Jerusalem City Hall officials admit they lack the resources necessary to locate all of the so-called ghost apartments in the city, homes that are owned by foreigners and investors that stand empty most of the year.
In 2011 the Trajtenberg Committee estimated there are close to 50,000 such apartments, permitting local government to double the arnona property tax on these apartments. Jerusalem officials to date have relied on water meter readings to determine if a home is vacant and the city has double billed some 1,400 apartments and homes. Officials are certain there are more but City Hall does not have the resources to track them down.
During a recent Knesset committee meeting, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Ofir Berkowitz explained the city does not have the means to enforce the new regulation. According to the criteria set into place, a ‘ghost apartment’ is one that does not have anyone living there on a regular basis for at least nine out of twelve months up to December 1, before arnona is calculated for the following year.
Jerusalem Building Dept. Director Moshe Levy adds “we have relied on homes with very low water meter readings. We sent letters of warning to the owners that their arnona tax will be significantly increased. We tracked down 1,400 such apartments which are vacant of tenants. We would like to use other data too, including electric usage”.
MK (Arab Bloc) Dov Khenin suggests a bill that would permit cities to access gas and electric usage too towards assisting in locating ghost apartments. “This is a most important goal as we want cities with people, not ghost towns” stated Khenin, adding “about 2 million Israelis rent homes and there is a crisis while the government is blind to this reality and the problems facing them”.
Eli Malachi of Tel Aviv City Hall reports they have found 1,000 ghost apartments and they have doubled the arnona tax for these owners. Tel Aviv officials are satisfied that if there is no water being used, the apartment is vacant.
Finance Ministry officials estimate there are 43,000 vacant apartments, with the largest number in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Netanya. To date, the local governments have levied double tax on 1,400 in Jerusalem, 1,000 in Tel Aviv and a few hundred in Haifa.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Simple way to avoid the tax.
leave a tap on in the apt. The cost of the water is negligible vs the extra arnona cost.
You could claim that this is a waste of precious water but the counter argument is that this is a saving of money.
#1 except that is lying, fraudulent
Simpler: government stays out of the way. people purchase their apartments. why should they have to pay more tax? tax tax tax is all socialism knows how to do.
I know of many people who live outside of Israel and have purchased apartments in Israel.
They maintain the apartments and use them for when they or members of their families come to visit. So much time it is vacant but during the Chaggim and when some one makes a wedding the have where to go.
It is a good investment for these people and they hope some day to retire and settle in Israel.
Trump was elected -Hashem blessed us ,it’s time to build throughout Eretz Yisrael especially in Jerusalem,E1,and throughout Judea and Samaria especially charedi housing!