“70% of new projects in Tel Aviv will be urban renewal”

“In the next decade, urban renewal will shape Israel’s major cities. Seventy percent of new construction in Tel Aviv will be urban-renewal projects. Tens of thousands of new homes will be added within existing areas,” said Ron Chen, CEO of City People, at the Mind the Tech Berlin 2025 conference hosted by Calcalist and Bank Leumi.

At the start of his remarks, Chen introduced his work: “For more than a decade, my work was simple, taking old buildings and giving people safer, better homes and a better living experience.”

Chen then turned to Israeli innovation: “Israel is known as a startup nation. We excel in technology, apps, cyber, and AI. But today, a different kind of innovation is happening—not in the cloud, but in the places where we live. If Israel’s first stage was building digital products, the next stage is upgrading our physical environment.”

He continued: “I want to talk about innovation in a way we don’t often hear about. Not an app. Not a unicorn. But the biggest project we all share, the city. Urban renewal is, in many ways, a huge startup. The only difference is you don’t download it, you live in it.

“Urban renewal sounds like construction, but it’s really about hacking the city’s physical layer. Israel is a small country. We don’t have much open space. Most of the demand is in Tel Aviv and its surrounding area. Israel sits on the Syrian-African Rift. Most buildings built before 1980 don’t meet modern safety standards; many lack elevators, shelters, or parking.”

Therefore, he said, “Urban renewal is not just ‘nice to have.’ It’s a national necessity. It gives us a rare opportunity to rebuild entire neighborhoods from within, without expanding the city outward. Urban renewal is a national upgrade engine. Instead of building far away, we renew what we already have. It’s smarter, greener, and more sustainable.”

Chen added: “Urban renewal creates a triple win. Residents get safe, modern homes, elevators, parking, and better design. Cities get organized growth, improved infrastructure, and stronger neighborhoods. Developers can build in central areas without buying expensive land. And the state gets stronger buildings and more housing where it’s most needed. When everyone benefits, progress becomes possible.”

He explained the potential for expansion: “Once this model works in one place, it can grow quickly. One building becomes a block. A block becomes a district. A district becomes a full urban plan. Urban renewal grows significantly. It builds momentum.

“That’s the idea behind City People,” Chen continued. “Creating the next generation of urban living. We chose to focus almost entirely on renewing central neighborhoods with high demand. We are one of the few public companies in Israel built almost entirely around this mission. So far, we have 53 projects, will add more than 5,000 new homes, and will reach revenues of 12.3 billion shekels.”

According to him, “Our goal is simple, to upgrade the way people live in the city. We’re not doing minor facelifts. We are rebuilding the urban living experience. To see it in action, look at Tel Aviv, one of the densest cities in the world. There’s almost no free land. Demand grows every year. Tel Aviv had no choice, it had to renew itself from within. The city combines preserving old buildings, demolishing and rebuilding new ones, and creating new mixed-use neighborhoods. Tel Aviv has become a real-time laboratory for the city of the future.”

Chen reiterated the core achievement: “Urban renewal allowed Tel Aviv to triple the number of homes within its existing borders. But the real success is not the number of apartments, it’s the quality of life.”

“This is no longer a small experiment,” he concluded. “It is becoming a national growth engine. We are moving from early projects to real scale. Urban renewal is Israel’s update button, updating old buildings, updating streets, updating infrastructure, and preparing our cities for the next generation. At City People, that’s what drives us, what inspires us. Urban renewal is uniquely Israeli, and Tel Aviv shows the world how to do it.”