The number of new apartments purchased in the market has decreased three months in a row since the peak of all purchases set last November. In February, 5,065 new apartments were purchased. This is according to CBS data. Tel Aviv, Bat Yam, Jerusalem and Ashkelon are the leading cities in the sale of new apartments.
The purchase of apartments is at a very high level, and February is in seventh place in terms of the volume of purchases. However, the decrease in the number of investors participating in the market, due to the purchase tax imposed on them starting last November, seems to lead to a certain decrease in demand, or the record number recorded in November, when 6,225 apartments were purchased – reflects early purchase by investors
In those months, about 15,600 new apartments were purchased, of which about a third are concentrated in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Bat Yam, Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Netanya and Rishon Lezion. The localities in which more than 500 apartments were sold in December 2021-February 2022 are: Tel Aviv-Yafo (1,042), Bat Yam (869), Jerusalem (853), Ashkelon (843), Netanya (777), Rishon Lezion (718) , Ramat Gan (510) and Beit Shemesh (505). The gap between Tel Aviv and the cities that follow it on the list is noticeable, and the fact is noticeable that although the prices of its apartments have risen at the highest rate in the country, Tel Aviv continues to lead the sale of new apartments.
In general, it is easy to see that the Israeli housing market is a centralized market focused on the Tel Aviv and Central areas, where about 53% of all transactions made between December 2021 and February 2022 were made; In Haifa and the north, about 18% of the transactions took place, in the south about 16%, in Jerusalem about 11% and about 2% in Judea and Samaria.