The first green, affordable home designed by an Israeli company has just come off the production line in the Negev town of Yeruham.

Following years of planning and design by REAL Housing, the 190 m2 house was inaugurated by Mayor of Yeruham and former Labour Party leader, Amram Mitzna.

The three-room, NIS 785,000 house (about $200,000 USD) is partly constructed from recycled materials and includes solar electricity panels and energy-efficient insulation as standard features.

The company, set up by World Trade Centre engineer, Prof Chaim Brown, also aims to be economically sustainable by providing employment in the sparsely-populated Negev desert. REAL Housing predicts that their new assembly plant and structural insulated panel (SIP) factory in Yeruham will create 120 new jobs in the next year.

Last year, Green Prophet visited REAL Housing’s pilot house in the nearby village of Ashalim.

The Yeruham plant can construct individual homes in 12 weeks and the company aims to build them for people in Israel’s peripheral regions: the Negev, Galilee and Golan Heights. The first house off the production line is on its way to its new owners, Hillel and Chana Grossman, 150 km away in the Golan Heights.

The company says that the housing design meets green building standards, however, Green Prophet could not confirm whether this refers to the official Israeli green building standard (Israeli Standard 5281 for buildings with reduced environmental impact).

:: A REAL viable solution, Jerusalem Post
:: REAL Housing