Housing demand rose 13% in December 2010, compared with November, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported today, and housing demand rose 4% in 2010, compared with 2009.
Demand for new homes totaled 3,385 in December, of which 1,824 homes were sold. The rest were homes under construction, or were not available for sale (mostly build-your-own home projects or homes for buyers' groups). New home sales fell 4% from the 1,901 homes sold by contractors in November.
21,498 new homes (both privately and publicly built) were sold in 2010, 10% more than the 19,975 new homes sold in 2009.
Last week, the Ministry of Finance reported that the number of home sales fell by 6.7% in December, although they rose by 7.3% in 2010 as a whole.
35% of housing demand (both homes sold and homes not for sale) in 2010 was in the Central District and 7% was in the Jerusalem District. Demand for new homes rose 118% in Beersheva and 82% in Kfar Saba, but demand fell 37% in Ramat Gan and 20% in Netanya.
Petah Tikva was the city with the highest demand for new homes in 2010, at 2,453 apartments, of which 2,268 were sold. It was followed by Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon (where sales almost doubled compared with 2009), Netanya, Rishon LeZion, Kfar Saba, Ashdod, Rehovot, and Beersheva.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 31, 2011
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