According to data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), 1,723 housing units began to be constructed in the settlements during the first nine month of 2016. This is a 24.8% increase from the same period last year. In contrast, construction starts in Israel proper decreased by 5.1% in comparison to the same period last year.
Today (15 December 2016) the ICBS published data on construction starts in Israel and the settlements during the third quarter of 2016 (July – September). The data shows that during these three months 347 housing units began to be constructed in the settlements. This number is likely to increase as the ICBS continues to update its database. The number of construction starts for Q1 of 2016, for instance, was 331 at first, but has been updated to 410 today. Likewise, the number of construction starts from Q2 increased for 812 to 966 in the current publication.
During the first nine month of 2016 the ICBS reports 1,723 construction starts in the settlements. During the same period in 2015 1,381 housing units began to be constructed, which is 342 housing units less than in 2016.
Looking at Israel proper, the ICBS data shows a 5.1% decrease in construction starts in the first three quarters of 2016 in comparison to the same period in 2015. Between January and September, 36,951 construction starts took place in Israel proper, as opposed to 38,931 during these months in 2015.
Looking at different Israeli regions, construction starts in the settlements increased by the highest rate in comparison to the same period last year. In the Haifa region, for instance, construction starts decreased by 25.6% in comparison to the same period in 2015. Likewise, in the Northern region construction starts decreased by 17.5% and in the southern region construction starts decreased by 1.5%. In the Jerusalem region, construction starts increased by 9%, in the central region by 7.5% and in the Tel Aviv region by 5% in comparison to the same period last year.