Despite record prices in the second quarter of 2009, and despite a shrinking supply of apartments, Central Bureau of Statistics figures imply that contractors don't want to begin new projects.
In the first half of 2009, there was a drop of 3.3% in housing starts, compared with the corresponding period of 2008. In the first six months of 2009, construction of 14,790 new dwellings was begun, with 44% of them private houses. In all of 2008, there were 30,480 new housing starts.
Market sources estimate that the pace of housing starts since the beginning of the year will lead to a full year deficit of at least 8,000 homes compared with demand for new homes.
The greatest number of housing starts in 2009 was in the center of the country (32.7%), though only 10.3% of the total was in the Tel Aviv district, a drop of 40.3%. 6.6% of housing starts were in the Haifa district, a drop of 23.5%.
The city with the highest number of new housing starts in the first half was Petah Tikva, with 1,003 (an increase of 93%), followed by Jerusalem, Netanya, Ashkelon which, with a rise of 226%, has apparently recovered from the effects of Operation Cast Lead, and Tel Aviv.
In addition, a monthly survey by the Ministry of Finance shows that the average price for a new apartment fell 2% in July, compared with June, and reached NIS 1.203 million.
Foreign residents are still not rushing to Israel, and in July they bought only 231 apartments (2.3% of all apartments sold in July), compared with 283 in June. The total amount of mortgages taken out in July also fell, by 3.7%, to NIS 1.208 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 31, 2009
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