Short term rentals in vogue

The protest against sky-high housing prices in Israel inevitably took aim in part at nonresidents. Foreigners own thousands of apartments in prime areas, dwellings that stand empty throughout most of the year. Jews living elsewhere bought themselves homes in the Holy Land and keep them available for their convenience, exacerbating the housing crunch in the best areas of Israel, claim the protesters. The result is even more upward pressure on home prices, they conclude.

Yet a market has been developing in which these apartments are rented out for short periods of time. Brokers who mediate these short-term rentals say it's a win-win situation - for the owners that get some income from their property that otherwise stands fallow and costs upkeep, and for tourists who may prefer independence to hotel life. Israeli renters, however, are not appeased by the benefits to the foreign homeowners and tourists. What they see is a stifled housing market and rental prices that keep spiraling up." In the last year or two, more and more Jews living abroad decided to take advantage of property they own here," says Kfir Zohar, co-manager of the Anglo-Saxon Tel Aviv branch. He estimates the potential for short-term rental in Tel Aviv alone is 2,000 to 3,000 such foreign-owned apartments, whose nonresident owners spend, at most, a few weeks a year in occupancy. He also estimates that only about 15% of those apartments are rented out, while the rest stand unused most of the year.

The concept is gaining momentum: In the last two months, his agency closed 40 to 50 short-term rentals of foreign-owned apartments, Zohar says.Annual returns from short-term rentals are about 30% higher than long-term ones. At peak times, such as the Passover season, the rent can run double. Of course, at non-peak times the apartments may revert to standing empty. The potential clientele for short-term leases are business travelers and tourists. In addition, the apartments need to have features that meet the needs of transient dwellers. In Tel Aviv, for instance, the apartments should be no more than a 10-minute walk from the beach, and in Jerusalem, about the same distance from the city center. Business users would prefer apartments near the Tel Aviv business center or Ramat Gan Diamond Exchange. The apartments must be fully equipped and comfortable, too.

Yoni Shapira founded an Internet site, home4trip.com, which links tourists and homeowners. A three-room apartment in Tel Aviv, fully furnished and near the beach that can host up to four people, will run at $150 to $180 a night in a short-term rental, on average, he says. During peak summer season, in August, prices rise to $200 a night, he says. "Exclusive" apartments with a swimming pool in the building and that sort of thing can command three times as much, he adds. A visit to home4trip.com shows hundreds of apartments available for short-term rent in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other top cities. The ads cite the apartment's size, number of rooms, the furnishings and the price per night. A sign of the times is that the number of visits to the site has grown threefold in two years, Shapira says.

He came up with the idea of the site after living in Milan and meeting Italian Jews who owned apartments in Tel Aviv that they'd agree to rent out to people they knew. There were the apartments standing empty and there were the Tel Aviv hotels charging through the nose, Shapira explains. The rest is history. He began three-and-a-half years ago with a site targeting Italian Jews. Today, the site serves Jewish communities all over the world and has about 200 apartments on its books, belonging to about the same number of owners. It's worked: The apartments are rented out for almost all the year, Shapira says. The Anglo-Saxon real estate agencies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem have started to work with the site too, he adds.

Source Haaretz

Tel Aviv Namal to be transformed into Times Square

The Tel Aviv Port is about to undergo a complete makeover at night, with live television broadcasts and advertisements on its buildings ala New York City's Times Square. Some NIS 30 million (about $8 million) will be invested in the project, which was initiated by the Atarim company, which develops the city's tourist sites and is co-owned by the Tel Aviv Municipality and the Tourism Ministry.

The company will set up a night film screening and culture complex in the northern part of the port. Atarim CEO Itamar Shimoni said that the investment in the entire compound is estimated at NIS 100 million ($26 million), while the film screening complex will cost some NIS 30 million. The first stage of the works will begin in November.

The complex is currently being tiled with a wood deck on which the port will hold concerts and multimedia events.According to Shimoni, this will be one of the biggest recreation centers in Israel. The plan is to hold cultural events, rock concerts, art exhibitions, video-art, etc. He wants to turn the complex into a recreation, culture and leisure complex for the entire family and bring more people in the morning and the afternoon, not just at night like now.

גלעד, ברוך הבא הביתה

The individual has won over the public interest today. While some people might worry that Israel has increased its vulnerability by doing this deal over Gilad Shalit, it's still very comforting to see the importance placed by Israel on each and every individual not just the group as a whole. It's hard not to remember how Ayn Rand described the common good:

So long as a concept such as “the public interest” (or the “common good”) is regarded as a valid principle to guide legislation—lobbies and pressure groups will necessarily continue to exist. Since there is no such entity as “the public,” since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that “the public interest” supersedes private interests and rights, can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.

If so, then all men and all private groups have to fight to the death for the privilege of being regarded as “the public.” The government’s policy has to swing like an erratic pendulum from group to group, hitting some and favoring others, at the whim of any given moment—and so grotesque a profession as lobbying (selling “influence”) becomes a full-time job. If parasitism, favoritism, corruption, and greed for the unearned did not exist, a mixed economy would bring them into existence.

Golda Meir used to say that peace will be achieved in the Middle East when Arabs love their children more than they hate Jews. Israel has shown that they love their children 1,027 times more than they hate their killers. How long will it take for Palestinians to start loving their children?

Free Wi-Fi coming to Tel Aviv soon

The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality announced this week that it will start a pilot to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access to residents, and visitors, in the city. The test will start next month on Ben-Gurion Boulevard, and the city wants to expand it to other commercial and public areas of the city throughout 2012. Among many others, free wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) service is planned to stretch along the length of Dizengoff, Ben-Yehuda, Ibn Gvirol Streets, Ben Gurion, Nordau, Rothschild and Yerusalayim Boulevards as well as along the beach, all the way to Jaffa.

To help pay for the project, the city may allow the operators to show advertising content to users. The pilot will run for three to four months before the city plans on publishing a tender to expand the service. But the city has yet to actually develop the financial model for how to pay for the Wi-Fi service, and the cost to the city is estimated at between almost nothing, if supported by advertising, to a few million shekels a year. The city has yet to choose an Internet service provider for the project.

Simulation of Rothschild Blvd extension to the sea

New financing options to accelerate light rail build-up

A pending compromise between the Tel Aviv Municipality and the government proposes greatly increasing building rights in the city to 700-800% from 400% in exchange for a subway. The increased building rights would generate hundreds of millions in taxes for the government and would offset the huge additional cost in building the light rail's Green Line as a subway.

The increased building rights will not necessary apply to the area along a 2.5-kilometer stretch of the Green Line's route between Carlebach Street and the northern end of Ibn Gvirol Street. The 24-kilometer Green Line will run from Rishon LeZion in the south to the Yarkon River in north Tel Aviv, and may later be extended to Herzliya. The line was originally planned as an above-ground light rail, which Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai opposes. The Tel Aviv Municipality said, "The lot in the Kirya area, along the Red Line, is also relevant to the initiative."

A source involved with the project said that preliminary estimates suggest that the increased building rights will be sufficient to finance the NIS 1.5-2 billion cost of the Green Line. The line could result in the construction of 25,000-30,000 new apartments in the Large Lot in the Transyarkon area of north Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv Municipality and the Ministry of Finance already agree that the Green Line section between Levinski Street in South Tel Aviv and Carlebach Street would be underground, but they have disagreed for years about the stretch north of Carlebach Street. Officially, the ministry consents only to an above-ground line, and insists that the Tel Aviv Municipality finance the extra cost in full for an underground line. The municipality says that this is not possible.

In addition to the Dan Region Light Rail's Red and Green lines, a Purple Line is in the statutory stages, and four bus rapid transit (BRT) lines are planned. The Tel Aviv Municipality said in response, "The municipality believes that it is very important to build the Green Line, at the same time as the Red Line, as a subway between Levinski Street and the Yarkon River. We believe that maximizing the building rights in the Kirya area can generate the financial sources needed. However, talks are only in the initial stages, and we hope that an agreement can be reached to build the Green Line as quickly as possible."

Source Globes

Shanah Tovah and Gmar Chatimah Tovah

I wish you all Shanah Tovah and Gmar Chatimah Tovah. May you be inscribed in the book of life. I forgive anyone who may have wronged me during this year, and I ask forgiveness for anyone I may have wronged as well.