Home sales in Israel rose slightly in August, with 7,632 apartments purchased \u2014 a 2 percent increase from the same month last year \u2014 despite a month-over-month decline, according to new figures released Monday by the Finance Ministry\u2019s chief economist.<\/p>\n
When excluding sales under government subsidy programs (which this year for the first time passed the 1,000\u2011transaction threshold), free\u2011market transactions totalled 6,572 apartments \u2014 a 4\u202fpercent decline compared with August 2024 and a 9\u202fpercent decline from July.<\/p>\n
Sales by developers in the free market fell, while moderately increased activity was recorded in the resale market (previously occupied apartments). Developer sales in August came to 3,171 units including subsidized ones \u2014 a 5\u202fpercent drop from a year earlier, reflecting the sharp rise in subsidized\u2011transaction volumes. Excluding subsidized units, developer sales in the free market reached 2,111 apartments, representing a steep 20\u202fpercent fall. <\/p>\n
Ministry officials noted that although this decline is less dramatic than in the previous four months, it was partly driven by a sales promotion in the Netanya area. In demand\u2011zones in the center of the country, developer sales continued to fall at sharp rates.<\/p>\n
The share of new\u2011build apartments purchased \u201con paper\u201d (pre\u2011construction) in August stood at 64\u202fpercent \u2014 up three percentage points compared with both July and August 2024. The ministry\u2019s analysis of reported financing incentives offered by developers showed a significant decline in the incidence of those incentives compared with the prior month. Among the five regions studied, financing\u2011incentive prevalence was 26\u202fpercent; the reduction was particularly marked in the Tel\u202fAviv, Central district and Netanya zones. By contrast, incentive incidence remained stable in the Be’er Sheva area.<\/p>\n
Resale\u2011market transactions in August amounted to 4,461 apartments \u2014 up 7\u202fpercent from August\u202f2024, but down 16\u202fpercent compared with July. On a multi\u2011year comparison of August transaction volumes since the early 2000s, the Ministry said that despite the year\u2011on\u2011year increase, the level remains very low.<\/p>\n
The ministry noted that in several large cities where developer\u2011sales volumes have sharply declined year\u2011to\u2011date (January\u2013August 2025 compared with the same period in 2024), there was a substantial increase in resale transactions. This trend was most notable in Tel\u202fAviv, Bat\u202fYam and Beit\u202fShemesh, where stocks of unsold new apartments remain high.<\/p>\n
Investor purchases in August were 1,099 apartments \u2014 a 10\u202fpercent drop compared with August\u202f2024, following steep declines since April. Despite the low level in the previous month, the August result was up 41\u202fpercent month\u2011on\u2011month. Further, the share of new\u2011build apartments in this segment continued to fall.<\/p>\n
The review also examined purchases by non\u2011resident foreigners (included within the investor category). In August, foreign\u2011resident purchases totalled 117 apartments \u2014 a sharp 28\u202fpercent year\u2011on\u2011year decline, continuing steep falls since April. Compared with July, the decline was 10\u202fpercent. Foreign\u2011resident sales in August reached 46 apartments, compared with 26 in August\u202f2024. Thus, net purchases by foreign residents in August amounted to 71 apartments, down from 137 in August\u202f2024. Geographically, about half of those purchases in August were in the Jerusalem region; in Netanya and Tel\u202fAviv foreign\u2011resident buyers acquired 17 and 15 apartments respectively.<\/p>\n
Total investor sales in August were 1,242 apartments \u2014 a 5\u202fpercent rise from August\u202f2024 but an 18\u202fpercent fall from July, mirroring the pattern in resale\u2011market transactions. First\u2011time\u2011buyer purchases in August reached 4,571 apartments \u2014 a 6\u202fpercent increase from August\u202f2024 and a moderate 3\u202fpercent rise from July. Excluding subsidized\u2011program sales (which were relatively high in August), first\u2011time\u2011buyer transactions in the free market came to 3,511 apartments, a 3\u202fpercent drop from August\u202f2024 and a 5\u202fpercent decline from July. The central region of the country stood out with sharp falls in this segment.<\/p>\n
Purchases by home\u2011improvement \/ upsizing buyers in August totalled 1,962 apartments, unchanged from August\u202f2024 but a plunge of 17\u202fpercent from July. The \u201cdownsizer\u201d share (buyers seeking smaller housing) was 23\u202fpercent in August, a notable decrease from the prior month and a drop of three percentage points compared with August\u202f2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home sales in Israel rose slightly in August, with 7,632 apartments purchased \u2014 a 2 percent increase from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3091],"tags":[51,2441,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-516248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-markets","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-markets","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115410602841415124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}