The owner of Ariel Yazamut is convinced that the application of sovereignty will have an immediate beneficial effect on the real estate market in Judea and Samaria. “It will do only good things”, he states.
The economic ramifications of the application of sovereignty in the real estate market in Judea and Samaria will be immediate. This is the opinion of Tuvia Lewkowicz, owner of Ariel Yazamut, which is involved in the various areas of real estate throughout Judea and Samaria.
Lewkowicz said this in an interview with Arutz 7, where he stated that sovereignty, wherever it is applied, “will have a very good effect. It will be reflected in increasing demand by customers from the center eastward as well as in the direction of the Jerusalem envelope; the demand will increase, prices will rise slightly. The entrepreneurs and the contractors will flow into Judea and Samaria because the cost of financing will fall. Currently, it is difficult to obtain credit and is still expensive, and normalization will create a freer and better market. This will give it a serious boost”.
Lewkowicz is in no hurry to guess whether the increase in building in Samaria and Jerusalem environs will cause prices in the center of the country to fall, although he believes that if there are a high number, in tens of thousands, of building starts for housing units in the area of Elkana and Ariel, this will cause prices to fall in the center of the country by about 5 to 7 percent.
Regarding Elkana and its environs, he comments that “The public relates to these areas as the center of the country anyway, so the impact will not be too great”. On the other hand, he thinks that in Ariel the prices will rise more and the more we turn eastward, the more significant the rise in prices will be. In this regard, he notes that building starts are likely to be accompanied by access to transportation routes and more opportunities for employment, and the combination, in communities such as Shiloh, of the quality of life in a small community along with improved transportation and employment, will bring about a rise in the cost of housing there.
Lewkowicz is asked if these opinions are relevant for the short term or only for the longer term, assuming that the application of sovereignty will lead to an escalation in the security situation. In his opinion, the influence on the real estate market in Judea and Samaria will be for the short term, despite the security concerns. “The effect will be immediate. There are security issues and apparently will continue to be security issues. Without getting into politics, we can hope that this normalization will let our neighbors understand that we are here to stay, and if commercial and economic relations are developed, it will be beneficial for both sides. The coexistence that exists currently will get a boost and when this happens there will be no reason for the prices to fall – just the opposite”.