חוק הדיור הציבורי (זכויות רכישה) (תיקון מס' 7), התשע"ו-2016Law on Public Housing (Acquisition Rights) (Amendment No. 7), 2016 · automatic translation · suggest a correction

Official summary of the law (Knesset)

The Public Housing (Purchase Rights) Law (Amendment No. 7), 2016 (hereinafter – Amendment No. 7), was passed in its second and third readings on 2 February 2016. The Public Housing (Purchase Rights) Law, 1998 (hereinafter – the Law), provides that a tenant residing in a public housing unit is entitled to purchase the public housing unit in accordance with the eligibility conditions set out in the Law. Under the provisions of the Law, the price of the public housing unit for purchase by eligible persons is calculated based on the free market price of the unit, as determined by the Government Appraiser or an appraiser authorized by him. From this price, the "base price" in the language of the Law, a sum is deducted that becomes a grant after five years from the date of signing the contract for purchase of the unit, provided that the unit was used by the tenant eligible to purchase it or by his heir. In other words, this is a conditional grant. Two restrictions apply to the amount of the conditional grant. The first restriction concerns setting a ceiling on the grant amount, and the second concerns the base price amount, the free market price of the unit, used to calculate the grant. Regarding the second restriction, the Law, as worded before the amendment, provided that the base price amount used to calculate the conditional grant shall not exceed 705,000 new shekels, and for eligible persons who have been determined to have a permanent medical disability of 100% due to being confined to a wheelchair or due to total blindness in both eyes – 881,250 new shekels. That is, if the free market price of the unit is higher than these amounts, the conditional grant will be calculated as a percentage of the amount, as applicable, and not beyond that. Amendment No. 7 increases the base price amount used to calculate the conditional grant, so that it will stand at a maximum amount of 915,000 new shekels, and for eligible persons who are disabled as described – 1,091,250 new shekels. Additionally, Section 19 of the Law provides that amounts stated in the Law shall be updated according to the rate of increase in the building input price index from 1 January 2013 until the date on which a particular eligible person signed a contract to purchase the public housing unit. This provision, as worded before the amendment to the Law, actually related only to the update of the amounts used to calculate the conditional grant, but not to the amount used to define "eligible person" under the Law, according to which a person eligible to purchase a public housing unit is one who resided in a public housing unit, lawfully or under contract, for at least 5 consecutive years, and does not and did not own, nor did his relative own, from the date on which he signed the lease contract for the public housing unit, a dwelling or real estate worth more than 350,000 new shekels. The amendment adjusts the wording of Section 19 so that it will also relate to updating according to the date of submission of the application for eligibility under the Law, that is, also to the amount stated in the definition of "eligible person". In addition, the amendment provides that a notice shall be published once a year in the Official Gazette and on the website of the Ministry of Construction and Housing regarding the updated amount stated in the definition of "eligible person".

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Sponsors

Eli Cohen, Yoav Ben Tzur, Yifat Shasha Biton, Avi Dicter, Mickey Levy, Tali Ploskov, Orly Levi-Abekasis, Robert Ilatov, Yaakov Perry, Roy Folkman, Nurit Koren, Sofa Landver, Dov Khenin, Ilan Gilon, Yoseph Yonah, Eyal Ben Reuven, Eytan Broshi, Itzik Shmuli, Eitan Cabel, Yakov Margi, Oren Asaf Hazan, David Amsalem, Merav Ben Ari