Tel Aviv, Kiryat Gat and Haifa topped the sales of new apartments in May-July 2026, while most second-hand homes were sold in these months in Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheva, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports.
The survey also shows that there was a fall in sales in July compared with May and June, and a return to a similar level of sales to the start of 2026. However, it is possible that the summer vacation and the days of mourning preceding Tisha B’Av contributed to the postponement of deals and relatively low figures.
The most popular city for homebuyers in May-July was Tel Aviv, where 1,730 apartments were sold, two-thirds of which (1,157) were new; Jerusalem came in second place in sales, with 1,412 apartments sold there in these months, of which one-third (475) were new apartments; while Haifa came in third place in the ranking, which in recent months has shown a relatively lively market for home sales, which stems mainly from new construction in the southern neighborhood of Neot Navon, and from urban renewal projects throughout the city. In Haifa, 1,401 transactions were carried out, of which 37% (522) were new apartments.
After the three biggest cities was Ashdod, where 946 apartments were sold (more than half of which were new) and Petah Tikva, where 840 apartments were sold, 39% of which were new.
Only 7,600 homes were sold nationwide in July. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, taking July out of the equation, starting in January 2026, there has been a moderate monthly increase in the number of transactions, which amounts to about 0.8% per month on average. The increase in transactions is attributed to an increase in sales of new apartments, which has seen an average increase of 1.7% since January of this year. This is while second-hand apartments have seen an average monthly decline of 0.8% in the purchase of apartments since April.
In terms of the supply of apartments, continued stabilization has been seen. At the end of July, 85,000 new unsold apartments remained for sale. This is still a record level, which should challenge real estate developers and the banking system that supports them. The leading cities in the supply of unsold apartments are Jerusalem, with 10,097 unsold apartments, Tel Aviv with 9,725 apartments, Bat Yam with 5,057 and Haifa with 4,116 new apartments have not yet been sold.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 10, 2026.
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