Official report slams Netanyahu for soaring housing costs ahead of elections

Israel's state watchdog on Wednesday blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for the country's housing crisis, in a report widely regarded as a bombshell on Netanyahu ahead of the March 17 elections.

The report by the State Comptroller Yoseph Shapira, an official government watchdog agency, said the government failed to spot the looming crisis and did little to curb the skyrocketing housing prices.

The 294-page study found that between 2009 and 2013, housing prices jumped by 55 percent. Data shows that in January 2008 Israelis needed 103 monthly salaries to purchase an apartment, while by the end of 2013 it had reached 137.

Currently, 148 monthly salaries are needed to buy an apartment, compared to an average of 65 in the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands.

At the same time, the average monthly rent prices increased by 30 percent, while the average salary decreased by 1.1 percent.

The housing costs made it impossible for many Israelis to buy a home, and in major cities even renting became a hard task.

Shapira warned of a deleterious effect to the middle class and the Israeli economy.

"The burden of housing expenditure may have far-reaching implications for the life and well-being of the individuals, and their economic robustness," read the report. "If these trends continue, they could adversely affect the whole economy," it added.

In 2011, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took the streets across the country in protest of the soaring housing prices. In the wake of the protest, Netanyahu appointed a committee but later his government failed to implement its recommendations.

"The trend of the rising cost of housing is continuing and the housing crisis has not been solved," the report noted, adding that decent accommodation is "a basic social right."

Netanyahu, who succeeded Ehud Olmert in 2009, said the report will be studied.

"We view the subject with all due seriousness... and we will work to implement the conclusions," Netanyahu told reporters during a visit to the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim on Wednesday. Endit