Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat has requested foreign residents who have purchased apartments in the city's capital to rent them out to young families and students during the months in which they are not living in them themselves.
In a recent letter sent to foreign owners of Jerusalem apartments, Barkat stressed the tremendous contribution the addition of their apartments to the real estate market would be to the Jerusalem economy and to the matrix of city life. Doing so would bring profit to all those involved, he explained: to the foreign residents, the young people, and the city of Jerusalem.
In addition, the mayor invited foreign residents to a special public discussion on helping find solutions to housing problems in the city, and called on them to join the Jerusalem apartment rental project.
In the letter, Barkat said that he honored the addressees' decision to bind their lives to Israel's capital. He expressed hope that cooperation between foreign residents, students and the municipality will bring to fruition the vision which appears in the book of Zechariah: "Old men and women shall yet sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with a staff in his hand for sheer age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in her streets."
As part of the effort to find solutions to the problem of housing for young people, the municipality decided that starting in the year 2010, a special body will be placed in charge of planning for construction and marketing of practical housing options throughout the city.