It's about time the government cracked down on these "richies".
Walk down the streets of Rechavia and you will find the streets empty of children. Rich Americans and "Euro-pishers" are investing and buying apartments in Yerushalim and leaving them empty a whole year.
There are now at least 10,000, what the government calls "ghost apartments."
This has reduced the housing supply, resulting in under-uninhabited neighborhoods.
On top of the 10,000 empty apartments in Yerushalyim, there are 1,500 abandoned buildings.
The government will now double the property taxes if an apartment is un-inhabited for nine months of the year.
I have a rich friend who owns two empty apartments. Once a year, on Succos, he brings his family to Yerushalyim, and sits in his Succah with his starched white shirt with his initials embroided on his sleeve, and sips his Gamla wine, while Avreichim have no where to live, because he refuses to rent his apartments.
One sunny day, I asked him,"why do you need these apartments? Isn't cheaper to go to a hotel?"
So he answers very seriously: "I'm a student of history so I keep these apartments, so I'll have where to run, when they come rounding up the Jews again!"
Walk down the streets of Rechavia and you will find the streets empty of children. Rich Americans and "Euro-pishers" are investing and buying apartments in Yerushalim and leaving them empty a whole year.
There are now at least 10,000, what the government calls "ghost apartments."
This has reduced the housing supply, resulting in under-uninhabited neighborhoods.
On top of the 10,000 empty apartments in Yerushalyim, there are 1,500 abandoned buildings.
The government will now double the property taxes if an apartment is un-inhabited for nine months of the year.
I have a rich friend who owns two empty apartments. Once a year, on Succos, he brings his family to Yerushalyim, and sits in his Succah with his starched white shirt with his initials embroided on his sleeve, and sips his Gamla wine, while Avreichim have no where to live, because he refuses to rent his apartments.
One sunny day, I asked him,"why do you need these apartments? Isn't cheaper to go to a hotel?"
So he answers very seriously: "I'm a student of history so I keep these apartments, so I'll have where to run, when they come rounding up the Jews again!"
