Co-operative Housing in Israel

Abstract

The law governing co-operative housing in Israel is an explicit example of legislative response to social and economic pressures, and psychological needs. In this regard it is, however, not unique, since similar pressures and needs with similar solutions are found in other countries. Here, as elsewhere, the same motivating forces have operated—the desire to possess a home of one's own for reasons of personal dignity and assurance, encouraged by calculated need to hedge against inflation; the increase in population leading to larger demands for housing accommodation, which remained for long generally unsatisfied because of pegged rentals under tenant protection legislation; the high cost of land and building, which called for the optimum utilization of land and raw materials; and the preference for apartment dwelling due partly to the closer social life that it affords, and to which the population was from previous experience accustomed, and partly to the widespread employment of women, which put a premium upon living quarters that required less time and effort for housekeeping. Of these forces, the population pressure, due to natural increase but far more to immigration after the establishment of the State in 1948, and the continuous rise in land prices were particularly significant in Israel.