Number of new apartments for sale grows smaller and drops by 22%

The number of new apartments for construction ,by private developers, that remain for sale in Israel is growing smaller and smaller. At the end of February 2010, there were only 8,540 such apartments, a 22% decrease since the end of February 2009.Of the 8,540 above mentioned units, some 8,180 are currently being built, and 360 were completed in the last 15 months, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).Some 1,530 new apartments were sold to the public throughout the country in February 2010, a 14% increase from January of the same year.

Mortgages jump 56%

The real estate market boom in the past two years has resulted in a 56% increase in the value of new mortgages. At the same time, the average apartment price has risen 30%, the Bank of Israel reported today.New mortgages totaled NIS 65 billion in 2009, up from NIS 41 billion in 2008.The figures indicate that the low prevailing interest rate caused borrowers to prefer variable rate mortgages, which accounted for 77% of all new mortgages in February 2009, an all-time high. Later during the year, as expectations grew that the interest rate would be raised, the proportion of variable rate mortgages fell to 51% of all mortgages."Household debt relative to disposable income was unchanged at 60% in
Israel, lower than in other countries, such as the US, the UK, and eurozone
countries," quoted the Bank.