29,880 new homes were sold in Israel in 2016, 4.9% fewer than in 2015, according to a Central Bureau of Statistics report on the demand for new housing and the number of new housing units sold published today.
According to the figures, the city with the highest number of new housing units sold in 2016 was Rosh Ha'ayin, in which 1,501 new homes were sold, followed by Jerusalem in second place with 1,473 and Ramat Gan in third with 1,397.
The Central Bureau of Statistics also published figures for January 2017 showing sales of 2,622 new homes, almost 18% more in the preceding month (December 2016), when 2,226 new housing units were sold, but 10% fewer than the 2,913 new homes sold in January 2016.
The number of new homes sold in January 2017 is the highest in the past six months, following months of slowdown in new housing sales by contractors.
The publication of sales of new housing was recently postponed several times, after the Central Bureau announced that there was a problem with the data. Today's announcement came with an announcement explaining the change. The Central Bureau of Statistics says that it has not yet obtained revised data, but nevertheless decided to publish the announcement, due to the public importance of publishing the figures. At the same time, it was decided to publish only partial figures, so that the cause of most of the dispute, the number of housing units remaining to be sold, is not being published in the current announcement.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on March 16, 2017