Gindi Holdings Offers 10-Year Payment Deferral on 900,000 Shekel Apartment Portion

Gindi Holdings is launching a new promotion allowing apartment buyers to defer a payment of 900,000 shekels for up to ten years after receiving their keys. This offer, applicable to approximately 300 apartments across four projects in Herzliya, Or Yehuda, Ramat Ef'al, and Ramat Gan, aims to ease the initial monthly mortgage burden for purchasers. Under the plan, buyers pay 20% of the apartment price upon signing and the remaining balance, minus 900,000 shekels, upon delivery. The deferred sum will be financed through a balloon loan from Bank Leumi or Mizrahi Tefahot, with Gindi covering the interest costs. The principal amount will be repaid without indexation.

For example, a 4.2 million shekel apartment would require an 840,000 shekel down payment and 2.46 million shekels upon key handover. The remaining 900,000 shekels, over a fifth of the price, would be due ten years later. Real estate appraiser Shmulik Cohen estimates this deferral, without interest or indexation for the buyer, is equivalent to a direct discount of 500,000-600,000 shekels on a 4.5 million shekel apartment. He suggests the promotion is driven by a desire to boost sales before year-end and maintain official pricing to avoid setting lower benchmarks for future buyers.

Cohen notes that buyers planning to save the 900,000 shekels over ten years would need to set aside 7,500 shekels monthly, assuming no investment returns. He also cautions that the repayment of the deferred sum will be assessed based on the apartment's value at that future date, not its purchase price. Gindi Holdings previously offered a similar, though index-linked, promotion in 2012. The current offer operates under stricter banking regulations, with Bank of Israel limiting contractor-subsidized balloon loans to 10% of a bank's quarterly housing loan volume.