The housing lottery program that was introduced by the previous government had its fourth round, which is aimed at first-time buyers.
It is referred to as ‘Target Price’, or Mehir Matara, and 90,000 households’ submitted almost a million entries, hoping to get a chance to buy a home at 20% less than the market value.
A total of 6,500 homes were to be raffled all over Israel as part of the lottery program.
The program
The program had been introduced last year and households that are eligible to participate in it can do so for different locations and for different projects that may be at those locations.
Reduced-price apartments have seen a huge demand because there was a massive 20.3% increase in housing prices last year, as compared to 2021.
These figures include subsidized schemes of the government and open market sales. In the same period, there has only been a 4% increase in wages.
On Monday, the Construction and Housing Ministry said that they would announce the winners of the latest lottery in the coming weeks and they would also conduct another lottery soon.
This latest round had been the final one of the ministry for last year during which it had raffled off around 30,000 discounted homes in numerous locations all across Israel.
The latest round
The fourth round had a total of 6,500 discounted dwellings that were spread across 13 locations, including Nahariya, Ramle, Ashdod, and Jerusalem, Sderot, Haifa and West Bank settlements of Emanuel, Karnei Shomron and Elkana.
According to the ministry, the locations that were most popular in terms of bids were Ashdod and then Yehud.
The former had 428 apartments that received 43,000 registrations, while the latter had 370 apartments and received 35,000 registrations.
Most of the previous housing lotteries had also been oversubscribed, as the rounds conducted in March, July and then October last year had over 100,000 participants.
According to the ministry, they had selected a total of 28,000 participants in these rounds.
The details
Those who participate in the government’s Target Price program have to have an eligibility certificate worth NIS 240, which is issued by the Construction and Housing Ministry.
Once they have so, the households are then permitted for registering themselves to get a chance to purchase a discounted apartment.
This week saw the pre-registration round for the next round also begin. There are strict conditions under which the lottery round is carried out and the ministry said that it is fully computerized.
It said that the lottery process is without human intervention. Yitzhak Goldknopf, the new Housing Minister from the United Torah Judaism party, has not yet shared any ideas for solving the housing crisis.
He announced that the lottery program had a high program and also added that it was their duty to help Israeli citizens in purchasing apartments.
He added that they would give priority to the work for building the 6,500 houses that have been raffled in the program, which could take several years.