Public Housing — who qualifies, how to apply, and what actually decides

What is Public Housing?

State-owned apartments (Amidar/Amigour) rented at subsidised prices (~20-30% of market rate) to low-income families.

Who Qualifies?

Eligibility is decided by a certificate from the Ministry of Construction and Housing, scored on age, marital status and number of children. There is no single threshold you can check yourself — the binding answer comes from your district housing office.

What the published conditions do make clear: you neither own nor have owned a home or part of one; you have not previously received state housing assistance; income is below a ceiling set by family size; residency must be evidenced. Priority exists for severe physical disability, homeless elderly and families with a disabled child.

What we will not print here: an exact residency threshold, a subsidy percentage, or a waiting time by city. An earlier version gave "12 years", "8-15 years" and figures for Kiryat Malachi and Netanya — none appear in any official publication, and they were removed. A wrong number here makes someone give up on an application they qualify for.

Average Wait Time

It varies widely by area, apartment size and score, and is published by the Ministry, not by us. The one practical rule: apply anyway — seniority counts from the application date.

Special Priority for Ethiopian Immigrants

Dedicated assistance tracks for olim exist and vary by date of aliyah and status. We do not assert here that you are entitled to priority — that needs individual confirmation from the Ministry of Aliyah and your district housing office.

📞 Amidar: 03-9533333 | Ministry of Housing: *5442

Source: Ministry of Construction and Housing. Binding conditions are published by the Ministry and change over time. Checked October 2026.