The Marker, Hadar Horesh, 19.01.2021
The closure once again disrupts the tenders of the Israel Land Authority (RMI). Despite the intention to accelerate the pace of tenders, the authority managed to close only one tender in January, relatively small for saturated construction under the new "Reduced Price Housing" program. Another huge tender, in Ramat Gan , Stuck in the middle of the proceedings due to the inability to hold the final bidding stage.
The stuck tender is one of the prestigious tenders for housing, intended to take place in early 2020 as part of a price-per-tenant program, but has been postponed several times for technical reasons. The new project is intended for a highly sought-after area in Ramat Gan, east of Geha Road , in one of the few land departments available to the Israel Land Authority in the area.
In the tender, the authority offered land for the construction of 833 apartments in four complexes. 349 of the apartments are for sale at a reduced price, and the rest for sale on the free market. According to the rules of the tender, the winner will be the developer who will offer the lowest price for an apartment at a reduced price, but no less than the threshold price set in the tender - NIS 14,000 per square meter for an apartment at a reduced price.
In case there is more than one competitor offering the lowest price, competitors with the lowest bid on the price of the land. When the tender documents were opened, it became clear that all competitors preferred to offer the minimum price for the apartments at a reduced price and go up to phase B over the price of the land, whose starting price is NIS 630 million, and according to preliminary estimates it is expected to climb to NIS 800-700 million. and even more.
In many cases, such final bidding procedures can be conducted by relatively simple telephone means, but RMI did not prepare for the possibility of imposing the third closure, which was imposed on December 27 for an indefinite period, and determined the bidding process in the PA offices in Tel Aviv. Can send four representatives for the procedure.
Minister of Housing, Yaakov Litzman Photo: Yoav Dodkevitz
No less than eight companies have entered the final bidding phase, which was supposed to take place on January 10, and Rami decided to delay the completion of the tender until after the closure, at a date not yet set.
After last year's collapse of Rami's land marketing, which was estimated at 23,000 apartments, it was decided upon receiving approval from the Ministry of Finance in December to accelerate the pace of publication of tenders , in an effort to close the gaps and avoid shortages and sharp rises in the housing market.
The highlight of the effort was the closing of a tender for the subsidized construction of 1,214 apartments in Kiryat Bialik. However, the closure and other factors halted the trend. In January, a single tender was closed for the saturated construction of 219 apartments in Kfar Bara. January is usually a weak month in land marketing, and traditionally Rami has been concentrating its marketing efforts on the last months of the year.
The Israel Land Authority stated that "Unfortunately, in light of the restrictions on public entry to government ministries, due to the third closure, the summons was canceled and we intend to coordinate a new bidding process soon, taking into account the time constraints." The period and its limitations. "