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Sunday, December 23, 2007
Africa Israel Q3 net profit soars 82 pct
Israeli conglomerate Africa Israel Investments AFIL01.TA said on Sunday its third-quarter net profit surged 82 percent as revenue nearly doubled.
The company, which is controlled by billionaire Lev Leviev, recorded quarterly net profit of 215 million shekels ($55.6 million) or 4.42 shekels per share diluted compared with 118 million shekels or 2.09 shekels per share diluted a year earlier.
Africa Israel's revenue in the quarter rose to 2.23 billion shekels from 1.23 billion shekels.
The company noted that the growth in net profit was achieved despite its warning last month that it would post a rise in financing costs because of higher inflation in the quarter. The company has a large part of its debt linked to the consumer price index.
The company has interests in real estate, energy, hotels, fashion and infrastructure. It owns 71 percent of AFI Development Plc (AFIDLq.L: Quote, Profile, Research), a Russia-focused real estate company. (Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
source: reuters.com
The company, which is controlled by billionaire Lev Leviev, recorded quarterly net profit of 215 million shekels ($55.6 million) or 4.42 shekels per share diluted compared with 118 million shekels or 2.09 shekels per share diluted a year earlier.
Africa Israel's revenue in the quarter rose to 2.23 billion shekels from 1.23 billion shekels.
The company noted that the growth in net profit was achieved despite its warning last month that it would post a rise in financing costs because of higher inflation in the quarter. The company has a large part of its debt linked to the consumer price index.
The company has interests in real estate, energy, hotels, fashion and infrastructure. It owns 71 percent of AFI Development Plc (AFIDLq.L: Quote, Profile, Research), a Russia-focused real estate company. (Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
source: reuters.com
Property Sellout in the Capital
The five-star Palace Hotel and Residences, now rising behind a preserved ornate arabesque facade close to the Old City of Jerusalem, is set to be the last word in luxury - but also to meet the most demanding religious requirements of ultra-Orthodox Jews. So, for example, there will be no mixed swimming there and instead it will boast two pools - one for men and one for women. And apart from meticulous observance of kashrut and the Sabbath, the Palace's main attraction for its target clientele will be its proximity to Judaism's most holy site, the Western Wall of the Temple Mount.
When the Palace was first built, in the 1930s, the entrepreneur had a completely different crowd in mind, and a different part of the Temple Mount. He was none other than the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, whose goal was to draw rich Arabs from all over the Middle East, and whose other plans for enhancing the status of Jerusalem included the restoration of the Islamic shrines on the Haram al-Sharif - as the Muslims call the Temple Mount.
The builder of the new Palace may well be called the grand mufti of developers: none other than Paul Reichmann, the daring 76-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish Canadian international real estate mogul, who made a spectacular recovery from the $25 billion bankruptcy of the family-owned Olympia & York Developments Ltd. in 1992. After building up another vast fortune within a decade he announced his retirement in 2005, but soon grew bored and launched a new $4 billion venture last year.
Reichmann and his family, who are reported to be investing $170 million in the Palace project, are hardly alone in sensing the interlocking interests of overseas money and religion fueling Jerusalem's luxury real estate market. Though it has been fashionable for years among well-heeled Diaspora modern and ultra-Orthodox Jews to buy or build expensive residences in select Jerusalem neighborhoods, the market for luxury holiday homes in walking distance of the Old City is still booming, and a slew of new buildings for this purpose are being constructed close to the commercial center of Jerusalem, many of them on and around King David Street.
"What used to be a luxury home here and there has mushroomed into whole buildings exclusively just for holiday homes. David's Village times ten," says Hebrew University geography Prof. Shlomo Hasson, referring to the pioneering luxury project of the 1990s, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, close to Jaffa Gate and the Old City wall, whose units often stand empty most of the year.
This friendly part-time invasion is injecting money and confidence into Jerusalem's poor economy, weighed down by the large local ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations, many of whom sustain their large families on government welfare. But critics say it is also creating havoc by heating up the local real estate market and making Jerusalem unaffordable for most Israelis. What's more, choice parts of the city are becoming gilded ghost ghettos, populated only for a few weeks at a time during Jewish holiday seasons.
Moreover, the overwhelmingly Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox profile of the buyers is problematic in a city with no shortage of social, political and ethnic tensions, says Hasson. Downtown Jerusalem has become a lively Friday night bar and restaurant venue, and he fears that that the new development may clash with this trend.
Emblematic of the clash in interests between the new market forces and the locals is a dispute between the Reichmanns and Pini Elharar, proprietor of Marrakesh, a kosher Moroccan restaurant. It is located in a small building on King David Street purchased by the developers, in addition to the old hotel, which in recent years served as a government ministry, as well as an adjacent plot, and another office building which has already been demolished. The entire interior of the Palace Hotel building has also been gutted, and the facade is being held up by heavy iron scaffolding. But though work is continuing on the other parts of the building, Elharar is refusing to vacate his protected ground-floor premises, which has housed his restaurant for 26 years and has recently ordered a new sign reflecting his determination to stay put.
Elharar claims the Reichmanns are not offering enough compensation. By law he does not have to move even though the building has been sold, and he isn't. "The whole Jewish world suddenly decided that King David Street is the place to be. I welcome them. But I have to be compensated. I spent a quarter of a century building up my client?le. It will cost me a fortune to relocate and recreate what I have built here," says Elharar.
Not only businessmen are worried about the impact of the part-time invasion. Avner Haramati, a 55-year-old occupational psychologist, who lives in the upscale Talbiye neighborhood with his wife, a daughter of American immigrants, says that 50 percent of homeowners there are foreigners and most of his building is occupied by absentee owners. Haramati, who has been organizing Israeli residents of the capital to fight the new trend, says that locals are in a rage with American Jewish buyers who are ''destroying the neighborhoods by building monstrous towers and aren't even living here! Jerusalem is being destroyed." Significantly, it's not only the principle that concerns him, but the people themselves. "There is a growing animosity against the Americans with their loud voices and manners. Jerusalem is not some bungalow colony in the Catskills.'' Haramati notes that although the value of his own Talbiye apartment has doubled, his grown children cannot afford rentals in the city.
But City Hall and some local merchants say that overall the infusion of cash, brought by the part-time inhabitants, is revitalizing the city and that the sophisticated new arrivals can only enrich the city financially and socially. And the trend has the blessings of David Kroyanker, an eminent Jerusalem architect, urban planner and author of more than a dozen books on the city's buildings and neighborhoods. Involved with plans to turn the Palace into an economically viable hotel for the past 25 years, Kroyanker was hired by the Reichmann team to develop a preservation plan at the site. He says the exclusive buildings for wealthy foreigners, even if empty, are "a lot better than dilapidated buildings," which have dominated prime Jerusalem real estate for years. "I am for anything which eliminates blight. Anyway, there is nothing we can do about it because it's a free market and there are no compulsory residency laws for foreign purchasers of real estate in Israel."
source: reuters.com
When the Palace was first built, in the 1930s, the entrepreneur had a completely different crowd in mind, and a different part of the Temple Mount. He was none other than the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, whose goal was to draw rich Arabs from all over the Middle East, and whose other plans for enhancing the status of Jerusalem included the restoration of the Islamic shrines on the Haram al-Sharif - as the Muslims call the Temple Mount.
The builder of the new Palace may well be called the grand mufti of developers: none other than Paul Reichmann, the daring 76-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish Canadian international real estate mogul, who made a spectacular recovery from the $25 billion bankruptcy of the family-owned Olympia & York Developments Ltd. in 1992. After building up another vast fortune within a decade he announced his retirement in 2005, but soon grew bored and launched a new $4 billion venture last year.
Reichmann and his family, who are reported to be investing $170 million in the Palace project, are hardly alone in sensing the interlocking interests of overseas money and religion fueling Jerusalem's luxury real estate market. Though it has been fashionable for years among well-heeled Diaspora modern and ultra-Orthodox Jews to buy or build expensive residences in select Jerusalem neighborhoods, the market for luxury holiday homes in walking distance of the Old City is still booming, and a slew of new buildings for this purpose are being constructed close to the commercial center of Jerusalem, many of them on and around King David Street.
"What used to be a luxury home here and there has mushroomed into whole buildings exclusively just for holiday homes. David's Village times ten," says Hebrew University geography Prof. Shlomo Hasson, referring to the pioneering luxury project of the 1990s, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, close to Jaffa Gate and the Old City wall, whose units often stand empty most of the year.
This friendly part-time invasion is injecting money and confidence into Jerusalem's poor economy, weighed down by the large local ultra-Orthodox and Arab populations, many of whom sustain their large families on government welfare. But critics say it is also creating havoc by heating up the local real estate market and making Jerusalem unaffordable for most Israelis. What's more, choice parts of the city are becoming gilded ghost ghettos, populated only for a few weeks at a time during Jewish holiday seasons.
Moreover, the overwhelmingly Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox profile of the buyers is problematic in a city with no shortage of social, political and ethnic tensions, says Hasson. Downtown Jerusalem has become a lively Friday night bar and restaurant venue, and he fears that that the new development may clash with this trend.
Emblematic of the clash in interests between the new market forces and the locals is a dispute between the Reichmanns and Pini Elharar, proprietor of Marrakesh, a kosher Moroccan restaurant. It is located in a small building on King David Street purchased by the developers, in addition to the old hotel, which in recent years served as a government ministry, as well as an adjacent plot, and another office building which has already been demolished. The entire interior of the Palace Hotel building has also been gutted, and the facade is being held up by heavy iron scaffolding. But though work is continuing on the other parts of the building, Elharar is refusing to vacate his protected ground-floor premises, which has housed his restaurant for 26 years and has recently ordered a new sign reflecting his determination to stay put.
Elharar claims the Reichmanns are not offering enough compensation. By law he does not have to move even though the building has been sold, and he isn't. "The whole Jewish world suddenly decided that King David Street is the place to be. I welcome them. But I have to be compensated. I spent a quarter of a century building up my client?le. It will cost me a fortune to relocate and recreate what I have built here," says Elharar.
Not only businessmen are worried about the impact of the part-time invasion. Avner Haramati, a 55-year-old occupational psychologist, who lives in the upscale Talbiye neighborhood with his wife, a daughter of American immigrants, says that 50 percent of homeowners there are foreigners and most of his building is occupied by absentee owners. Haramati, who has been organizing Israeli residents of the capital to fight the new trend, says that locals are in a rage with American Jewish buyers who are ''destroying the neighborhoods by building monstrous towers and aren't even living here! Jerusalem is being destroyed." Significantly, it's not only the principle that concerns him, but the people themselves. "There is a growing animosity against the Americans with their loud voices and manners. Jerusalem is not some bungalow colony in the Catskills.'' Haramati notes that although the value of his own Talbiye apartment has doubled, his grown children cannot afford rentals in the city.
But City Hall and some local merchants say that overall the infusion of cash, brought by the part-time inhabitants, is revitalizing the city and that the sophisticated new arrivals can only enrich the city financially and socially. And the trend has the blessings of David Kroyanker, an eminent Jerusalem architect, urban planner and author of more than a dozen books on the city's buildings and neighborhoods. Involved with plans to turn the Palace into an economically viable hotel for the past 25 years, Kroyanker was hired by the Reichmann team to develop a preservation plan at the site. He says the exclusive buildings for wealthy foreigners, even if empty, are "a lot better than dilapidated buildings," which have dominated prime Jerusalem real estate for years. "I am for anything which eliminates blight. Anyway, there is nothing we can do about it because it's a free market and there are no compulsory residency laws for foreign purchasers of real estate in Israel."
source: reuters.com
Migdal continues real estate investments
Migdal Insurance and Financial Holdings Ltd. (TASE: MGDL) has completed its purchase of the Herzliya Life Plaza complex for NIS 300 million. The purchase was made with funds from participating life insurance policies.
The 22,000-square meter two-building office and commercial complex was bought from a subsidiary of Fishman Holdings CA Israel Ltd. is the primary tenant in one building; construction of the second building is due to be completed by mid-2008 and marketing of space is now underway.
source: reuters.com
The 22,000-square meter two-building office and commercial complex was bought from a subsidiary of Fishman Holdings CA Israel Ltd. is the primary tenant in one building; construction of the second building is due to be completed by mid-2008 and marketing of space is now underway.
source: reuters.com
In Sderot, real estate woes punctuate rocket blasts
Questions about apartment prices in Sderot prompt an angry retort from Yaakov Solomon, who runs a small real estate agency in the center of town. "Sderot is not for sale," he says, but does not deny that property values have plummeted in recent years, to the point that "they can't drop any further."
His sense that prices have recently stabilized gains credence from the Israeli real estate Web site. Here it says that although prices in Sderot are lower than anywhere else in the South, they have remained stable over the past two months.
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Solomon does not like the opportunists who sometimes come down from Tel Aviv in search of a nice house for the price of a three-room apartment, as an investment for the day the Qassam rockets stop falling and apartment prices rise.
He thinks this makes his town look bad, so he tells the visitors that there are no bargains.
Solomon and other Sderot residents attest to a class division among those wishing to leave the pummeled city.
Some people simply closed up their houses and moved out of rocket range, while some remain because they cannot afford to sell or rent their homes at such low prices. And nobody asks residents of subsidized public housing where they want to live.
"People have to have the right to choose where to live. When a person can't decide for himself, the situation is very bad," says Larissa, a woman in her forties who works with Solomon.
Larissa immigrated to Israel from Moscow in 1999 and wound up in Sderot because she had relatives there.
She paid $70,000 in 2001 for her four-room home, and now she and Solomon estimate it is worth no more than $60,000.
"I would like to move from here, to somewhere north of Ashdod, because Ashkelon already gets Qassams too," Larissa says calmly.
"But it is impossible for me. I have a mortgage to pay back. In the first few years I paid the interest, and only now am I starting to pay off the capital itself.
"Where will I get the money to give the bank the difference between the mortgage and the apartment's current value?"
Ridiculous prices
Another resident, Sima Hadad, says she wants to sell her unprotected home to move to a reinforced house in Sderot, but that the prices she is being offered for her place are ridiculous.
Not far from Solomon's agency is another, Bayit Vagan Real Estate.
A client who requested anonymity came in to discuss selling four properties he owns: three apartments of various sizes and a private house where he lives. He bought his home and another property many years ago, and the other two apartments about a decade ago, as an investment. But lately that investment has turned into an expense - mortgage payments and municipal property taxes.
"Today I can get for these properties 50 percent of the price I paid for them," he said. "For one place I bought for $65,000, I wouldn't be able to get more than $35,000 now. The second place I bought for $113,000, and today nobody will give be more than $70,000 for it." He says the value of the private house he lives in has been halved from $200,000.
With the current sale prices, he could trade in all three properties for an apartment in Ashdod, at best, he says.
Realtor Yaakov Levy agrees with his client.
Levy estimates that property values in Sderot have dropped between 30 and 50 percent in the past six years.
Another client there says he wants to sell an apartment he bought for $84,000 but has been offered only $50,000, "so I refused and am continuing to pay the mortgage on it."
What about rentals? It's hard to say. The "For Sale" and "For Rent" signs plastered all over houses and apartments in Sderot may indicate that landlords are having a hard time finding tenants. Levy says that students are renting a lot less in Sderot.
An unexpected shortage
In contrast, Haim Kuznitz, owner of a public relations firm, says it is fairly easy to rent out apartments in Sderot, and that there is even a shortage.
Kuznitz owns a large house for which he is asking $220,000. Unlike others, he does not want to leave Sderot because of the Qassams.
"I want to leave because of the social situation; the mayor who ruined the city in recent years."
But he cannot get a decent price for his house, and is not willing to sell it for less. "This is not even open to negotiation," he says.
source: reuters.com
His sense that prices have recently stabilized gains credence from the Israeli real estate Web site. Here it says that although prices in Sderot are lower than anywhere else in the South, they have remained stable over the past two months.
Advertisement
Solomon does not like the opportunists who sometimes come down from Tel Aviv in search of a nice house for the price of a three-room apartment, as an investment for the day the Qassam rockets stop falling and apartment prices rise.
He thinks this makes his town look bad, so he tells the visitors that there are no bargains.
Solomon and other Sderot residents attest to a class division among those wishing to leave the pummeled city.
Some people simply closed up their houses and moved out of rocket range, while some remain because they cannot afford to sell or rent their homes at such low prices. And nobody asks residents of subsidized public housing where they want to live.
"People have to have the right to choose where to live. When a person can't decide for himself, the situation is very bad," says Larissa, a woman in her forties who works with Solomon.
Larissa immigrated to Israel from Moscow in 1999 and wound up in Sderot because she had relatives there.
She paid $70,000 in 2001 for her four-room home, and now she and Solomon estimate it is worth no more than $60,000.
"I would like to move from here, to somewhere north of Ashdod, because Ashkelon already gets Qassams too," Larissa says calmly.
"But it is impossible for me. I have a mortgage to pay back. In the first few years I paid the interest, and only now am I starting to pay off the capital itself.
"Where will I get the money to give the bank the difference between the mortgage and the apartment's current value?"
Ridiculous prices
Another resident, Sima Hadad, says she wants to sell her unprotected home to move to a reinforced house in Sderot, but that the prices she is being offered for her place are ridiculous.
Not far from Solomon's agency is another, Bayit Vagan Real Estate.
A client who requested anonymity came in to discuss selling four properties he owns: three apartments of various sizes and a private house where he lives. He bought his home and another property many years ago, and the other two apartments about a decade ago, as an investment. But lately that investment has turned into an expense - mortgage payments and municipal property taxes.
"Today I can get for these properties 50 percent of the price I paid for them," he said. "For one place I bought for $65,000, I wouldn't be able to get more than $35,000 now. The second place I bought for $113,000, and today nobody will give be more than $70,000 for it." He says the value of the private house he lives in has been halved from $200,000.
With the current sale prices, he could trade in all three properties for an apartment in Ashdod, at best, he says.
Realtor Yaakov Levy agrees with his client.
Levy estimates that property values in Sderot have dropped between 30 and 50 percent in the past six years.
Another client there says he wants to sell an apartment he bought for $84,000 but has been offered only $50,000, "so I refused and am continuing to pay the mortgage on it."
What about rentals? It's hard to say. The "For Sale" and "For Rent" signs plastered all over houses and apartments in Sderot may indicate that landlords are having a hard time finding tenants. Levy says that students are renting a lot less in Sderot.
An unexpected shortage
In contrast, Haim Kuznitz, owner of a public relations firm, says it is fairly easy to rent out apartments in Sderot, and that there is even a shortage.
Kuznitz owns a large house for which he is asking $220,000. Unlike others, he does not want to leave Sderot because of the Qassams.
"I want to leave because of the social situation; the mayor who ruined the city in recent years."
But he cannot get a decent price for his house, and is not willing to sell it for less. "This is not even open to negotiation," he says.
source: reuters.com
Rejuvenating one of Israel's oldest urban centers
Compared to such ancient cities as Jerusalem, Acre, Safed and Jaffa, Petah Tikva is a foundling. In relation to the modern Zionist communities, however, it is one of the oldest urban centers in Israel.
Founded 130 years ago in 1878, it was one of the countries first Jewish agricultural settlements. But much water has flown down the Yarkon River since then, and it is now a large, bustling city covering an area of 10,000 acres with a population of just under 200,000.
Given the city's proximity to Tel Aviv and its holding of necessary land reserves, Petah Tikva is set to expand rapidly.
At a time when real estate prices in Tel Aviv and the established satellite towns of Ramat Gan and Givataim are reaching record highs, prices in Petah Tikva prices have remained steady. The average price of a 120-sq.m. apartment in the better areas of Petah Tikva is about $190,000, according to Robert Boevich of Re/Max Petah Tikva, compared to $ 350,000 in Tel Aviv, Givataim and the middle class areas of Ramat Gan.
Consequently, Petah Tikva, which is barely 12 kilometers from Tel Aviv may well experience a real estate boom similar to that experienced by Rishon Lezion to the south, a city with historical roots similar to those of Petah Tikva, also having been founded over 100 years ago as an agricultural settlement.
The municipality of Petah Tikva has plans to further develop the city and widen its bounds by building new neighborhoods and more high-rise residential tower blocks, among other things.
By the year 2030, it expects to have a resident population of 350,000 to 400,000. The city has a large hi-tech industrial park and the city fathers hope that gradually these high-income families will decide to make Petah Tikva their home.
City Hall has plans for long-term development as well as for the short-term. It is rejunevating the center of the city, upgrading infrastructures and the central market shouk. These plans, which are scheduled to be completed in five years time, will create business opportunities in commerce, but primarily in real estate.
"This area is very run down and needs urgent rehabilitation," Dan Swisa, general manager of the municipality of Petah Tikva told The Jerusalem Post, describing the center of town as roughly the area encompassed by Schtemper Street to the east, Montefiori to the west, Baron Hirsch to the north and Hovevei Zion to the south. "Luckily, despite the fact that the city was founded 130 years ago and as Israeli cities go it is ancient, there are no strikingly historical buildings so there is nothing to protect and development work can go unimpeded."
When the current plans are completed in 2012, they are expected to create not only a much more agreeable and inviting atmosphere for commerce but a dramatic increase real estate prices, as well. According to Ran Wiernik, chairman of the Real Estate Appraisers Association in Israel, residential real estate prices in that area are set to rise from an average $1,400/sq.m. to $2,400.
Real estate developers already are already taking advantage of the situation.
In the area under development itself, there is no land available for building purposes because it is completely built up. However, adjacent to the area and near Montefiori Street, 30 dunams, or 30,000 sq.m. of private land has been made available for building purposes. The relevant authorities already have authorized the building of over 600 residential units in five tower blocks.
Currently, only one such tower is under construction. The City Tower, which is being built by the Daniel Yitzhaki group and will have 17 floors and parking. Prices there are indicative of what buyers might expect once the rejuvenation project is complete. Apartments at City Tower are being offered for sale at an average of $220,000 for a 100 sq.m. property, or $2,200/sq.m. - that's well above the $120,000-$140,000 cost for a 100 sq.m. apartment in the center of the city, even in a relatively new building would cost from $120,000 to $140,000.
source: reuters.com
Founded 130 years ago in 1878, it was one of the countries first Jewish agricultural settlements. But much water has flown down the Yarkon River since then, and it is now a large, bustling city covering an area of 10,000 acres with a population of just under 200,000.
Given the city's proximity to Tel Aviv and its holding of necessary land reserves, Petah Tikva is set to expand rapidly.
At a time when real estate prices in Tel Aviv and the established satellite towns of Ramat Gan and Givataim are reaching record highs, prices in Petah Tikva prices have remained steady. The average price of a 120-sq.m. apartment in the better areas of Petah Tikva is about $190,000, according to Robert Boevich of Re/Max Petah Tikva, compared to $ 350,000 in Tel Aviv, Givataim and the middle class areas of Ramat Gan.
Consequently, Petah Tikva, which is barely 12 kilometers from Tel Aviv may well experience a real estate boom similar to that experienced by Rishon Lezion to the south, a city with historical roots similar to those of Petah Tikva, also having been founded over 100 years ago as an agricultural settlement.
The municipality of Petah Tikva has plans to further develop the city and widen its bounds by building new neighborhoods and more high-rise residential tower blocks, among other things.
By the year 2030, it expects to have a resident population of 350,000 to 400,000. The city has a large hi-tech industrial park and the city fathers hope that gradually these high-income families will decide to make Petah Tikva their home.
City Hall has plans for long-term development as well as for the short-term. It is rejunevating the center of the city, upgrading infrastructures and the central market shouk. These plans, which are scheduled to be completed in five years time, will create business opportunities in commerce, but primarily in real estate.
"This area is very run down and needs urgent rehabilitation," Dan Swisa, general manager of the municipality of Petah Tikva told The Jerusalem Post, describing the center of town as roughly the area encompassed by Schtemper Street to the east, Montefiori to the west, Baron Hirsch to the north and Hovevei Zion to the south. "Luckily, despite the fact that the city was founded 130 years ago and as Israeli cities go it is ancient, there are no strikingly historical buildings so there is nothing to protect and development work can go unimpeded."
When the current plans are completed in 2012, they are expected to create not only a much more agreeable and inviting atmosphere for commerce but a dramatic increase real estate prices, as well. According to Ran Wiernik, chairman of the Real Estate Appraisers Association in Israel, residential real estate prices in that area are set to rise from an average $1,400/sq.m. to $2,400.
Real estate developers already are already taking advantage of the situation.
In the area under development itself, there is no land available for building purposes because it is completely built up. However, adjacent to the area and near Montefiori Street, 30 dunams, or 30,000 sq.m. of private land has been made available for building purposes. The relevant authorities already have authorized the building of over 600 residential units in five tower blocks.
Currently, only one such tower is under construction. The City Tower, which is being built by the Daniel Yitzhaki group and will have 17 floors and parking. Prices there are indicative of what buyers might expect once the rejuvenation project is complete. Apartments at City Tower are being offered for sale at an average of $220,000 for a 100 sq.m. property, or $2,200/sq.m. - that's well above the $120,000-$140,000 cost for a 100 sq.m. apartment in the center of the city, even in a relatively new building would cost from $120,000 to $140,000.
source: reuters.com
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