COMMENTARY – The real estate market is a jungle, the price of apartments has gone wild, and we have seen astronomical increases, touching on as high as 20% in the past year alone in high-demand areas. Even in the periphery, price rises have crossed the 10% mark during this period.
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We live in a chaotic reality, one that is a cause of despair for young families who are seeing their dream of owning an apartment slip further and further away. The rental market offers little consolation either. Over the past year, rental prices have gone up by 1,000 shekels and more. This, while the cost of living index is only going up and up.
The meteoric increase in rents has created a phenomenon of "holding on to what you've got" – young couples and families, even those who had thought about moving up the ladder, hold on to what they have and avoid moving apartments. This phenomenon has led to a particularly low inventory of apartments for rent and as a result, people posting ads on social media "begging" for an apartment. And there are dozens of potential renters for every available apartment.
The following incident is not made up: My husband and I were finally about to sign a rental agreement. The details had all been agreed upon, and all that was left was to meet and sign the contract. When we met the apartment owner, to our delight he turned out to be a fair and honest person. He told us about an incident that he said: "had never happened to me before." A young high-tech worker who had seen the apartment with his partner called him and when he understood that he was about to sign a contract offered him a much higher price.
In this case, there was a happy ending: The apartment owner politely refused and told the high-tech worker that he would be moving forward with us as planned. He told us this on the day we came to sign the contract so there was no reason to suspect that he had made this up to push up the price of the apartment and to make it more attractive to us.
Things could have ended completely differently.
Dear high-tech workers. We all know that the situation in Israel today is far from one of equality. Gaps are growing wider and it seems that no government regulation is on the way to overcome these gaps.
Please do not contribute to soaring apartment prices beyond the already chaotic situation that exists today, not by engaging in a "Turkish bazaar" or shameful rental auctions, or by caving into illogical price demands for apartments for sale that are only pouring more fuel on the housing price crisis.
There is no way to avoid cliches: "What goes around comes around." We all know that once every decade or so, there is a crisis in the high-tech industry and wealthy young people with incredible salaries could find themselves in a frustrating and despairing employment market.
In such a case, none of you will want to be on the wrong end of behavior such as, "stealing apartments from under people's noses," even if we do, literally, live in an urban jungle.
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I call from here also on apartment owners: Don't be part of the highest bidder phenomenon and don't violate agreements with renters that have already been sealed – even if it does mean a few extra shekels in your pocket. The wild real estate market that we live in is creating immoral behavior, don't be a part of it.
The reality of life in Israel is difficult as it is and house prices are merciless. Let's try at least to be humane to each other.
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