Crescent Heights buys $38m lot in Tel Aviv

US real estate company Crescent Heights has acquired a lot on the Ayalon Triangle in Tel Aviv from Hela Brothers Ltd. for $38 million. The company plans to build a 60-floor residential and office block and expects sales to total $250 million.
Crescent Heights has also entered a partnership with Donald Trump for the construction of The Trump Tower on the old Elite factory in Ramat Gan.

Court cancels housing development to save rare plants

The Tel Aviv District Court accepted the position of the Ness Ziona Municipality and that of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI,) and cancelled a building plan for 1,000 residential units in the area of the kurkar ridges in Ness Ziona.

Gelats to build $40m Raanana office complex

Gelats Investing Co. Ltd. will build a 36,900-sq.m. office complex on a 4.6-dunam (1.15-acre) lot it owns in Raanana. The project will be called Raanana City Gate Towers.

Expanding Herzliya Pituah subject to traffic solutions

Adding 75,000 sq.m. to the 450,000 sq.m. in the high-tech area will be contingent upon completing the Glilot Interchange.
The 649-dunam (162.25-acre) Herzliya Pituah industrial zone is considered one of the leading high-tech areas in Israel, with 450,000-sq.m. of built-up space.

Average rent down 2.8% in second quarter

Average apartment rent fell 2.8% in the second quarter of 2006 to NIS 2,341 per month from NIS 2,408 per month in the first quarter, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported today.
But average rent in prestigious neighborhoods and in city centers rose, bucking the nationwide trend.

Real Estate Prices Stay High Despite War

Expensive real estate property remains high despite the war, according to an apartment price list editor quoted by Globes. Levy Yitzchak said the prices have remained stable as far north as Netanya."So far, there have been no cancellations in the central region of deals in the pipeline," he explained. "Moreover, even foreign investors with six-figure investments have not suspended their plans." He found there has been an increase in demand for smaller apartments in the Tel Aviv area.

Israel real estate unscathed by war

As businesses across the country look to recover from the war in the North, the real estate industry appears to have emerged as one sector little-affected by the conflict.
"The war was short enough and far enough away to keep the real estate market contained,"

The real estate postwar challenge

The real estate market in the north is in a state of trauma that differs from one community to another. Rehabilitation of these communities depends on government assistance that will have to exceed physical repair of damages sustained in the war − this is the shared view of local experts in the area.

Introduction to israel real estate transaction taxation

As many people are well aware, taxation has become an inseparable part of Israeli life. Taxes with names such as "Tax for Peace in the Galilee" have, since the establishment of the State, lined its coffers and provided substantial revenue for the government. But Israelis aren't alone -- the taxation of real estate transactions is customary in many countries and so, in this regard, Israel is no different.

Israeli Prime Minister Under Suspicion For Real Estate Fraud

This is nothing unusual, politicians taking a sweetheart deal on a piece of prime real estate, but the Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert has probably crossed the line by taking a property for 500,000 dollars below market value and then giving special consideration those very same contractors for permits.

They will buy, sooner or later

Foreign investors continue to express their faith in Israeli real estate, even during the war in the north. At least this seems to be the situation, according to reports from realtors, companies and banks n the foreign resident real-estate field. Even so, several costly deals have been shelved and planned visits to Israel by investors have been canceled. The conventional wisdom at present is that some purchases may have been postponed on the assumption that local prices will dip slightly as the fighting continues.

NIS 270 million budgeted for new hotels

The Finance and Tourism Ministries have agreed on a NIS 270 million (USD 61.7) aid package for entrepreneurs planning to build new hotels in the 2006-2007 fiscal year.
A number of criteria have been set for an application to be considered: the number of rooms, height of room top, and the requested subsidy should not exceed 10 percent of the total investment in B areas and 24 percent in A areas.

New home sales drop

Sales of new, privately built israeli homes were down 5.9 percent between February and May 2006 compared with October 2005 to January 2006, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Trend figures show a 14% annualized drop in new home sales - a monthly average of 1.2% - in the February to May period, after an annualized 3.7% rise in the October to January period.
Between January and May 2006 compared with same period last year, home sales were up by 44.8% in Tel Aviv; by 16.6% in the central district; and by 5.1% in Haifa. Home sales dropped 43% in Jerusalem, 36% in the North, 21% in the South and 29% in Judea and Samaria.

'Giant' business, entertainment center to rise near Netanya

Businessman Sami Shamoon's real estate development firm Yakhin-Hakal has begun work on a "giant project" that will combine offices and an entertainment complex at Ramat Poleg in Netanya, at total investment of nearly $100 million, Netanya City Hall said Sunday.