There was a record number of 151,000 residential real estate deals in Israel in 2021, the Chief Economist at the Ministry of Finance reports, up from 107,100 in 2020. There was a sharp fall in Israelis buying apartments for investment in December after the hike in purchase tax for those owning more than one home but this was offset by strong sales to first time homebuyers and people scaling up and down.
In total in December, 11,800 homes were sold - an exceptionally high figure. Investors bought just 1,200 homes in December, down 82% from November.
Even if deals as part of the government's Buyers Price (Mechir Lemishtaken) program are deducted, there were still 136,200 housing deals in 2021, which would have been an all-time high record, 14% higher than the previous record in 2015.
But despite strong sales, data from both the Ministry of Finance Chief Economist and the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that supply remained firm at 47,000 homes in December, down just a few percent from its peak two years ago.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 27, 2022.
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