While Israel’s broader housing market is stuck in a slowdown, weighed down by high interest rates and economic and security uncertainty, Tel Aviv’s luxury segment is still seeing major deals worth tens of millions of shekels. The clearest example is a penthouse in north Tel Aviv’s Usishkin Street, sold for 45 million shekels after only three months on the market.
The apartment spans 358 square meters over two floors and includes five bedrooms, two living rooms, three kitchens, two reinforced safe rooms, three balconies, four parking spaces and two storage rooms. The price works out to about 110,400 shekels per square meter. The buyers are an Israeli couple in their 60s who live between Israel and Europe, while the sellers are a family from Belgium that abandoned plans to immigrate to Israel.
Ali Tayeb, head of projects at Israel Sotheby’s International Realty, which marketed the property, said, “Even in a period of uncertainty, rare prime properties in Tel Aviv continue to attract demand from Israelis and overseas buyers, and are sold quickly.” He added that the sale reflects how detached the ultra-wealthy market is from ordinary homebuyers.
The Usishkin deal is well above nearby precedents. A garden duplex on Bnei Dan Street recently sold for 35 million shekels, about 92,000 shekels per square meter, and a nearby penthouse sold about a year ago for 24.3 million shekels, or around 78,000 shekels per square meter. In the Sde Dov district, luxury buying is also strong, with three homes in the FIRST project by Hagag Group recently sold for more than 100 million shekels combined. The most expensive, on the 38th floor, went for more than 42 million shekels, while units on the 39th and 43rd floors sold for more than 31 million shekels and about 27.5 million shekels. The buyers there are mainly businesspeople, some of them Jews from Europe.
Appraiser Nechama Bougan said luxury demand is shifting from villas and cottages toward distinctive apartments in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and that buyers are willing to pay large sums in advance, sometimes before construction begins, for what they see as unique location and design.
