A US Jewish foreign resident has bought three apartments (one penthouse and two duplexes) in Euro-Israel's Sea & Sky project in Ashkelon for NIS 14 million.
The 155 square meter penthouse in on the 25th floor has five rooms and a 100 square meter balcony. The two duplexes are identical. Both are 132 square meter apartments on the 22nd floor, extending over two floors and each apartment has two balconies, covering 60 square meters. All the apartments have parking spaces and storage rooms.
The Sea & Sky project is in two 25-floor buildings with one already completed and occupied and the second undergoing finishing work. The project is on Yefe Nof Street, overlooking the seafront and within walking distance of the the marina and commercial center.
The apartments, intended for the buyer's family and friends, were purchased without ever coming to Israel before and without physically seeing them. "A relative of the buyer photographed the apartments for him, and the whole process was done without actually being here," sources familiar with the deal told "Globes."
Real estate appraiser Illy Swed says that the deal reflects NIS 25,000 per square meter, which is in line with a similar penthouse sold near the marina one year ago. He says, "I estimate that the penthouse was valued at NIS 5 million because they are more in demand than duplexes, so that the price for the penthouse was closer to NIS 30,000 per square meter. In Ashkelon the luxury market is very active and has recently began to move towards the towers on the seafront."
Swed says that many foreign residents have been buying in Ashkelon and Ashdod in recent years because they are not prepared to pay the much higher prices in the Tel Aviv area.
Euro-Israel VP and co-owner Ofra Hadad said that 60 out of the 230 apartments in the project have been bought by foreign residents, mainly US Jews. "A type of small community has been created by immigrants from the US," she says, "Alongside a community of former Jerusalemites. 30% of the buyers in the project are Jerusalemites."
The purchases in the project by foreign residents runs counter to the recent trend, which shows a decline in the number of deals by foreign residents in Israel, and their proportion of all deals. If a decade ago they made up about 6% of all deals, in 2022 it was only about 1.5%. "This is a very unique deal," stresses Hadad, "especially in this period, when the market is at a standstill."
Most of the purchases by foreign residents in the past were mainly in Jerusalem, followed by Tel Aviv and the Sharon area (mainly Netanya). Ashkelon has not been a sought-after location for foreign residents, but given the high prices in other coastal cities, the situation is probably changing.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 9, 2023.
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