Israelis took out mortgage loans totaling NIS 6.8 billion in March 2023, up 18% from February 2023 but down 50% from March 2022, and down 21% from March 2021, the Bank of Israel reports.
The housing market appears to be at the beginning of a deep recession, which is reflected in a decrease of about 40% in the number of monthly deals completed in the market. The Israel Tax Authority announced this week that state revenues from property taxes also declined by 43% in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Mortgage taking fell accordingly, and for the first time since 2020, three consecutive months in which loans exceeded The monthly mortgage threshold is seven billion shekels.
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All this is happening because interest rates have risen in the past year, which has made mortgages very expensive and limited in the ability of borrowers to obtain them. The number published by the Bank of Israel today is not broken down by the number of borrowers, but from the data of the past few months it appears that the number of mortgages taken out in the past few months is at the level of the second quarter. In 2020, when the public came out of the first Covid lockdown. The average mortgage obtained on the free market has been around NIS 950,000 in recent months.
It is believed that despite the increase recorded in March compared to February, the market is currently shrinking. Mortgage acceptance rate for the month of April is expected to be particularly low due to the Easter holidays, the coming months and the situation is unlikely to improve in the coming months.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on April 18, 2023.
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