This study discusses the impact of the
ongoing war in the Gaza Strip on the housing demand of
the West Bank and argues that encouraging the rental sector
is an important strategy to reduce these impacts. The study
analyses the institutional database and observes the
changing demand for housing in the West Bank during the
first half of 2024. It also interviews 30 decision-makers and
investors to explore how the war influenced the market for
both ownership and rental housing sectors. The study
results sustain the failure of both ownership and rental
sectors to contain the housing crises caused by poverty,
shortage of supply, and increasing prices. The war created
influential factors on housing demand, such as changing
residential places and seeking low-cost housing. Such
factors result from the renewed needs of householders in
wartime based on decreasing safety requirements in some
areas, decreasing many householders' income, and shortage
of housing financing. The main finding of the study
sustains that adapting the over-facilitation of
homeownership as a primary housing policy in the West
Bank for the last three decades, simultaneously with the
exaggeration in protecting the tenants of residential
properties, has caused the weakness of the housing sector
in facing the sudden change in demand resulting from the
war. The study further discusses a proposed guideline for
maintaining the current rental sector to contain this crisis.

Title

Advances in Economics and Business

Publisher

HORIZON RESEARCH PUBLISHING

Publisher Country

United States of America

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

12

Year

2024

Pages

43-53