15 billion, and includes NIS 12 billion for infrastructure and transportation, as well as NIS 1 billion for health and welfare, with the remainder being allocated to education, encouraging investments, developing high-quality employment opportunities and the like.

 

Netanyahu further pledged that "We will invest billions of shekels in the medical system up north. We'll increase the number of beds and strengthen the hospitals' infrastructure. We want to emphasize progress, research, industry, the economy. The most important thing to look out for is the return of immigration to the Galilee. It's happening right now in the south and it'll happen in the north."

 

A special analysis done by real estate website Madlen for Ynet found that housing prices have continued to rise during 2016, averaging a 10% increase among new apartments.

 

Tel Aviv-Jaffa was found to be the most expensive city to offer a new, four-room apartment at an average on NIS 3.7 million. In second place was Herzliya averaging at NIS 2.8 million, followed by Givatayim which would set buyers back by around NIS 2.5 million.

 

A survey published by the Real Estate Appraisers Association in Israel last month found that apartment prices in 2016 experienced a sharp rise of nine percent, compared with the same period during the previous year. What is more, no city saw a decrease in housing prices.

 

Additional projects discussed during Monday's event are also due to recieve funding, independent of the above-mentioned project, from both the ministries of interior and finance. These include allocating army bases and building a new international airport. The sum total of these projects will receive an investment injection of NIS 20 billion.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.26.16, 21:19
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