Israel’s Housing Market Slows Sharply in April as Second-Hand Sales Fall 38%

Israel’s housing market weakened further in April 2026, when total home sales fell to 5,120 units, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. The monthly total included about 2,160 new apartments, 42.1% of sales, and about 2,960 second-hand homes, 57.9% of the market. Of the new units sold, about 34.4% were sold under the government’s Mechir LeMishtaken program.

April was a holiday month, and for its first week, until April 8, Israel was still in a state of war under Operation Roar of the Lion. Even so, the market was far weaker than in March, when 2,990 new homes and 4,770 second-hand homes were sold. The data show a 38% monthly drop in second-hand sales and about a 28% decline in that segment overall.

Looking at February to April 2026, sales reached about 20,610 homes, down 15.4% from the previous three months, November 2025 to January 2026, and down 4.3% after seasonal adjustment. Compared with the same period a year earlier, sales fell 10.9% in raw terms and 8.2% after adjustment. New-home sales made up 39.1% of the three-month total, about 8,050 units, of which roughly 26.1% were subsidized by the state. New-home sales fell 11.6% versus the prior three months, though they rose 2.9% seasonally adjusted.

In the city rankings, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem led new-home sales over the past three months, with 877 and 495 units, both down more than 9% from the prior three months. Kiryat Gat was third with 393, followed by Netanya with 388 and Ashkelon with 367, with sharp increases of 85%, 63%, and 128%, respectively. The report said the rise in smaller southern cities, including Kiryat Gat, Netivot, and Ofakim, reflects weak sales in larger cities, faster development, and aggressive marketing of entire neighborhoods, plus tax incentives that those cities received and Beersheba did not.

Second-hand sales were led by Jerusalem with 868 units, Haifa with 805, and Beersheba with 576, while Tel Aviv fell to fourth with 456 sales, down 46.5%, the steepest drop among the listed cities. Only Herzliya and Kfar Saba posted increases in second-hand sales. Unsold inventory reached 84,000 homes at the end of April 2026, implying 29.5 months to clear, with about 20,000 unsold units in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem combined.