Foreign residents not flocking to Israel's housing market

Jerusalem housing Photo: Oria Tadmor
Jerusalem housing Photo: Oria Tadmor

Contrary to media reports, real estate purchases by foreign residents fell in the first quarter of 2021, the Finance Ministry reports.

Contrary to reports in the Israeli and international media, foreign residents are not flocking to the Israeli housing market. According to the Ministry of Finance's chief economist housing market survey for the first quarter of 2021, foreign residents purchased 333 homes in Israel in the first quarter, down 5% from the first quarters of both 2020 and 2019. In other words, not only has the Covid crisis not brought about a spike in interest in Israeli homes from Diaspora Jewry, as reported in the media, it has slowed it down.

The exception is Jerusalem. 66% of the homes purchased by foreign residents in the first quarter of 2021 were in Jerusalem, 40% higher than the first quarter of 2020 and 59% higher than the first quarter of 2019.

The report noted, "In each of the past three quarters (the second half of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021) purchases in Jerusalem by foreign residents crossed the 200 threshold although this is still lower than the level of purchases before the global financial crisis (in 2007 the average of quarterly purchases in the Jerusalem region by foreign residents was 325 apartments, compared with an average of 232 in the past three quarters)."

In Tel Aviv, only 48 apartments were purchased by foreign residents in the first quarter of 2021, down 23% from the first quarter of 2020 and down 37% from the first quarter of 2019 but up 48% from the fourth quarter of 2020. Foreign residents bought 34 apartments in Netanya, in the first quarter of 2021.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 17, 2021

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2021

Jerusalem housing Photo: Oria Tadmor
Jerusalem housing Photo: Oria Tadmor
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