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Is discrimination by affluence any better?
By Arik Mirovsky

Yet again there's an outcry about discrimination. How could a whole residential project on prime property in the heart of Tel Aviv be reserved for high-tech and capital market people?

But is the alternative, namely for the builders to sell four-room apartments to "the general public" for half a million dollars a flat any better? That's also discrimination, by affluence. It would simply arouse another uproar, that only the rich can afford to live in Tel Aviv.
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No, erecting a project for high-tech and capital market personnel is a good thing. It will contribute to the city, bringing in young couples in moderate to high-income brackets. It's the closest thing the city has to "affordable housing".

Discrimination is a constant in the real estate market. Sometimes parts of projects are selectively sold on the cheap to career soldiers, or members of the bar, or accountants, while others must pay full price. Associations of soldiers are constantly building closed neighborhoods and nobody squawks. And rightly so.

The main problem is when the "members" of "closed communities" are actually perfectly well-to-do and are buying prime housing for investment on the cheap, taking advantage of tax breaks from the state, while the man in the street has to pay full price and full tax, too. The tax law needs amending to preserve the relief for the deserving who mean to actually live in the apartment.
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