Transactions with customers on a fixed price plan yielded very good results. They led to the largest number of real estate transactions in Israel during the Jewish holiday season in the last decade, this is one of the best results in recent years.

At the moment, the real estate market is stronger than ever. It is 10% bigger than in the first ten months of 2018, and 9% more than in the corresponding period in 2017, according to a survey of the residential real estate sector for the first ten months of 2019. The most noticeable and inspiring feature is the almost complete dominance of young couples in the market, which accounts for 56% of all home purchases.

In September-October 2019, 15,900 houses were bought, which is 18% more than in the corresponding two months in 2018 and is the highest figure for this period since 2007. The reason was the purchase of 3,300 homes under the Fixed Price Plan for buyers.

Who buys the most?
The number of new homes bought in 2019 has grown significantly, including as a result of a fixed-price plan for the buyer. Only in September, 3,800 homes were sold, of which 2030 were sold at a fixed rate for buyers, which is the highest monthly rate since June 2015.

The potential cash flow from sales of new homes in September-October, calculated by the chief economist of the Ministry of Finance, amounted to 5.2 billion shekels.

Young couples bought 8,900 houses, which is 56% of the total number of purchased ones, which is a record indicator that demonstrates the great impact of the Fixed Price Plan for buyers on the housing market. 5500 of these houses were bought on the open market.

What about investors?
Investors are still trying to sell houses: they sold 2600 houses and bought 1800 houses in September-October. The inventory of rented houses has declined by 21,000 since April 2016, but this did not affect higher rent rates since many sales by investors are carried out in areas with excess supply.

On the other hand, 700 homes bought by investors in October were the smallest in a decade. If to take into account that most of the Jewish holidays took place on this month, their number is still small enough to show the lack of motivation among investors to work in the market, and that they are waiting for a change of government in the hope for the reduction of the taxes imposed on them in 2015.