2,597 new housing units were sold by contractors in November, compared with 2,358 in October, a 10% rise, and about the same rate of increase compared with November 2014. According to figures published today by the Central Bureau of Statistics, it appears that the buyer fixed price plan has not yet begun to affect sales of new housing units throughout Israel.
In a breakdown by district, only two districts saw a fall in the number of housing units sold in November, compared with the preceding month: Jerusalem and Haifa, where sales dropped by 16.5% and 10.7%, respectively. Buyer fixed price tenders were published in both Jerusalem and Haifa, but it is difficult to tell whether the drop in sales in these districts was affected by buyers' expectations of cheaper projects or by other factors, particularly in view of the fact that sales of housing units increased in October, compared with September. In the other districts - the northern district, the central district, Tel Aviv, and Judea and Samaria - the number of new housing units sold in November was greater than in October.
At the same time, while sales of new housing units sold by contractors were higher on a national level, another figure provided by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows a sharp downturn: the number of housing starts not for sale to the general public, which includes buyers' groups, build-your-own-home construction, rental housing construction, housing for immigrants and other special groups, construction for older people, and even an estimate for illegal construction. According to these figures, the number of housing starts not for sale hit an unprecedented low of 904, compared with 1,697 in October, a 46.7% decrease. Note that this figure includes a considerable number of variables, and it is therefore difficult to analyze the cause of this substantial drop.
Housing sector sources said that the number of housing starts among buyers' groups may have fallen because they have been driven out of state tenders by the buyer fixed price plan. Other sources hold that the decrease was affected primarily by a shortage of housing starts for private housing units in the build-your-own-home framework.
At the same time, it appears that the thesis that housing starts by buyers' groups led the decrease in housing starts not for sale is unfounded, according to other figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics: housing starts by buyers' groups totaled 2,020 units in January-November 2015, only slightly less than the 2,180 units begun during the corresponding period in 2014, which seems to indicate that buyers' groups are not the only factor in the decline in housing starts not for sale.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 6, 2016
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