Jerusalem Tops 7,000 Housing Permits for a Fifth Year as 640 Urban-Renewal Units Win Approval

By David Nataf
26 September 2026 — Jerusalem

Jerusalem — Jerusalem has issued building permits for more than 7,000 housing units for the fifth consecutive year, City Engineer Yoel Even told the Globes Israel Real Estate Conference on 7 September 2026, with about 4,000 of the past year’s units in urban-renewal projects. On 24 September, the planning news site Magdilim reported that the Jerusalem District Planning Committee had approved three pinui-binui (evacuate-and-rebuild) plans with some 640 new homes in Kiryat Menachem, Rasko and Beit HaKerem.

Five years above 7,000 permits

According to figures compiled by the Israeli real-estate site isrealestate.co.il from Globes and the Jerusalem Municipality, the city issued permits for 7,701 housing units in 2024, of which 3,044 were in urban-renewal projects, and a record 8,445 units in 2025, of which 4,092 were renewal units — almost half of the total. Until 2019, the city averaged about 2,500 permitted units a year; over the past five years it has permitted more than 36,000.

Urban-renewal processes are under way in 31 Jerusalem neighborhoods, the same report said, with the most active including Kiryat Yovel, Gilo, Armon HaNatziv, Kiryat Menachem, Gonenim and Talpiot.

Even attributed the pace to a change of method at City Hall, from waiting for developers to chasing projects. “There is no developer who doesn’t know my personal phone number,” he said, according to Globes. “I have whole teams that really push — not passive but active — who call developers and ask why things aren’t moving.”

Towers, but not everywhere

Even rejected the claim that the municipality mainly promotes towers. A municipal review found that 58% of planned housing units were in buildings of up to ten floors and about 70% in buildings of up to 21 floors, he said. Height, in his account, is a tool to protect open land: “We cancelled entire projects that wanted to break into Jerusalem’s forests and trample them,” he told the conference (Globes, translated from Hebrew). Lower-rise rules are kept in historic neighborhoods such as Rehavia and Talbiyeh, while taller buildings are concentrated in renewal areas and employment hubs, including the city entrance, where they can rely on mass transit.

Even also said more than 3,000 hotel rooms are under construction in the city, that occupancy in Jerusalem’s employment space stands at about 95%, and that 81% of employed Jerusalem residents work inside the city.

Three renewal plans approved — about 640 homes

The District Planning Committee’s latest decisions, as reported by Magdilim on 24 September 2026:

• Kiryat Menachem — Iceland Street 19–21 and Colombia Street 16. A 7-dunam plan by Azorim replaces three four-storey residential buildings with 74 apartments by 289 new units in two 28-storey towers and a 10-storey building. The plan was deposited in May and drew two objections, one of them a technical objection by the developer itself.
• Rasko — corner of Tchernichovsky and Dov Kimchi streets. On 3.3 dunams, the plan by Odor Urban Renewal replaces three buildings with 42 apartments by three new buildings with 130 units. It was first submitted nine years ago, deposited in 2019 and drew 53 objections; the committee approved a version with two 11-storey buildings facing Tchernichovsky Street and an 8-storey building measured from HaTayasim Street.
• Beit HaKerem — HaTomer Street 8–10. On about 4.5 dunams, the plan by Beit Yerushalmi (BY) replaces two four-storey housing blocks with about 70 apartments by two towers of 28 and 30 storeys with 222 units, links HaTomer and Smadar streets and preserves and enlarges the adjacent HaTomer garden. It drew 64 objections and was approved after a second round.

Together the three plans add up to 641 units (289 + 130 + 222), reported as 640. In its HaTomer decision, the committee said the plan makes a significant contribution to the city’s housing supply by realising the renewal potential of old buildings “that no longer meet adequate standards,” without encroaching on additional open space (Magdilim, translated from Hebrew).

A permit is not a completed apartment

The figures describe permission to build, not homes delivered. Several years can pass between a permit, the start of construction and occupancy, and pinui-binui projects also depend on financing, bank backing, the availability of workers and agreements with existing owners, isrealestate.co.il noted. A larger pipeline therefore does not translate automatically into lower prices; its effect depends on how quickly projects actually break ground.

For residents of the neighborhoods concerned, renewal also means years of construction, changing traffic patterns and higher density, alongside the new infrastructure, safe rooms and elevators that replacement buildings bring.

Related: Jerusalem sale prices by neighborhood · Jerusalem hub

Featured image: Kiryat Menachem and Kiryat Yovel, Jerusalem, from the air. Photo: Chezki Mozes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Converted to black and white with one orange accent by Tel Aviv Apartment; the adapted image is shared under the same licence.

Sources

1. Globes — Jerusalem city engineer: “We crossed the 7,000-unit mark in building permits” (Nevo Shapir, 7 Sept. 2026, Hebrew)
2. isrealestate.co.il — Jerusalem issues permits for more than 7,000 apartments for the fifth consecutive year (9 Sept. 2026; sources: Globes, Jerusalem Municipality)
3. Magdilim — District committee approves 640 apartments in three pinui-binui plans in Jerusalem (Ziv Goldfisher, 24 Sept. 2026, Hebrew)