‘ Foreign laborer shortage in construction industry will cause housing price hikes’

The pandemic has caused a severe shortage of foreign workers in the construction industry that has led to a major slowdown in the number of construction starts, chairman of the Foreign Workers’ Manpower Corporations in the Construction Industry at the Chamber of Commerce Eldad Nitzan, said.

In 2020, there were only 30,000 starts compared to 2019 when there were 55,000 starts.

Nitzan has noted that there are only 12,500 foreign workers currently employed in the construction industry out of a permitted 15,000 workers in the industry. The other 2,500 foreign workers were due to arrive from China, but Beijing has nixed those plans after classifying Israel a red country.

If the government does not approve another 15,000 foreign workers, the slowdown in the construction industry will continue and apartment prices will continue to rise, Nitzan said. They are currently rising by about 3% every month.

Nitzan warned that if the rate of starts does not increase to 60,000 a year, depending on demand and population size, in a year to two, when the crisis is expected to end, demand will increase and Israel will return to the state of rising prices in 2008.

The permit to bring in 15,000 foreign workers has already received the blessing of the Housing and Finance Ministries but is still awaiting approval by the government.

The industry is a major engine for economic growth and increasing the number of foreign workers will also provide livelihoods for tens of thousands of Israeli workers and contractors in electrics, plumbing, landscaping, air conditioning and elevators, among others.