Chinese Workers Could Bring Down Housing Prices

YERUSHALAYIM

Israel’s ongoing housing crisis could be eased in the near future by the importation of Chinese construction workers, Arutz Sheva reported on Thursday.

Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) said that allowing large numbers of Chinese workers into the country will enable contractors to accelerate work on new homes, thus bringing more homes onto the market and lowering prices.

Ariel made the announcement after a meeting Thursday with officials at the Chinese Embassy.

In the 1990s, Israel hosted thousands of Chinese construction workers, but their numbers declined as agreements were made with Eastern European countries to replace them, along with the hope that more Israelis would enter the building trades.

However, neither Eastern European laborers nor enough Israelis were interested. A shortage in construction labor ensued, which some economists blame for contributing to high home prices.

Now Israel has formally requested that the Chinese resume sending workers.

Ambassador to Israel Gao Yanping said that as recently as 2007 China had sought to convince Israel to renew its Chinese worker program, but to no avail.

However, she said her government views the new proposal with favor, and officials in the embassy said they expect the first workers to arrive in Israel at the beginning of 2014.

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