New Mortgages Return to Early-Year Highs, Reaching About NIS 9.7 Billion in May

The pace of mortgage taking in 2026 remains high. According to Bank of Israel data published today (Wednesday), new mortgages totaling about NIS 9.687 billion were taken out in May. In the previous month, April 2026, due to Passover, the volume of mortgages was about 22% lower, at about NIS 7.9 billion, a figure that was also considered relatively high, given that fewer loans are naturally taken out during the holiday period.

According to the data, since the start of 2026, new mortgages totaling about NIS 46 billion have been taken out in five months. That translates into an annual pace of about NIS 110 billion for this year. By comparison, in the first five months of 2025, the volume of new mortgages taken out stood at NIS 41 billion, while in the first five months of 2024 it was about NIS 30 billion. In fact, only in the exceptional year of 2022, when all-time records were broken, was the volume of new mortgages taken out in the first five months of the year higher.

These figures run counter to home sales data, especially for new apartments, where a downward trend in transaction volume has continued for more than a year. How, then, can mortgage volumes be so high? One major reason is developers' financing offers, which postpone the main payment, and the mortgage drawdown, by several years, meaning it is quite possible that many of the mortgages taken out now are a reflection of transactions completed one, two or three years ago under developers' promotions.

Another explanation, as we have already reported here, is that nearly half of mortgages are executed in several installments, and about 80% of monthly credit drawdowns are actually the first drawdown of a new loan, with several mortgages recorded for each such case. In any event, it appears that developers' promotions are also continuing at a high pace, despite Bank of Israel restrictions imposed back in April last year. The volume of so-called bullet and balloon loans, as defined by the Bank of Israel, taken out for the purchase of an apartment, totaled about NIS 1.48 billion in May, one of the highest levels recorded since the significant rise in such loans began around mid-2024. These loans accounted for about 15% of all new mortgages, a rate similar to that seen in previous months.