The summer's social protest had no effect on the trend.
The Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel reports that the percentage of renters rose from 27% of the population in 1995 to 34% in 2008. High home prices, and the fact that most Israelis prefer to live in the center of the country, have caused renting to become increasingly prevalent.
The low supply of homes, including rental homes, is driving up rents. Moreover, the current measure to temporarily exempt the sale of second apartments from the betterment tax, is inadvertently liable to aggravate the shortage of rental apartments by reducing the inventory of second apartments that are rented out by their investor/owners.
A further aggravation :the supply of public housing has fallen over the years as the result of government campaigns to sell these apartments to their tenants, whilst not building new ones.
