1 More photos
Home purchase contract
(Photo: shutterstock)
There is excitement in the Israeli real estate market. More than NIS 11 billion in mortgage loans were taken out in December 2024, the highest since June 2022. The economic portal “Kalkalist” wrote about this in early January.
According to the head of the mortgage department at Tfahot Bank, Dror Feldman, many were in a hurry to complete the deal to purchase an apartment before the VAT increase from 17% to 18%. “Demand has jumped to levels not seen for a long time,” he noted.
The volume of mortgages taken in December 2024 is double the figure for December 2023 (NIS 5.6 billion). Let us remember that these were the first months of the war, so turnover on the real estate market decreased significantly.
According to preliminary forecasts, the total amount of mortgages taken out in 2024 will reach 90 billion shekels. This is more than 25% more than for the whole of 2023, but still below the peak of 2021-2022, when it reached 115 billion shekels.
Experts believe that the December data on Mashkants will be out of the ordinary precisely because of the attempt to have time to buy a home before taxes are raised, and in subsequent months the figures will decrease. At the same time, it is noted that the trend in the housing market is such that demand is growing, and therefore prices are unlikely to go down.
