Link to the original post: https://www.kolhair.co.il/opinions-2/253190/
The heart of Jerusalem is dimming. In Yemin Moshe, Talbiya, Rehavia, Shaarei Chesed, and David’s Village, apartments worth millions sit locked most of the year. The new luxury towers are marketed almost exclusively abroad, with brokers reporting that most buyers are foreign. Some project websites advertise only in English. The money may flow in—but life is disappearing. This is how a seasonal city center emerges: streets once full of children and bustling cafés are now quiet between holidays. Businesses close early, schools shrink, and the local economy withers. Jerusalem does not lack buildings—what it lacks is residents.
The problem is not unique to us. Many cities around the world have already understood the social and economic cost of absentee ownership. The lesson is simple: housing is meant first and foremost for people to live in.
These policies keep markets open to the world—while protecting the urban core as a living, inhabited environment.
When a Jerusalem apartment is inhabited, it becomes an engine of economic activity. An average Jerusalem family contributes about ₪120,000 per year in local spending and taxes—₪4–5 million over a working lifetime. When children remain in the city, the intergenerational contribution reaches ₪20 million or more to the economy, services, and cultural life of the city. By contrast, an empty apartment pays only property tax—about ₪8,000 per year, or ₪300,000–400,000 over decades. Each dark apartment represents a loss of ₪15–20 million in cumulative economic value to the city. Multiplied across hundreds of empty luxury homes, this means billions of shekels in lost economic activity, jobs, and community life.
These tools align market forces with the goal of urban life: more residents, more light, more community.
Diaspora Jews have always loved Jerusalem and will continue to love it. The goal is not to close the gates but to keep the city open—alive and inhabited, not hollow. A living Jerusalem is in everyone’s interest, including foreign homeowners. And economically, this isn’t ideology—it’s responsibility. An inhabited apartment feeds the local economy daily; an empty one inflates prices and burdens the city’s service budget.
Encouraging permanent residency is sound fiscal policy, not a slogan.
Many cities have already adopted similar policies. In Jerusalem—where global demand is immense and land is limited—we cannot afford to wait. The mayor and city council have the authority to create new property tax categories and include “residents first” clauses in Israel Land Authority tenders—without new legislation, only political will.
Jerusalem’s strength has always been its people, not its real estate value. Every lit window represents a family, a child in a school, a voice in a synagogue, and a local business sustained. Restricting absentee ownership is not shutting doors—it is an invitation to life. If we want Jerusalem to remain a city of light, not merely a city of real estate, the time has come to put residents first—and bring the light back home.