Show me an example Israel Real Estate News: April 2008

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Students urge Jerusalem's absentee homeowners to rent

While many Diaspora Jews consider their Israeli homes an important investment in the Jewish state, many locals say absentee homeowners have driven up market prices, drained the market of available rentals and made many Jerusalem neighborhoods unaffordable for Israelis.

That's why a coalition of student activists has launched a campaign to persuade the absentee homeowners to open up their homes to Israeli renters.

"We think it's great that foreign Jews are buying here and investing in Jerusalem," said David Uziel, 29, a graduate student in urban planning at Hebrew University. "But if they keep their apartments empty, they are weakening Jerusalem."

Friday, April 25, 2008

Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka to visit Israel

Ivanka Trump, the daughter of real estate mogul Donald Trump, will arrive in Israel on May 12 to get acquainted with the local real estate market.

Ivanka Trump will be in Israel for two days to gather information on investments for her father, as well as to try to pull Israeli investors to Donald Trump's new real estate project in Philadelphia.

Ivanka Trump, 26, will be visiting Israel for the first time. She will be traveling alone and plans to meet with Israel's uppermost economic and political echelons. During her stay, she will be staying in one of the suites at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Real estate sector lifts market

The TASE saw another day of rises, on the back of yesterday's gains on Wall Street and the positive reaction on stock markets around the globe. The real estate sector took the lead once more, with the TA Real Estate 15 Index finishing the day up 4.6%.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Most Israeli real estate companies are heavy users of credits

This is good news for anyone who invests in Israel real estate stocks. Apartment buyers, as well as those who have bought apartments in the past, will benefit from the sharp drop in interest rates through lower mortgage costs.

"The fall in the basic interest rates," Bruchim said, "will have an immediate effect on mortgages. Mortgages are sophisticated financial transactions. Clients can choose what kind of mortgages they want - whether in foreign currency, shekel mortgages linked to the cost of living, or unlinked shekel mortgages bearing floating interest rates based on the prime rate. Most take a mortgage mix of shekel-linked and prime rate-linked on a 60% to 40% ratio. Some also take a small part of their mortgage linked to the US dollar.

Monday, April 14, 2008

'Nature beats real estate' in Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the decision by the Tel Aviv District Court to prohibit construction on a parcel of land in Nes Tziona that is one of the few remaining habitats of the Dark Purple Iris (Iris Atropurpurea, Irus Ha'argaman). The flower is unique to Israel.

After state planning authorities did not earmark the land for construction, on the grounds that a national park was planned there, the owners of the property took their case to the district court. When the court upheld the planning council's decision, the landowners appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court justice said in their ruling that the planning authorities had carefully considered all aspects of the land dispute, and that they saw no reason to interfere in the planners' decisions. The justices emphasized the importance of preserving the property in its natural state.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Auctioning real estate in Israel

Israel real estate - This trend has also started to capture the real estate market as more and more websites specialize in the sale of real estate. In recent times the system of auctioning real estate through the internet is gaining ground though slowly and with reason. Real estate sales conducted through an online auction is now also offered in Israel. David Levy a lawyer who specializes in real estate has launched a new website called, mizrachonline, in which homes are been auctioned to the highest bidder.

In 2007 approximately 95,000 apartments and houses were bought and sold in Israel of which some 25,000 were new constructions. The majority of apartments were sold by conventional means either through a real estate brokers, the sales network of the development companies or through adds in the media.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

David Baruch: "Israel's real estate market will be hit by the US sub-prime crisis."

"A slowdown in Israel is a certainty and a sharp drop in foreign investment in both commercial and residential real estate is probable," predicts Excellence Investments CEO David Baruch. He made the comment during the annual conference of the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel in Eilat on Friday. There were more than 950 participants at the event at the Princess Hotel.

Baruch added, "The sub-prime crisis has created capital distress at foreign banks, with the result that Israeli developers in international markets will find it difficult to obtain credit. The price of credit in Israel and overseas will go up."

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Forbes sees promise in Israeli real estate

"Forbes" says, "Although the worldwide real estate market is softening as credit reservoirs dry, some spots are poised for growth." The magazine rated Israel as the world's most "up-and-coming" real estate market.

"Forbes" notes, "Israel's real estate market struggled in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the country grappled with deflation. As late as 2006, market weakness had pushed prices down 4%, according to Knight Frank, a London-based real estate research company. But last year prices climbed 2%. That is expected to continue, given the country's robust 5.1% 2007 growth in gross domestic product and a 3.8% projection for this year, according to the International Monetary Fund."

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Tel Aviv's most expensive flat, a steal at $34 million

The elite Tel Aviv real estate market is sailing to unrecognizable heights these days, at least as far as contractors can see.

The Gindi Group, which holds construction of the G Tower in central Tel Aviv, recently announced that it would be selling one of its apartments for $34 million - the highest-priced flat in the city.

The cost is nearly twice that of Israel's currently highest-priced apartment, purchased by Idan Ofer on Rothschild Boulevard 1 for $17.1 million.
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The question now is whether anybody will actually be willing to pay the demanded amount.