Record in the purchase of new apartments: In 2021, more than 56,000 new apartments were sold, 37% more than the quantity purchased in 2020, according to a survey by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on the subject. About a third of the new apartments purchased were in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Jerusalem In Bat Yam, Netanya and Modi’in, this is the first annual figure for last year, which will be crowned as the year in which the largest number of transactions for residential apartments was made.
2021 brought to a peak the trend of changing the tastes of the public of home buyers from recent years, which has increased the purchase of new apartments. It started in 2019, when the number of new apartments purchased in it increased by about 505 more than the amount purchased in the 2018 low year, while in Corona it has accelerated greatly.
It can be estimated that it started as a result of a “price per occupant”, which encouraged young couples to buy new and cheaper apartments. Indeed, most of the apartments were raffled off as part of the government plan in 2017-2018, but their sale and construction began later, in the last three years. To the popularity of the government program were also added young couples who purchased apartments on the free market, who also preferred to purchase new apartments, partly due to the favorable payment terms of the developers.
Corona, however, accelerated this trend, as people began to look for more spacious apartments that would allow them to work and study from home, the importance of balconies skyrocketed following closures, and warehouses and adjacent parking lots also became more sought-after aids. Thus, if in the past the rate of new dwellings constituted between one-fifth and one-quarter of the total dwelling market, today they constitute more than one-third of it.
As a result of this trend, the new apartments are executed at a rate similar to that of the construction rate, and even exceed it, so that the supply of new apartments left for sale currently stands at 46.9 thousand apartments, a slight increase compared to previous months, but a decrease of about 10%.
The most expensive city in apartments has defeated the popular real estate capital in demand
And again the question arises, to what extent are apartment prices in Tel Aviv inaccessible to the public? There is no doubt that in 2021 they reached a peak, but on the other hand there was an impressive jump of 36% in the number of new apartments purchased in it, compared to 2020 which reached 4.1 thousand.
The leading city in prices is also the leading city in the sale of new apartments. It is followed by a small gap of 41 apartments, the capital of the popular real estate, Ashkelon, which recorded an increase of 51% compared to 2020. Jerusalem, Ramat Gan and Bat Yam followed.
Last year, 14.4 thousand new apartments were for sale, of which 10.4 thousand were self-built apartments, mainly in the periphery, 1.7 built for rent, and about 750 built as part of purchase groups.