Sources inform ''Globes'' that Amidar Israel National Housing, which won an Israel Land Administration (ILA) to manage and sell ILA properties in Jaffa, will get 4.85% from the proceeds of the sales. Amidar, controlled by the Jewish Agency, was the sole participant in the ILA tender. The terms are significantly worse than the 5.5-6.5% of proceeds under the contract with the previous manager, Ariel Properties, which managed the properties for five years. Amidar's three-year contract, with two one-year options, came into effect on August 1.
Amidar will manage a private land registry office for the 6,000 properties already sold, in the absence of a state land registry. It will also manage and maintain 4,000 other properties, 80% of which are apartments and the rest commercial properties, for a commission, and put them up for sale. Amidar managed the Jaffa properties until the mid-1990s, without much success.
The ILA excluded from the Amidar contract two good properties on Ben-Zvi Blvd. with a potential sales value of several million shekels. The ILA will manage them itself. Amidar will manage properties elsewhere in Jaffa, except in the old city, as well as some properties in south Tel Aviv.
Ariel Properties and other private companies declined to participate in the tender, due to its poor terms, leaving Amidar as the sole participant, and ILA with no choice but to award it the tender. As a result, the management of ILA's Jaffa properties returns to state hands, after being managed for five years by a private company.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on August 18, 2002