A major step towards shortening Israel's housing construction process

Rafi Elmaliach, Director-General of the Planning Administration, revealed for the first time last night at the Tel Aviv and Central District Contractors and Builders Conference, during a conversation with real estate editor of Yedioth-Ynet Hila Tzion that in the coming weeks, the administration will present a "Construction and Development" guide.

This guide will provide a structured, concise, and clear format regarding the guidelines that must be included in a construction plan. This is expected to shorten the building permit process by one to four years, as currently, there is considerable confusion during the interim phase between the planning stage and the permit stage, which causes significant delays in the licensing process. 

"We are currently in a satisfactory situation with approved plans, but the issuance of permits and execution take a lot of time," he said. "As part of the effort to reduce the time needed to obtain permits, we have advanced several measures, the central one being the cancellation of building exemptions, which will take effect in the coming year.

"After meetings with the Association of Local Authority Engineers and Architects and the Contractors Association, we will publish in the coming weeks a guideline for construction and development plans that will clearly define what should be included in a construction plan. This is a big announcement for contractors and a problem we promised to address," said Elmaliach.

Additionally, the director-general addressed construction efforts to rehabilitate the northern region. "We have advanced various initiatives in the North for the area's rehabilitation, even before the establishment of a dedicated administration that is supposed to take over. We identified lands where solutions can be created for evacuees, primarily in rural communities, using mobile homes or areas that can host modular buildings that could later serve other residents wishing to relocate to the North once the evacuees return to their homes.

"The need for such an administration is significant," he said. "We saw in the South, with the establishment of the Tkuma Administration, that it centralized all efforts, and we must establish this in the North as well. We already have the authority to give it, and we have already prepared plans."

Regarding housing prices, Elmaliach said, "In both the North and the South, prices are not dropping. These areas will eventually be repopulated; we have no other land, but unfortunately, it won't happen in the coming days."

On the topic of the end of Tama 38, Elmaliach commented, "Urban renewal plans on a larger scale are more appropriate, with the support of the Shaked alternative, which provides solutions for advancing plans alongside permits."