Treasury reports rise in homes bought for investment

new homes
new homes

Overall home purchasing figures rose in February and March, but preliminary data indicates a fall in April.

Israel's real estate market is still boiling over with 10,500 apartments sold in March, a similar level to February. But if sales in the Beersheva region are excluded, then homes sales in March were up 11%, the Ministry of Finance reports.

In February, there were an exceptional number of sales in the Karmei Gat project in the Beersheva region, which distorted the overall picture. Thu if these figures are removed, there was a major rise in almost every area of the country in March, especially in Jerusalem and the inland plains.

The figures show a certain cooling off in the purchase of apartments by investors. In March the proportion of investors in purchases fell 7%, after falling 16% in February. 24% of all homebuyers are investors. The reason for the fall is mainly the 42% fall in sales in the Beersheva region (once again Karmei Gat). There was also a fall in purchases by investors in the Sharon region although purchases rose in Hadera and the inland plains.

However, the Ministry of finance figures found many investors returning to the market including investors who have taken advantage of exemptions from betterment tax and sold homes. "Since the beginning of 2015 there has been a high number, compared to recent years, of investors buying more than one apartment for investment over the past decade."

The Ministry of Finance said that if 23% of investors have bought more than one apartment over the past decade, in March that figure rose to 33%.

The Ministry of Finance added that preliminary figures found a sharp fall in house purchases in April.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 3, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

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