Tel Aviv. Favored city (archives)
Photo: Tommy Harpaz
Israelis dream of living in Tel Aviv
Survey shows 17% of public want to live in metropolis, 15% favor Jerusalem. Some 50% believe real estate prices will rise even more
Israelis continue to dream of Tel Aviv, according to a survey conducted by the iGeo company of the Geocartography Group for U-Bank. Respondents were asked to ignore current real estate prices and note which city in Israel
they would like to live in.
Jerusalem came in second, both among wealthy Israelis and among the rest of the population (15%). In the third and fourth place the rich prefer the Sharon region cities of Herzliya and Raanana (6% for both), while the rest of the population favors the big cities of Haifa and Ashdod (6% and 5%, respectively).
The study sought to examine the differences between Israel's top echelons and the rest of the public, but found very small gaps. As expected, the Israeli public's favored city for residential purposes is Tel Aviv, with 25% of Israel's rich and 17% of the rest of the population seeking to live in the metropolis.
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"Among wealthy Israelis, there is a clear preference for residential areas offering a higher standard of municipal infrastructure, with education being the top priority," says Michal Miller Goren, personal banking manager at U-Bank.
"Because we are talking about careerists and businesspeople, the second most important parameter after education is easy accessibility to business centers," she adds.
Einat Zakariya, CEO of iGeo marketing management consulting, notes that the preferences of the different population segments are reflected in real estate prices in the favored communities.
"In Herzliya and Raanana, which are favored by wealthy Israelis, apartments were sold for an average price of NIS 2 million ($570,000) in the last quarter of 2010, while in Ashdod the average price stood at NIS 1 million ($290,000). Haifa is way behind, with deals valued at less than NIS 700,000 ($200,000)."
And what does the public think about real estate prices? Some 50%, both among wealthy Israelis and the rest of the public, believe housing prices will continue rising. About 10% think prices will fall, while 20% say price will remain unchanged. The remaining 20% simply said they didn't know.
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