32,370 new homes were sold in 2015, 40.3% more than in 2014, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported today, based on figures for new home sales by contractors.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the number sold in 2015 is the highest since the survey changed to the current format in 1999. The steep rise in housing sales was affected by the 0% VAT plan promoted by former-Minister of Finance Yair Lapid in 2014, which resulted in a substantial drop in new housing purchases by the general public, which was waiting for the promised decrease in housing prices promised by the plan. After the plan was shelved, housing sales climbed steeply, thereby pushing up the 2015 housing sales figures.
It cannot be ruled out that Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon's buyer fixed price plan, which guarantees eligible housing buyers a discount in buying a home, was another major factor in the increase.
The Central Bureau of Statistics figures also show that Israel's leading city in sales of new housing in 2015 was Jerusalem with 2,292 housing units sold. Tel Aviv-Jaffa was in second place, followed by Petah Tikva, Ramat Gan, and Netanya.
One town with an especially steep increase in new housing sales in 2015 was Afula, where 1,163 new housing units were sold in 2015, compared with 466 in 2014. The increase in Or Akiva was even more extreme: 771 new housing units sold in 2015, compared with only 128 in 2014.
At the same time, the number of new housing units in 2015 was actually lower than in 2014 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Ashdod, and Haifa. 1,649 new housing units were sold in Tel Aviv in 2015, compared with 1,702 in 2014, 746 were sold in Haifa (768 in 2014), and 513 in Ashdod (549).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 4, 2016
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