Valuable guide for investors
ISRAELI AND overseas investors (from the UK, EU and North America) continue to snap up properties across Israel at a fast pace. Low interest rates, attractive housing and massive infrastructure projects in Israel’s periphery, making travel to the country’s central business hubs faster and more efficient, are the key factors fuelling the rise in real estate sales. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 2,600 new flats and homes were sold in February, a record-breaker in terms of monthly sales statistics. Demand for quality affordable projects is on the verge of outstripping supply, as government bureaucratic mishaps have created an ongoing shortage of building starts in many key cities. So anyone who invests in a sought-after property can hope to realise consistent annual profits (between five and 15 per cent) depending on the property’s location.
THE HOTTEST MARKETS MODIIN
With some of the largest land reserves in central Israel, this fast-growing “city in the country” is attracting huge interest from Israeli buyers, as well as investors from France and Englishspeaking countries.
Two new neighbourhoods are being built — Nofim and City Centre. Nofim is aimed at families with children who wish to put down long-term roots, while the City Centre project, featuring smaller flats, is being marketed to first-time buyers, young couples and overseas investors.
NETANYA
A myriad of quality projects along the city’s southern and central coastlines has attracted significant numbers of buyers and investors from the UK, France and North America. Prices vary depending on the proximity to the city’s beachfront and access to shopping zones and transport links.
JERUSALEM
In the past two years, developers have concentrated on building an array of residential projects aimed at diverse overseas investors — traditional, Modern Orthodox and Charedi — in the city’s centre (between Jaffa Street and Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall), the Arnona district (which features views of the Judean Desert) and Romema, near the entrance to the city.
Within the next few years, the skyline at the entrance to Jerusalem will be dotted with construction cranes, as the mayor fast-tracks the city’s massive real estate and hotel development plans.
BET SHEMESH
As in Modiin, developers are taking advantage of the city’s significant land reserves by constructing entire new neighbourhoods, designed for Modern Orthodox and Charedi residents.
TEL AVIV
The city with the most expensive cost of living in Israel continues to lure buyers and investors simply because Tel Aviv has the country’s most bustling business and cultural hubs, as well as gorgeous beaches, restaurants and after-hours clubs.
Luxury towers are being built on rezoned lots in various parts of the city’s southern tier near Jaffa and the Carmel Market, as well as the city’s centre near the Azrieli shopping mall and behind the Arlozorov Street railway station.
PETACH TIKVA
Less than 15 minutes from midtown Tel Aviv, with one of the country’s fastestgrowing high-tech zones, Petach Tikva is a draw for buyers and investors alike. They have made this satellite city a red-hot real-estate market for the past three years.
Nearly two dozen towers are in various states of construction, with flats being sold to hundreds of young couples and families who wish to live near the big city without having to pay Tel Aviv’s exorbitant prices.
HAIFA
This picturesque bayside city is being primed to become the strongest property market in the country, with prices for second-hand and new flats rising by 15 to 20 per cent during the past year alone.
Developers are beginning to put up impressive residential towers overlooking the beachfront at the southern entrance to the “lower city” as well as on the Carmel Mountain ridge (aka the “upper city”), which offers a view of Haifa Bay. Bet Shemesh: many of the newly built homes are aimed at Modern Orthodox and Charedi residents
BEERSHEBA
The capital of the Negev is being transformed from a desert backwater into a haven of education and innovation, as the Israeli government has poured billions of shekels into developing new army bases in the surrounding suburbs, as well as investing in a cybertech hub within the city’s environs. This has accelerated an already existing building boom.
ASHKELON
One of the last coastal cities across Israel that is blessed with enough land reservestoattractdevelopers, Ashkelon has enticing beachfront projects for buyers and investors alike.
There are some spectacular flats here, with unobstructed views of the Mediterranean — and far lower prices than those of comparable homes in Tel Aviv, Netanya and Herzliya.
BAT YAM
Buyers and investors who wish to work and play in adjacent Tel Aviv but do not have the funds or are unwilling to pay exorbitant flat prices have an excellent alternative in Bat Yam, where several new apartment towers are being built facing the Mediterranean to accommodate the growing demand from both local Israeli buyers and overseas investors.