Which City Has the Most Construction?

Recently Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Interior Affairs released the annual publication “Local Authorities,” making it possible to draw comparisons among the various local authorities in Israel along several dimensions. One of these dimensions is construction. The data here relate to the year 2010 and include municipalities and local councils.

 

The authority with the largest number of housing units whose construction was completed was Jerusalem, where 1,810 apartments were built. More than 1,000 apartments were constructed in three additional authorities: Netanya (1,530), Tel Aviv-Jaffa (1,520), and Petah Tikva (1,030).

 

Although Jerusalem has the greatest number of apartments among the authorities, the picture changes when the Jerusalem region is compared to the Tel Aviv region. While in the Tel Aviv region – defined as the Tel Aviv and Central Districts – a total of 13,940 apartments were constructed (51% of all apartments whose construction was completed), in the Jerusalem region – defined as the Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria Districts – only 3,460 apartments were constructed (13%). Moreover, in the Judea and Samaria District – defined as the environs of Jerusalem – only about half the apartments constructed were in the immediate vicinity of the city. It appears, therefore, that there is a concentration of construction in the center of the country. This is also apparent if we examine the correlation between completion of construction of apartments and the distance from the boundaries of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Sixty-six percent of all apartments were within a distance of 50 kilometers from the boundaries of Tel Aviv.

 

It is also important to examine the number of apartments completed in correlation to the number of existing apartments within the local authorities. This examination indicates the extent of change that a region is undergoing. A comparison found that in Jerusalem, 9 apartments were completed for every 1,000 existing housing units – slightly more than in Tel Aviv-Jaffa (8). Overall, the localities surrounding the city are undergoing more dramatic changes than the city itself. For example, in Givat Ze’ev, 49 apartments were constructed for every 1,000 existing apartments, 24 in Ma’ale Adumim, 18 in Beit-Shemesh, and 13 in Abu-Gosh. Exceptions were Beitar Illit and Mevasseret Zion, where 4 and 2 apartments (respectively) were constructed for every 1,000 existing apartments.