Two adjoining semi-detached houses in a new neighborhood in Herzliya Pituah on Hannah Meron Street were recently sold for NIS 16 million and NIS 17 million.
The new project is in the southern part of Herzliya Pituah, east of the marina and includes the Marina Lee area spreading over 80 dunams (20 acres), which belonged to the Ofer brothers, on which planning was approved a decade ago for 232 housing units including 42 terraced and semi-detached houses as well as high-density housing, a commercial center and hotel.
Over the years, the Ofer brothers sold stakes in the land to various companies. In 2015, they sold eight dunams (2 acres) with twelve lots to Rosengard Investments for NIS 89.6 million, which includes all the lots on Hannah Meron Street between Wingate and Yiftach Streets.
Rosengard began construction of 24 terraced and semi-detached houses but before completing them sold the project in October 2021 to Neumann Investments and Properties for NIS 170 million.
The dynamics: the first house was sold for NIS 13.3 million
Neumann Investments and Properties began marketing the houses at the start of 2022 and according to the Israel Tax Authority website, 22 of the 24 houses have already been sold.
All 24 homes are similar semi-detached houses built on 330 square meter lots. Each house has six rooms and is 310 square meters in size including a basement and a 220 square meter garden.
The first house in the project was sold in February 2022 for NIS 13.3 million but prices very quickly began to rise. By June 2022 the average price for the houses being sold was NIS 13.5 million, climbing to NIS 13.7 million by the t5hird quarter of 2022, with homes being sold for NIS 14.15 million in February 2023. In May and June 2023 homes were sold for NIS 14.6 million and by the first day of the war in October two more deals were completed at NIS 16 million and NIS 17 million.
While elsewhere in the country, housing prices have been falling, the semi-detached homes Herzliyah Pituah's Hannah Meron Street have been bucking the national trend.
Real estate appraiser Yisrael Yaacov, who specializes in financial support for construction projects, explains, "From comparable deals it turns out that in total the prices in the project have risen by about 20% since its purchase, and most of the price increase took place over the last year. The reasons for this: limited supply and demand for new land lots, the location of the project near the sea and Herzliya's marina. This is a closed project with a high level of construction.
"There are also a number of individual units left for sale, which allows the developer to raise prices, and thus the developer's profitability."
Of course, the buyers it was found have the ability to meet the high prices, but it is impossible not to be impressed by the increase of NIS 2 million, which was recorded over the last few months.
And what about the price difference of NIS 1 million between the two houses sold recently? Yaacov explains that these are two adjoining houses, one of which is on a corner lot, which increased its price, because it does not border any neighbors."
It turns out that even earlier semi-detached houses in similar positions fetched higher prices, but the difference between the corner houses and houses on regular lots reached 'only' about NIS 500,000.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 25, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.