9% drop in sale of new flats between January-April
Only 1,010 new apartments sold in Israel in first four months of 2009. Haifa, Jerusalem are only districts to record rise in number of new flats sold
The sale of new apartments in the local market saw a drop of about 9% between January and April 2009, compared to the parallel period in 2008. The figures also revealed that only 1,010 new apartments were sold in Israel in the first four months of 2009, 890 of which were still being built when they were sold and 120 whose construction had been completed in the 15 months before they were sold.
The new flats sold in April of 2009 have been in the new apartments market since the start of their construction, with an average of about a year. About half of the new flats sold in April have been in the new apartments market for about eight months since the start of their construction.
It should be noted that about 23% and 22% of new apartments sold between January and April in the northern and central districts, respectively, and about 16% and 13% in the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem districts, respectively, were sold during the first month after the start of their construction, or earlier.
Almost 50% of flats located in center
The CBS figures also revealed that about 45% of the new apartments sold between January and April were located in the central district, and about 24% - in Tel Aviv.
The sale of new apartments between January and April saw a decline compared to the parallel period last year in the following districts: Tel Aviv (15.2%), north (13.3%), south (13%) and center (8%).
The Haifa district, which was one of the weakest in the past few years, saw a 13% rise in the sale of new apartments, while the Jerusalem district saw a 1% increase.
10% drop in privately initiated construction
At the end of April, the number of new apartments for sale in privately initiated projects stood at only 8,860 – a 10% drop compared to late April of 2008. Out of all the new apartments for sale at the end of April, about 8,230 new flats are in the process of active construction, while about 630 were new apartments whose building was completed during the past 15 months.
About half of the new apartments for sale at the end of April had been offered for sale for 10 months since the start of their construction. An average of about 15 months had passed since the start of the new flats' construction, at the end of April of 2009.
Of all the new apartments at the end of April, about 37% were offered for sale in the central district and about 29% in the Tel Aviv district.
It should also be noted that 84 privately initiated new apartments were sold in the West Bank area between January and April of 2009, compared to 130 flats in the same period last year.
