Contractors sold 1,931 new homes in August, 1.7% more than the 1,898 sold in July and 1.2% more than the 1,907 sold in August 2017, according to figures published today by the Central Bureau of Statistics. 5,630 new homes were sold in June-August 2018, 10.6% more than were sold in March-May 2018. At the same time, the number of new homes sold in January-August is still 17.1% fewer than the number sold in the corresponding period last year.
Furthermore, it is still too early to tell whether the upswing in new home sales in the past three months indicates a recovery in sales by contractors, because the sales figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics include both new homes sold on the open market and apartments sold under the government's Buyer Fixed Price Plan. Since there is no separation of the figures into these two categories (the two markets differ in both the prices paid and the identity of the buyers), it is difficult to tell whether the number of new homes sold on the open market rose, which would indicate a recovery in sales, or whether more Buyer Fixed Price Plan apartments were sold to eligible buyers during the period in question. The housing prices index, which gives an idea of the different in prices around Israel, is not sufficient at a time when it appears that prices are rising and falling with no clear trend.
Sales of new homes rose in August in comparison with July in the northern, Haifa, central, southern, and Judea and Samaria districts, while falling in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv districts.
For unsold housing units held by contractors, the August figures show that the supply was down slightly from 24,817 in July to 24,406 in August. Central Bureau of Statistics trend figures show a consistent drop in the stock of unsold housing in the past three months. At the same time, it appears that the supply of unsold homes is at a relatively low point; this figure was over 25,000 in each of the months from July 2017 to May 2018. It is important to keep in mind that publication of figures for unsold housing units was resumed after a long period when they were not published, due to inconsistencies and a lack of figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Construction and Housing. The figures now being published are incomplete; they include only homes built by private initiative, not those built by public initiative. While the number of homes built by public initiative is small, the absence of these figures means that the data must be treated with caution.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 18, 2018
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