The Naked Apartment Option

 According to a July 27, 2020 article on BuyItInIsrael.com titled “Why are homes in Israel so expensive?”, each year between 2015 and 2019 50,000-57,000 new apartments were built. Unfortunately, as the article points out, this is well below the projected yearly need, which is part of the supply and demand reason that housing prices keep rising.

The build and purchase process when buying an apartment on paper [‘on paper’ means before or as the building is being completed] usually is:

·         A kablan (builder/contractor) submits plans to the local municipality.

·         The kablan then sells the approved apartment plans to prospective owners.

·         The owners can make small changes (such as: add more electrical points, run a water line for filtered water, etc.) during the construction process.

·         The owners cannot make any major renovations (such as enlarging a kitchen, combining rooms, moving non-load bearing walls, etc.) until the building is complete, they’ve paid the kablan in full, done their walk-thru, and received the keys (which implies that the kablan has received the Tofes Arba/Certificate of Occupancy).

Additionally, during the construction process, the kablan usually provides a list of preferred vendors for tiling, kitchen and bathroom fixtures and cabinets, etc. If the owner is planning major renovations, they will have the kablan install the basic package that is included in the purchase price. After the owner receives the keys, all is torn up and demolished; and then renovations begin.

Let me repeat that.

Brand new fixtures, cabinets, sinks, and tubs, in the kitchen and bathrooms are torn out, brand new tiling throughout the apartment is ripped up from the floors and walls. All thrown in a dumpster destined for a land fill.

Then more demolition begins. Walls made of cement and cinder blocks (some re-enforced with steel bars) are difficult, messy, time-consuming, and very noisy, to tear down. Also, re-routing pipes and electric in cement walls is difficult, noisy, dusty, and time consuming. But an Israeli (olim included) who has worked hard and waited a long time for their perfect dream apartment, will not be denied.

What is the overall impact of this process?

·         For the early tenants who have moved in without doing major renovations: Months, to perhaps a year or more, of living with unbelievable loud drilling noise, day after day, week after week, month after month. As well as, contending with dust and mess throughout the building and grounds. [Personal note: we moved to our second ‘on paper’ apartment in October 2020, and renovations are still going on in our building.]

·         The kablan: Gets their money and moves onto the next project.

·         The renovating owner: When major renovations are done, the purchaser has actually paid twice, once for the basic package (containing all the new ceramic tiles, bathroom tubs and sinks, kitchen cabinets, and more) and then again for the demo and reno.

·         To the environment: Has anyone tried to calculate the environmental cost in filling landfills with all this brand-new debris?

Needless to say, it is both wasteful and expensive for everyone.

To start the conversation, here is an idea: What if the kablan offered two options:

1.      The current system of buying the approved apartment layout, taking the kablan’s package and perhaps customizing/upgrading it. [This is what most people do.]

2.      This new option could be called (just for fun) “The naked apartment option.” It would offer the purchaser the shell of the apartment consisting of just the load bearing walls and utility points (water, gas, electricity, communications, etc.). The purchaser would submit architecture plans for permits and upon approval (perhaps the issuance of a temporary Tofes Arba) be able to have the building kablan do it or be given a window of time during the end of construction to bring their own kablan in to do the final construction to their own personal approved specifications. They would be then responsible for obtaining their final Tofes Arba after the appropriate inspection (at their cost).

Offering option two would probably lower overall costs to the original kablan that could then be passed on to purchasers. It would definitely shorten the demo and reno times that their neighbors in the building would have to suffer through. And importantly, it would significantly reduce the destruction and disposable of perfectly good finishing materials.

Israel claims it is at the forefront of helping the environment: solar power, natural gas, etc. The Start Up Nation has even gamified it with an app called Clean Coin that incentivizes users to pick up trash to earn coins which can then be exchanged for goods, activities, and vacations.

Why can’t we reexamine this building process to make it more environmentally friendly as well as more cost effective?

Then maybe we can talk about zoning how many parking spaces are needed for each apartment building to help alleviate the on-street parking balagan (mess).

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