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Last update - 09:25
03/01/2005
Local luxury apartments are not
concentrated solely in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv,
Herzliya Pituah, Caesarea and the Sharon region.
Foreigners find their favorites among less popular
cities, particularly coastal cities like Ashkelon,
Ashdod, Bat Yam and Netanya.
By Arik
Merovski
Foreigners are better acquainted with Netanya's
Nitza Boulevard than are Israelis. The small
street with a view of the sea from the northern
part of the city is one of the hottest locations
for foreigners purchasing Israeli properties.
Apartments in high-rise buildings there, in both
old and new projects, are selling for prices not
much lower than those of similar apartments in Tel
Aviv.
It seems that local luxury apartments are not
concentrated solely in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv,
Herzliya Pituah, Caesarea and the Sharon region.
Foreigners find their favorites among less popular
cities, particularly coastal cities like Ashkelon,
Ashdod, Bat Yam and Netanya.
One prominent example is the Opera Towers on
the Sea, which is located on Nitza Boulevard in
Netanya. The project was built by Aharon Tavivian
the Netanya-based developer Nahum Ezra. Ezra also
is a partner in an 80,000-sqare-meter project in
southern Netanya and in the Microsoft, Amdocs and
Nice buildings in Ra'anana.
The Opera Towers on the Sea complex contains
196 apartments. So far, all apartments in the
first tower, which have been completed, have been
sold, as have about one third of the apartments in
the second tower - all to foreign residents. The
prices ranged from $3,000-4,000 per square meter,
which is considered to be the most expensive price
for this type of project in Netanya.
In several deals in the towers, two apartments
were joined into one unit at a cost of about $1.5
million. According to the marketing arm of the
project, apartments with a full view of the sea
are on average $170,000 more expensive than those
with only a partial sea view.
Market analyst and apartment price list editor
Levi Yitzhak points out several recently concluded
deals for apartments on Nitza Boulevard. An old,
four-room apartment with a view of the sea sold
for $290,000, a 4.5-room apartment went for
$330,000, and an apartment on the rear side of the
building sold for $255,000.
Netanya's shorefront has an abundance of luxury
apartments, and that is also the case on the more
southerly part. The Remax franchise holder in
Netanya, Dudu Makhlouf, cites as an example Beit
Alexander on Pierre Koenig Street, where a
penthouse owned by an Austrian Jewish family - 350
square meters with a 150-square-meter balcony and
a high level of finish - is available for $1.6
million. The owners of a seven-room detached house
on Hatzavim Street in the older Ramat Poleg
section are asking $750,000, while along the cliff
overlooking the sea, there are two villas on
Hatehila Street with a starting price of $1
million.
How is it possible that there is such a large
gap between Netanya's image among Israelis, who
are not drawn to it, and foreigners, who flock to
the city? "The city's image doesn't interest
foreigners," Yitzhak says. "They're used to larger
distances than the distance between Netanya and
Tel Aviv, and sometimes Jews from abroad don't
actually immigrate to Israel, but purchase an
apartment as a base, which they use during
vacations."
Netanya is the most prominent place in this
category, because of its considerable advantages:
the proximity to Tel Aviv and its beachfront
cliff, which provides impressive sea views, even
from low floors. Another prominent city is Ashdod,
where the marina is popular among Jews from
abroad, especially immigrants from the former
Soviet Union.
The Eshdar Company, for example, is building
the two-structure Eshdar Project in the Ashdod
marina. So far, 80 apartments have been sold to
foreign residents, primarily French individuals,
for prices ranging up to $315,000. In the Avisror
Moshe & Sons project, penthouse apartments
with a sea view are selling for
$280,000-350,000.
Bat Yam is another city where one can find
sought-after apartments whose advantage, of
course, is the sea view. A three-room apartment on
the eighth floor in a building on Haatzmaut Street
sold for $175,000, a three-room penthouse
apartment on the sixth floor of a building on
Hakomemiyut Street sold for $250,000, and a
five-room apartment on Schindler Street sold for
$302,000.
Farther away from the sea
Foreign residents are buying luxury apartments
in coastal cities that lack prestige. Meanwhile,
there are several areas that are not considered
prestigious and do not include coastal cities
where Israelis are paying high prices for
properties. Usually these include penthouses in
projects considered standard.
Some examples include a Ra'anana couple looking
to upgrade who bought a penthouse for $535,000 in
the Manrav project in Kiryat Ono; a five-room
apartment built by Bonei Hatichon in Petah
Tikvah's Kfar Ganim neighborhood sold for
$358,000; at a nearby project built by Maoz
Daniel, six-room penthouses start at $380,000;
Prizet Hason's Orange Trail project in Hod
Hasharon will sell penthouse apartments for
$240,000, and another company project, also
planned for Hod Hasharon, will include the
construction of a 17-story high-rise building,
where the penthouse will be offered for
$550,000.
(646) 217-4733 
raphis@SeaOpera.com