Earlier this week Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced his new VAT free apartments plan for people meeting eligibility requirements.

The plan came under attack by chareidim and Arabs, both calling the plan discriminatory.

The plan permits chareidim to take advantage of the plan too, but only regarding apartments selling for 650,000 shekels or less.

YWN-ISRAEL found such apartments, which are going to be built in the Shomron community of Emanuel. Fifty-eight two bedroom apartments are being built and they will sell for 550,000 shekels.

Emanuel, the chareidi dream community in the 1980s went bust, never reaching the proportions of Modi’in Illit or Betar Illit as backers dreamed it would. However, it has been recovering slowly and today is home to almost 1,000 chareidi families.

Developers are confident the new apartments will be purchased quickly, aware that while for some the community may be too far, for others that can find an affordable home in a chareidi environment that is not locked in by concrete on all sides.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)