A Jewish-American foreign citizen bought three apartments (one penthouse and two duplexes) in the European-Israel Sea & Sky project in Ashkelon for NIS 14 million.
The 155 sqm penthouse on the 25th floor has five rooms and a 100 sqm balcony. Double-print identical. Both are 132 sqm apartments on the 22nd floor, spanning 2 floors and each apartment has 2 balconies, covering an area of 60 sqm. All apartments have parking spaces and storage rooms.
The Sea & Sky project is located in two buildings of 25 floors, one of which is completed and already occupied and the second is under completion. The project is on Yefi Nof Street, overlooking the waterfront and within walking distance to the marina and the mall.
The apartments, intended for the buyer’s family and friends, were bought without ever having been to Israel and without seeing them physically. “One of the buyer’s relatives photographed the apartments for him, and the whole process took place without you actually being here,” sources familiar with the deal told Globes.
Real estate appraiser Eli Swed says the deal reflects NIS 25,000 per square metre, which is in line with a similar penthouse sold near the marina one year ago. He says, “I estimate that the penthouses were worth 5 million shekels because the demand for them is greater than the duplexes, so the price of the penthouse was closer to 30,000 shekels per square meter. In Ashkelon, the luxury market is very active and has recently made a move towards the towers overlooking the sea.”
Soed says that many foreign residents have made purchases in Ashkelon and Ashdod in recent years because they are unwilling to pay much higher prices in the Tel Aviv area.
Euro-Israel vice president and co-owner Ofra Hadad said that 60 of the project’s 230 apartments were bought by foreign residents, most of them American Jews. “A kind of small community was created by immigrants from the United States,” she says, “besides a former Jerusalemite community. 30% of the buyers in the project are Jerusalemites.”
Purchases by foreign residents in the project contradict the recent trend, which shows a decrease in the number of deals by foreign residents of Israel, and the proportion of these deals out of all deals. If a decade ago they made up about 6% of all deals, then in 2022 it is only 1.5%. “This is a very unique deal, especially in this period when the market is at a standstill,” asserts Haddad.
Most of the purchases made by foreign residents in the past were mainly in Jerusalem, followed by Tel Aviv and the Sharon area (mainly Netanya). Ashkelon has not been a desirable location for foreign residents, but given the higher prices in other coastal cities, it is likely that the situation is changing.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 9, 2023.
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