Finance Minister Moshe Kaḥlon (Kulanu) attempted to defend his performance on Sunday against criticism for Israel’s rising housing costs.
Between May-June 2018, housing costs rose 0.9%, representing the first rise since September 2017.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported last Monday that new home purchases fell 22% in the first half of the year to 10,150 units. The pace was down even more sharply from the first half of 2016, when 16,440 homes were purchased.
The pace of new home purchases was similar to crisis periods in the housing industry in the wake of the 2011 housing protests and again in 2014, when then-Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) was preparing an abortive scheme to exempt many home buyers from the value-added tax.
Minister Kaḥlon has continuously emphasized his commitment to reducing the cost of living in Israel and has promoted his “Buyer’s Price” program, which aims to aid young families in purchasing their first home, as a solution to affordable housing.
Figures on the number of homes actually occupied by buyers in the program, however, reveals how small an impact it’s actually having on the market. Of the 55,000 homes that have been marketed through the program over the last three years, only 1,000 are currently occupied.
On Sunday, the finance minister told 103 FM Radio that “anyone who thinks that when there’s a problem in Israel, it’s Moshe Kaḥlon’s problem, and says, ‘Let’s show him he’s not that great,’ is making a mistake.”
“I work day and night to make sure the economy here is good, and we’ve done an amazing job fixing the budgets. The State of Israel’s economy is the business of the entire country, not just Moshe Kaḥlon. Anyone who says this is a ‘blow to Kaḥlon’ should know that is nonsense – it’s a blow to the State of Israel.”
