Construction starts at a low of 7 years – less than 36,000 apartments since the beginning of the year – real estate

Construction starts at a 7-year low. New data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics show that since the beginning of 2020, only about 35,800,000 new apartments have begun to be built in Israel. These are data that reflect an annual construction rate of about 47,730 new apartments per year, a decrease of 9% compared to last year. In practice, this is the very lowest number of construction starts in 2013.

However, according to the data, after about 9,800 construction starts were recorded in the second quarter of the year, the lowest since 2012, a figure that was probably affected by construction companies’ fears following the Corona crisis, there was a recovery in the third quarter to about 11,700 new construction starts For the quarter).

Regarding the last 12 months, construction of 49,810 apartments began, a decrease of 9.5% compared to the previous 12 months (55,060). After seasonal adjustment, the figure for construction starts of new dwellings for the months October 2019-September 2020 stands at 50,910, a decrease of about 3.7% compared to the figure recorded in the previous 12 months.

Source: CBS data

About 45% of all apartments: in Tel Aviv and the center
By district, about 24.9% of all new dwellings were built in the Central District (an increase of about 4% compared to the previous year), about 20.3% in the Tel Aviv District (a decrease of about 23.5%), about 22.4% of the dwellings were built in the Southern District ( An increase of about 19%), about 13.1% in the Northern District (decrease of about 9%), about 9% in the Haifa area (decrease of about 35%), about 8.5% in the Jerusalem area (decrease of about 9.5 %) And about 1.9% in Judea and Samaria (decrease of about 47%).

About 35.4% of the apartments that began construction for the purpose of sale were within the price per occupant, an increase of 8.3% compared to the previous 12 months. About 37.5% of the price-per-tenant apartments in the current period are built in the Southern District. In the Central District 22.2% and in the Tel Aviv District 13.9%.

Source: CBS data

Stability in building permits
However, at least in relation to the number of building permits, stability is recorded. The number of building permits issued during the period is about 55,200. A similar figure was also recorded in the previous 12 months (October 2018-September 2019), 54,800 apartments for which a building permit was issued.

Declines also in construction completion
According to the CBS, in the last 12 months the construction of about 46,510 apartments was completed. This is a decrease of 13.2% compared to the previous 12 months when the number of construction finishes was 53,610 apartments. The construction of new apartments for the months October 2019-September 2020, which are about 46,350 apartments compared to 53,300 apartments in the previous 12 months.

Source: CBS data

The largest number of apartments whose construction was completed in October 2019-September 2020, was in the Central District. This is about 28.5% of all dwellings, in the Tel Aviv district it is about 16.2%, in Haifa about 16.4%, in the southern district about 16%, in the north 12.5%, in the Jerusalem district only about 6.7% and in Judea and Samaria about 3.7 % Only.

In total, as of the end of September 2020, there are approximately 123,700 apartments under active construction in Israel.