Mayor of Tel Aviv: Government keeps houses prices high to push people in to settlements

The Israeli government may be keeping house prices within the Green Line high in order to push young people to live in settlements in the West Bank, the mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai implied yesterday.

During his speech in the annual Herzliya Conference, Huldai said that “the state must return to building its popularity,” adding that “after a long time of talk on the need to reduce housing prices, prices did not fall, you realise that despite words, there was no actual policy or any planning.”

Huldai added: “Maybe the government really wants to keep the prices high so the young people move to the (occupied) territories.”

He added that the local authorities in Israel cannot influence house prices “because the three affecting factors, which are: controlling the supply in the market, and the planning and enactment of the laws, are not in the hands of the local authorities, but in the hands of the government.”

Huldai asked: “Do we, as a society, believe that the role of the state is to ensure that each person has an apartment to live in? The answer is no. We do not believe this, especially with regards to the young generation, of whom many have never possessed a flat. The Israeli society has lost many of its basic ethical ​​fundamentals.” He stressed that “in practice, the state imposes the upper limit on the price of land” within the Green Line.