Publisher: IPCC Jerusalem, 2013

This review aims to provide accurate information on the housing situation in East Jerusalem and suggest solutions towards its improvement. It is the first report of its kind, and has been developed in order to draw attention to the issue of housing and its importance to the prosperity of Palestinian society in East Jerusalem.

The location, size and quality of housing determines, to a large extent, a household’s quality of life. Moreover, housing is a key consideration for a household’s choice of location, and its supply is therefore a key determinant of population migrations. House construction and financing plays an integral role in the urban economy; the health of the housing market is strongly linked with economic prosperity. The housing sector is therefore relevant to political, economic and humanitarian issues and deserves careful monitoring.

Assessment of the housing sector in East Jerusalem is hindered by the absence of reliable data. The Jerusalem Statistical Yearbooks published by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS) provide thorough information on the city overall but often do not distinguish between East and West Jerusalem. When particular information on East Jerusalem is available it typically has disproportionately low sample sizes, that render any trends inconclusive. The majority of original data is collected by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics’ (ICBS) which do not necessarily have the ability to access East Jerusalem’s largely informal economy and housing sector. As such detailed, targeted, independent studies, beyond the scope of this review, are required to obtain a more accurate picture of current trends. In addition, more rigorous methods of combining and assessing data from smaller studies and surveys need to be established. By culminating the information currently available, this review makes a first step towards a more focused monitoring of the housing sector from which further studies can be launched.

The review is divided into five sections. The first four are assessments of the housing situation. This begins with an overview of legal, bureaucratic and financial obstacles to house development from planning to delivery stages. The second section assesses the housing stock and supply in terms of its location, affordability, legality, density and access to public services and infrastructure. The third section assesses demographic trends; dwelling locations, growth, migrations and their relationship with housing trends. The fourth combines demographic and housing indicators to estimate a present and future housing need. The fifth section proposes a strategy to increase the supply of housing with recommendations for overcoming the obstacles that currently limit supply.