Are you a young couple or a single person over 35 without an apartment? Tired of chasing after apartments despite recent declines? You might want to consider registering for a price lottery for a tenant, an apartment at a discount, or anything that will restore sanity to the numbers. Thousands will be trying their luck as a discounted apartment lottery is set to open on Sunday. Recent prices of closed projects show that winning an apartment at a discount is worth it—with a chance to buy at prices that remind us of those from years ago, such as an apartment in Alfi Menashe which recently sold for NIS 9,418 per square meter, and an apartment in Karmiel which was sold for NIS 8,693.
While there are no guarantees of winning, registering for the lottery is still worth it. Eligibility for discounted prices are extended for a week, and cities that will be drawn are Eilat, Elad, Ashdod, Beer Ya’akov, Haifa, Harish, Kfar Kasem, Karmiel, Nof HaGalil, Netivot, Arad, Petah Tikva, Safed, Katzrin, Rosh Ha’Ein, and Rishon LeZion. So don’t hesitate – sign up for most of the apartments offered, after all, it’s a lottery ticket worth a lot of money.
If you are a young couple, a single person over the age of 35 without an apartment in your name, it is likely that you are tired of chasing after an apartment (despite the recent declines) and have looked into the possibility of registering for a price lottery for a tenant, an apartment at a discount or anything that will restore sanity to the numbers.
You got in line in your city of residence, realized that you were in 5,438th place at best, and then you expanded the circle. From conversations about “it’s a shame the project isn’t closer to the parents’ apartment in Tel Aviv”, you switched to “we must win the project in Karmiel”. If you haven’t won yet, maybe now is the time: a discounted apartment lottery will open on Sunday and thousands are going to try their luck.
The prices of the various projects that were closed in the last few months show that – if you won an apartment at a discount, run for it with all your might. The numbers are imaginary, the ones that remind us of the forgotten – prices of a few years ago.
Is it worth participating? Yes
Here are some examples of two discount apartment projects that were closed very recently, that is in March: an apartment in the Milestones project in Alfi Menashe, sold for NIS 9,418 per square meter. An apartment in the Turg project in Karmiel was sold for NIS 8,693. In other words – less than NIS 870,000 for a 100 meter apartment. Where else will you find such a price? So it is true, in both cases the sale of the apartment is allowed after 7 years from the date of registration or after 5 years from the date of receipt of Form 4 (whichever is earlier) and still – even if you have no intention of living there, this is how real estate begins to roll. This is a 20%-25% discount on the price in these places. This is a discount of about NIS 200-250 thousand. Bigger discounts will be in Petah Tikva, Rishon Lezion and Rosh Ha’Ein (see later in the article)
In Ofakim, for example, we found no less than 18 projects. There, a grant price of NIS 40,000 per apartment was determined. That is, the price per meter is NIS 9,558. If you bought a 4-room apartment for NIS 955,000, you will receive a NIS 40,000 discount, which means a price of approximately NIS 9,155. For a young couple who has equity of NIS 300,000 and wants to buy this apartment, before paying lawyers, indices, etc. – this is indeed significant.
In Ashdod, for example, the price is relatively expensive compared to other projects, but it is cheap compared to Ashdod itself. Price for an apartment within the Target Price project is NIS 14,859. In Amram Avraham’s project in the city, the price will be NIS 19,049 (the published price before discount, with a discount of up to 20%), but there 287 apartments are being drawn, compared to a few dozen in the rest. Therefore, the young people sign up for several projects and hope for the best. This is a discount of up to NIS 500,000 per apartment.
More interesting projects – in Kadima Zoran apartments will be raffled for an average price of NIS 21-22 thousand per meter – before a discount that can reach up to 20%. In Sderot, the price before discount is NIS 9,062 per meter. We found apartments in Geva Binyamin in Samaria for NIS 8,704 per meter. All of these, as mentioned, are already completed lotteries from November to March.
True, it is not easy to win discounts. For the Ofakim projects, for example, 17-18 thousand people registered, with only 170 at most winning the lottery. In Alfie Menashe, 25 lucky people won an apartment, when 17 thousand registered for it. But the data is a bit deceiving, because some of those who did not win in this particular project, won in other places. According to the Bizp]Vertel test (calculation below) the chance of winning is about 6%.
In any case, the Ministry of Construction and Housing announced that registration for the “discounted apartment” lotteries will be extended by a week. The lottery will open as planned, this Sunday, but will close on Sunday, May 7 (instead of April 30, the original date), when confirmation of eligibility will be possible only in the coming week. After that, it will not be possible to issue certificates of eligibility until registration for the lottery is closed. About 9,000 housing units throughout the country will be drawn in total.
Where will apartments be drawn?
The cities that will be drawn are Eilat, Elad, Ashdod, Beer Ya’akov, Haifa, Harish, Kfar Kasem, Karmiel, Nof HaGalil, Netivot, Arad, Petah Tikva, Safed, Katzrin, Rosh Ha’Ein, Rishon LeZion. JHowever, there are other projects such as Price Matra, which markets apartments at a price of NIS 580,000 for a 3-room apartment in district 12 in Katsrin. Prices: NIS 580,000 for 3-room apartments of approximately 80 square meters + a 12 square meter balcony; From NIS 795,000 for 4-room apartments with a size of about 100 square meters + a balcony with a size of 12 square meters; 5-room apartments with a size of about 118 square meters + a balcony with a size of 12 square meters will be sold from 919 thousand shekels, each apartment has a parking space. In Beer Ya’akov, apartments will be sold at a price of NIS 17,789 per meter, before discount. That is, much cheaper than the price today, which is around NIS 27,000 per meter – an average apartment in the city. In Yavne, the price ranges around NIS 16-17 thousand per square meter.
Want to know what the last prices of an apartment were at a discount? In Nof HaGilil (former Upper Nazareth) they paid NIS 13,000 per meter. In Ariel, a new project cost you NIS 8,631 per meter – extremely cheap. In Ashkelon, apartment projects were sold at a discount at prices of NIS 7,900-9,200 per meter. In Jessar a Zarqa near Caesarea, where mainly the members of the Bedouin community live, apartments were sold at a special discount – only NIS 7,062 per square meter. Yes, you guessed right. NIS 700,000 for a one hundred meter apartment. Want cheaper? We found in Dimona and Arad. In Dimona NIS 5,031 per meter and in Arad – NIS 6,318 per meter.
The law does not require you to purchase the apartment if you registered for it, but you will not be allowed to register for the apartment at a discount if you missed the registration date and regretted it. 500-600 thousand shekels in the south, and up to 1.7 million shekels for an average apartment in the center – these are prices that will probably not return after a price for a resident. This time too, the demand is expected to far outweigh the supply. What will this do to apartment prices in the area? In the past it has already been proven that there is a connection between the increase in housing prices in the area where there is a project and the price per inhabitant. This happens because the couple comes to the area to test the city and when they don’t win – they buy at a slightly higher price in another project. But it was during the good period of the housing market. Now it’s the other way around – the market is on the defensive and rightly so, there are already price drops and this may turn into more significant drops. Hence, the discount is already less attractive than before and the potential buyers can think that it is worth waiting a little longer before they buy. It’s a gamble – it can succeed and then they’ll buy cheaper, but it can also be the other way around.
One way or another, if you meet the parameters of an “apartment at a discount”, you don’t have to think twice – sign up for most of the apartments offered. After all, this is a lottery, a lottery, a lottery. You have a lottery ticket, it is worth a lot of money, don’t give it up.
According to a test we did a few months ago, this scratch card is worth a lot of money: a win was worth (the value of the discount) between NIS 150-200 thousand in apartments in the periphery and NIS 1.2-1.5 million in apartments in the center of the country. The discount gradually decreased from NIS 100,000 to NIS 800,000. Even in the current lottery it is about this order of magnitude – by all accounts this is a huge discount.
What are your chances?
The majority do not give up. Nearly 150,000 eligible people have registered and are competing for apartments throughout the country. We are talking about a lottery of 9,000 apartments – a chance of about 1 in 15-16. About 6% – not bad. But this is the overall chance, not in a specific project and we will explain – if for example there is a project in which 100 apartments are offered and 100 thousand eligible applicants then obviously the chance is zero – 0.1%. But if there are 5 such buildings and the 100,000 competed in each one, then the chance has already increased to 0.5%. Besides, dealing in your area (city of residence) increases the chances, because there are apartments for ‘locals’.
And finally, about six months ago, the winnings expressed huge discounts on the market price, even 50%, now it’s an order of magnitude of 20% depending on the place of course. So in the center, an apartment in Ramat Gan was sold in an apartment sale at a discount, for NIS 16-17 thousand per square meter, instead of NIS 30 thousand per square meter on the free market, it is an apartment of 100 meters and above with a profit of up to NIS 1.5 million. In Rosh Ha’Ein, the prices were 20,000 shekels per square meter and above. An apartment at the price for a tenant was sold for half: for 10,000 shekels – a profit of one million shekels or more on an apartment.
This time it will look different. Let’s start by saying that the discount apartment program has a limit “on paper” regarding the amount of the discount, which is about 20% of the market value or up to an amount of NIS 300,000. However, the value of the discount was determined according to the apartment prices in 2020, and since then the prices have climbed at a rate of 25%. In such a situation, the discount already increases to the 25% area and the amount of the discount in the demand areas can increase to the numbers we saw in the previous promotions. Against this background, the mechanism will change, but only in a few months and it will not include the current lottery.
However, it seems that the Ministry of Housing and Construction understood the great absurdity in which an established population gets even richer (after all, those who buy in the center in the first place have means) and limited the tenders in the areas of demand and reduced the discounts there. for example Apartment in Rosh Ha’Ain It will go up according to the price per square meter of 16-17 thousand shekels, a discount of about 5-6 thousand shekels per square meter, but not 10 thousand plus as it was in the past.
The Rishon Lezion discount will also be limited. An apartment there will cost NIS 19,000 per square meter, this is a discount of about NIS 7-8 thousand per square meter, below the previous discounts, although here too it is an impressive discount that can reach NIS 700-800 thousand.
Also, apartments are offered in Petah Tikva at a price of NIS 17-18 thousand per square meter. This is a discount of about NIS 7-8 thousand per square meter, a similar size to the discount in Rishon Lezion of NIS 700-800 thousand.