Israeli govt approves extensive housing reforms

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved on Sunday a host of recommendations by a state-appointed committee to alleviate Israel's housing crisis.

"This is yet another part of the government's effort to lower the cost of living. The focus today is the attempt, which is gaining momentum, to increase the supply of apartments," Netanyahu told ministers at the cabinet's weekly session, according to a statement.

Described by Netanyahu as "far-reaching", some of the proposals adopted Sunday include punitive measures against real estate developers that delay construction of residential housing projects in order to maximize profits, making housing more accessible to the country's ethnic minorities and slapping the owners of unoccupied homes with higher municipal property taxes.

Other provisions include government subsidies for first-time home buyers and construction of public housing, accelerating the marketing and sales of new residential projects and partial state oversight of rental rates.

The proposals were drafted by the Trajtenberg Committee for Social and Economic Change, a commission established by Netanyahu in the wake of social protests that saw hundreds of thousands of mainly middle-class Israelis take to the street last summer to protest soaring living costs and housing prices.

Headed by Harvard-trained economist Manuel Trajtenberg, the committee's report - submitted last September - recommended slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from Israel's defense budget to implement long-neglected social welfare projects, sparking an altercation between the defense and finance ministries.

Netanyahu on Sunday underscored his government's continued commitment to Israel's civilian sector, recounting the approval in recent months of other major reforms proposed by the committee, including tax breaks for working parents, free education to three- and four-year-olds and the cancellation of taxes on hundreds of products purchased over the Internet.

"This is a government that gets things done... We are setting a global agenda on issues that are important to the security of Israel. We are properly managing the economy in the face of (unstable international markets) and, of course, are leading a revolution in education," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.

The prime minister said that in two weeks he will invite a select group of Israeli youths to attend a Cabinet meeting in which they will present ministers their views on what steps the government should take to further improve their lives.