Israel – Charming balconies with million-dollar views of Jerusalem’s Old City grace the limestone walls of apartments in the ritzy Talbiyeh neighborhood, but Disraeli Street lays eerily quiet and darkened buildings show few signs of life. Residents say their neighborhood has turned into a ghost town.
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Foreign investors are buying up apartments in Talbiyeh and other prestigious areas of the city center, driving real estate prices up and changing the social fabric of the city.
The buyers are mainly Orthodox Jews from the United States, France and Britain, who use the homes for short vacations or as a possible escape from rising anti-Semitism in Europe. The result: Many of the homes are vacant for most of the year.
“Most of the apartments in my building are empty, and I only have a few neighbors left on the entire street,” said Avner Haramati, a longtime Disraeli resident. “It has become a ghost town. The only movement you see is that of construction workers building new homes for people who will never live here.”
“They are killing Jerusalem. Without residents who purchase goods and pay taxes year round, Jerusalem won’t be able to support itself and will eventually collapse,” said Shlomo Hasson, professor of urban and regional studies at Hebrew University. “It’s an urban nightmare, the city center is supposed to be where young people thrive and where the creative class fuels the city with ideas and commerce, but now it is deserted. [AP]
The solution isn’t to bar people from spending lots and lots of money in Israel but to build more apartment complexes. There is supply and demand. When the demand for luxury apartments are satisfied there will be cheaper places for everyone else. And if there is such demand that the prices don’t come down, then that’s good to.
Jews were supposed to go to Jerusalem three times a year. Surely there were places set aside in Jerusalem for these people to sleep. What do people think happened to these places when the people were gone?
And no, I can not afford any of these apartments, though I wish I could.
“The buyers are mainly Orthodox Jews from the United States, France and Britain, who use the homes for short vacations or as a possible escape from rising anti-Semitism in Europe”
its funny these ppl who could afford these apartmants cause the goyim to think about yidden in only dollars
That’s pretty sad that the professor said that they are “killing” Jerusalem. I wonder what the solution could be.
To anonymous 12:12 – if you know of any inexpensive apartment in the Old City, i woudl be very interested
How aqbout thats what happens in the free world?
Only the rich can afford it and they can do with it as they please
I don’t understand why anyone would pay that kind of money for an apartment and then not get some income from renting it out while they’re not there. I know many people do rent these apartments out; my cousins used to live in a place where the lease specified that they had to move out each yomtov, because the landlord needed it then.
Possible Solution… how about asking the apartment owners to let Sderot residents live there temporarily, as a refuge from the terror?
anon 12:53…..or maybe a ban….Takana….thats the word….yeah
Let the government pass a law against investors purchases that leave communities empy..
i own apartment in the old city and i visit 4 times a year…
its cheaper then going to a hotel for a week or two..
This is 100% true. I have been to Davids Village in the middle of the winter, and it is takeh a ghost town. The apartments there are $1,000,000 and up.. and its empty. I feel bad for the people that live there all year around. Its sad! But, people do buy for investments, or they believe they are helping out the Israeli economy by buying there. Also, people just want to have a chailik in Eretz Yisroel, to own property there. I don’t know the solution, But, it is a problem.
The morons perpetrating this shande have apparently never heard of hotels. Shame on those who harm the residents of Aretz.