Apartment prices jump 4.4% in second quarter of 2014 – price of new apartments up 13% – as Netanyahu’s construction freeze continues.
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The jump in prices during the period, which stretched from April to June, is thrown in more dramatic relief when looking only at new apartment prices, which rose by a whopping 13% compared to last year, with the average new apartment costing 1.6 million shekels (over $430,000), reports Calcalist.
When used apartments were thrown in, the overall average cost of buying an apartment was found to be 1.31 million shekels.
Another trend exposed in the figures, which were published a day after the end of the third quarter, showed how the number of new apartments costing under a million shekels dropped sharply, making up only 19% of the total new apartment sales in the second quarter as compared to 32% the previous year.
Unsurprisingly, there were less first-time buyers (27%, down from 38%) and more buying to repair apartments (46%, up from 39%), as well as more buyers from abroad (5.2%, up from 2.7%).
In geographic terms, new apartments were found to be further focused in the central coastal and Jerusalem area, making up 44% of the total sales in the quarter as opposed to 34% last year.
“Potential buyer’s anticipation of the government program to get rid of VAT taxes (for first-time buyers)…contributed to the drop in the number of transactions for cheap apartment and in the periphery regions, as well as the drop in number of first-time apartment buyers,” read a Housing Ministry statement.
However, the drop in sales in the “periphery” regions outside the central region that houses 70% of Israel’s population has another, more political explanation as well.
Leaders in the Judea and Samaria communities, as well as in eastern Jerusalem, have recently revealed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has completely frozen Jewish construction in the region in a “covert” building freeze.
The construction freeze has checked the natural growth of a region that is reportedly over 90% unpopulated. It also, together with the green light given to rampant illegal Arab construction in eastern Jerusalem, is part of what is charged as being an attempt to establish facts on the ground to divide Jerusalem.
The new figures on Wednesday found that the average price of an apartment in Jerusalem rose by 2.2% compared to last year, reaching 1.8 million shekels.
That escalation was even more dramatic in Tel Aviv, where the priceskyrocketed by 12% to 2.4 million shekels.
@ yamit82:
I listened to the speechster for a few moments as he thanked the people leading the Jewish communities organizations. “Chupa” is the Spanish label for the act but what was blatant were his labored vocalizations. Sounded rather bourbon affected.
Further news reported on Arutz 7 for some time today is that the fellow apparently ate at a Pork restaurant and later at a sea food place. (Can anyone confirm this?).
At any rate, anyone expecting any housing units built for Jews in Jerusalem as reported will find ice covering that up.
BB’s groveling and cowardice to Obama’s threats will destroy the economy of the country drive us into a depression and create unnecessary social chaos and harm to a large swath of the Israeli public.
The fool is so destructive that anything untoward that happens to him is well deserved. I can’t even listen to him speak. He makes me sick to my stomach.
I watched him speak but with the volumn Turned off. I already knew what he would say before he said it. He is sooo transparent. he still thinks he’s selling furniture to bumpkins.
This is just wonderful…
As, soon I am about to be taken to the cleaners, this is really ‘great news’…
🙁
Now I am confused… Were we not long ago informed even in this Blog that construction is on fine?
What gives?