That's not what we blamed: the recent interest rate increases have increased the cost of repaying the mortgage of an average family by about NIS 700 on average, certainly a high amount that weighs heavily on the pockets of middle-class families, who have to deal with the rising cost of living.
Many families define the significance of the increase in interest rates as economic suffocation, and some even say that as a result they even had to give up basic things such as electrical appliances and new clothes for the children for the winter.
Want to live with dignity
One of those families is the Dotted Katz family.
Ohad and Mittal are parents of four children.
Ohad, who owns a project management company in the field of construction, and Mittal, who works at the Ministry of Justice, find it difficult to bear the burden.
"Our mortgage has become more expensive by at least NIS 700. When you buy an apartment, you don't live in the apartment you buy right away, you have to pay about NIS 10,000 for a mortgage and rent, which is a lot," says Ohad Batuga.
"We wanted to buy new things for the house such as electrical appliances, and we didn't because we don't have the option at the moment. We have four children and the youngest is seven months old.
the Katz family,
"A residence costs NIS 2,500, which is a lot of money. The interest rate has gone up, the price of electricity has been announced to rise. People want to live in the country. I contribute to the country. I do close to 40 days of reserve duty after I fought in an elite unit. I also run a business, which means investing money , and at the end of the month you feel suffocated and you want to live.
"The state needs to take its hand out of the entire field of construction. The one who raises the prices is the state. It needs to free up land and sell it cheaply. I live in Nokdim and on the way to Jerusalem I travel with workers who bought apartments for 400,000 shekels in the suburbs, in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. We buy an apartment for 3 million shekels".
"Vacations? You made us laugh"
For Oren and Odelia Shahar from Jerusalem, the situation is the same.
Odalia works in a religious council as a bellani and her husband Oren is self-employed.
The couple has six children.
"We took out a mortgage 22 years ago for 30 years and four years ago we repaid it and extended it to 32 years," reveals Oren.
"Due to the interest rate increases, the mortgage became more expensive by at least NIS 700, which is very significant for us. This is half of our usual weekly shopping at the supermarket.
The problem with occupying new apartments begins with the ongoing bureaucracy in filling out Form 4, photo: iStock (illustration)
"Obviously we're afraid we won't be able to afford it. We never thought we'd reach such sums. Today we pay 4,800 shekels a month on the mortgage. When we started, it was 2,500 shekels. Then we were a couple without children. Today we have six grown children," Odalia says.
"The point is that you can't touch the mortgage, and this of course comes at the expense of other things. Once there were rich and poor and there were averages. Today there are only rich and poor, and the poor have to live like the average and that is the basis. Even when you try to give up things, you see that everything is important. I'm talking about things that they are an existential necessity and not a luxury, this is not a package in Seychelles. We give up a private teacher who is more professional and take a private teacher from the seminary, and we also dropped the classes. Once, for example, before the winter I would buy sweaters for everyone, today I am no longer there."
"Everything has become very expensive in the supermarket as well. Even if I take the fish, meat and poultry off the cart, it won't change and the cart won't cost less than NIS 1,200. We don't go on vacations. If I wanted to live healthy and buy organic products, I wouldn't have a chance."
Gilad Oz from the settlement of Zur Yitzhak, divorced and father of two, deals in real estate investments in the USA.
Oz says: "I took out a mortgage in 2011, and since it has a prime component and is partly linked to an index, following the governor's interest rate hikes, the mortgage became more expensive for me by about NIS 1,000 in the last six months alone."
"The governor makes mistakes"
Oz adds that "the way of the governor of the Bank of Israel to fight inflation is very uncreative. Every time they raise the interest rate in the US, he also raises the interest rate.
You can fight inflation in other ways, but for some reason the governor chooses the easy way, which only burdens everyone who has a mortgage.
Also, it's not just about mortgages - it's also about interest rates on business loans, which are usually linked to the prime, which is a heavier burden on the business owners."
According to Shir Gamliel, a mortgage consultant for the association company, "For a mortgage of one million shekels, of which 45% is in the prime route, increases of 700-750 shekels per month were observed. Many customers are debating how to deal with charges that increase every month in mortgages, car loans and additional consumer loans. All of this is added to the general increase in prices in the economy, and there is a sense of flow distress and concern.
Bank of Israel, Photo: Reuters
"If the Bank of Israel allows the financing to be increased beyond 50% in the mortgage to cover debts, many families will be able to reduce their monthly repayments and continue to meet their obligations."
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