Apartment rents rose in Q2 despite Covid-19 crisis

Tel Aviv

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Layoffs and young people returning to live with their parents had no impact on apartment rents in Israel, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports.

Layoffs and furloughs and young people leaving their rented apartments to go back and live with their parents all seem to have had little influence on the housing rental market. The average apartment rent in Israel rose in the second quarter of 2020, according to the latest figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics. One estimate is that this is due to the continually shrinking inventory of apartments over the past five years created by former Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon who imposed higher purchase tax on investors buying homes.

Apartment rentals rose most in Tel Aviv in the second quarter of 2020 with rents up by 0.6% on average for 2.5-three room apartments and up 0.5% overall to an average monthly rent of NIS 5,735. In neighboring Ramat Gan, the average monthly rent rose by 0.7% in the second quarter of 2020 to NIS 4,371. In Jerusalem the average monthly rent rose by 0.2% in the second quarter to NIS 4,017 and in Haifa the average monthly rent also rose by 0.2% to NIS 2,576.