The number of housing deals in Israel in the second quarter of 2024 was 78% higher than in the final quarter of 2023 after the outbreak of the war, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports. Notably the number of deals in Tel Aviv was 145% higher between April and June 2024 compared with the final three months of 2023. The number of deals was 109% higher in Petah Tikva and 70% higher in Ashkelon, Ramat Gan and Beersheva. In Haifa the number of deals was 56% higher.
On the more bouyant market, it is no surprise that housing prices were also higher. The price of the average apartment in the second quarter of 2024 was a record NIS 2.33 million - NIS 133,000 higher than in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, it should be noted that the final quarter of 2023 was deeply impacted by the outbreak of the war on October 7, which saw the real estate market stagnate.
Overall the national housing price index has risen 6% since November 2023. Prices have risen over that period 9% in Haifa, 7% in the north, and 6.6% in the Tel Aviv district.
Housing prices soaring in the north
In the southern section of the northern district, especially in Tiberias, Afula, Nahariya, Akko and Migdal Ha’Emek, the housing market is flourishing. The number of deals rose 81% in the period covered in the Central Bureau of Statistics report.
Real estate agent Michal Korland of RE/MAX Pioneers, which operates seven real estate agencies across northern Israel says that among other things evacuees who are not prepared to return home, "are buying apartments in places like Nahariya and Tiberias."
In these cities she adds, "Many deals have been completed for new apartments that take advantage of 10% (pay now) and 90% (pay when the apartment is occupied) offers, which sometimes even become 7/93 offers. Investors are buying old and cheap apartments without security rooms, which often are in areas slated for urban renewal. Those buying bigger and better homes prefer to buy newer apartments than those they are living in that have security rooms."
To the south the Haifa region has seen the biggest housing price rises. Here too there has been an exceptional increase in the number of new apartments bought - 108% between the final quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024, and here too buyers want an apartment with a security room. Outside Haifa itself, many apartments have been sold in recent months in Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Yam.
In the Haifa district the average price of a four-room apartment has risen by NIS 171,000 between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2024and in Haifa itself the average price has risen NIS 232,000, with the average apartment costing NIS 1.95 million.
NIS 200,000 more The third district that has pushed apartment prices higher is the Tel Aviv district, and especially Tel Aviv itself, which is recovering from the depression in the city’s real estate market over the last two years. This recovery is reflected in the large number of new apartments that has been purchased in Tel Aviv. In the second quarter, 743 new apartments were purchased in the city, three times more than in the last quarter of 2023. A significant increase in purchases was also recorded in the surrounding cities of Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan and Herzliya, and the result was seen in price rises.
Prices of four-room apartments in Tel Aviv increased on average by NIS 217,000 from the end of 2023 so that the average four-room apartment now costs NIS 4.75 million. Here too buyers have changed the types of purchases compared with last year. Unusually, most purchases in Tel Aviv are for new apartments, which has raised prices. In this market too, a security room is a critical matter in the decision to buy an apartment, and its price.
In Herzliya, the price of an average four-room apartment increased by NIS 280,000 to NIS 3.8 million in the second quarter of 2024 from the fourth quarter of 2023. In Ramat Gan the price of an average four-room apartment rose NIS 203,000 to NIS 3.3 million.
Prices fell in Jerusalem
The most modest rise in housing prices over this period was in the Jerusalem district. This district includes Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh and many of the buyers are haredi. The average price of a four-room apartment in Jerusalem itself over this period actually fell by NIS 130,000 to NIS 3.03 million. This figure may have been affected by the large number of foreign residents who bought expensive apartments in Jerusalem in the fourth quarter of 2023, which may have inflated the average figure during that quarter.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 20, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.