Tel Aviv. One of world's most expensive cities
GPG survey: TA 17th in property prices
Leading real estate website pushes Israeli city up three notches in its list of world's most expensive cities. In September, price of property in Tel Aviv was $7,020 per square meter, beating Sydney and Amsterdam
Only a day after the government appraiser issued a housing market report, revealing a 6% decline in property prices in Tel Aviv for the third quarter of the year, an overseas reminder indicates just how long Israel
has to go before a real change takes place in the housing market.
Leading real estate website Global Property Guide (GPG) ranked Tel Aviv 17th on its world's most expensive cities list, up from number 20 on last year's list.
Living in Luxury
Shay Pauzner, Calcalist
Foreign resident buys 600-square-meter apartment in luxurious Sarona housing complex. Project slated to be complete in October 2014, to include 324 flats in three 31-story buildings
According to GPG's annual survey, in September 2010 the average property price in Tel Aviv was $7,020 – NIS 26,000 (about $7,000) per square meter according to the exchange rate at the time.
The government appraiser's report, published earlier this week, cited a price of NIS 25,400 ($6,840) per square meter at the same period.
The survey, which rates the world's 94 most expensive cities, estimates average rent prices in Tel-Aviv at $2,322 (NIS 8,614). The annual return on investment in property in the city was 3.3% in the past year, the survey states.
The highest ranking cities for the period between September 2010 and September 2011 are Monaco ($53,226 per square meter), followed by London ($20,505 per square meter) and Hong Kong ($19,323 per square meter).
New York rated eighth at an average of $13,428 per square meter, average rent at $6,304 per square meter and an annual return of 4.69%.
The cities ranking below Tel Aviv are Sydney at $6,960 per square meter; Shanghai at $6,932 per square meter; Toronto at $6,179 per square meter, Stockholm at $6,146 per square meter and Amsterdam at $6,070 per square meter.
Property prices in neighboring Beirut are $4,258 per square meter, with average rents at $2,342. The cheapest city according to the survey is Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam with average rent at $500 per month and an annual ROI of 8.57%.
Aside from property prices and monthly rent rates, GPG's list also calculates the number of rental months needed in order to reach the average property price in each city.
In Tel Aviv it takes 30 months of rent to finance to cost of a flat whereas in New York it takes 21 months; in Hong Kong – 31 months; in Paris – 31 months, and in the world's most expensive city, Monaco, it takes 58 months of rent to reach the average flat price in the city.
The figures were likely not yet affected by the recent events in the global economy. Five European capitals are still on the world's most expensive cities list: Rome remains at number 11 at an average of $9,739 per square meter; Athens moves up a place to number 12 at an average of $8,410 per square meter; and Tokyo, which has suffered from a mass departure of foreign residents on the backdrop of the earthquake and tsunami, maintained its seventh place at an average $13,855 per square meter.
Click here to read this report in Hebrew
