While Israel’s broader housing market is slowing under high interest rates and economic and security uncertainty, Tel Aviv’s luxury segment is still seeing blockbuster sales. Recent transactions worth tens of millions of shekels each highlight the gap between the ultra-wealthy and typical homebuyers.
The standout deal was a penthouse on Ousishkin Street in Tel Aviv’s Old North, sold for 45 million shekels. The home was on the market for only three months and works out to about 110,400 shekels per square meter. It spans 358 square meters over two floors and includes five bedrooms, two living rooms, three kitchens, two protected rooms, three balconies, four parking spaces and two storage units.
The buyers are an Israeli couple in their 60s who live between Israel and Europe. The sellers were a Belgian family that had intended to immigrate to Israel but later withdrew that plan. Eli Taib, head of projects at Israel Sotheby’s International Realty, which marketed the property, said: “Even in a period of uncertainty, rare prime assets in Tel Aviv continue to attract demand from Israelis and overseas buyers, and are sold quickly.”
The penthouse price marks a sharp rise from nearby sales. A garden duplex on Bnei Dan Street recently sold for 35 million shekels, about 92,000 shekels per square meter, and another penthouse in the park area sold about a year ago for 24.3 million shekels, or 78,000 shekels per square meter. In the nearby Sde Dov district, luxury sales are also accelerating, including three units in the FIRST project by Hagag Group for more than 100 million shekels combined. The most expensive, on the 38th floor, sold for more than 42 million shekels. Units on the 39th and 43rd floors sold for more than 31 million shekels and about 27.5 million shekels. Buyers there are mainly businesspeople, some from Europe.
Valuer Nechama Boegin said demand in the luxury market is shifting from villas and cottages to distinctive apartments in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and that wealthy buyers are willing to pay in advance, sometimes before construction begins, for what they see as a unique location and design.
