The wealthy are buying 2 times more: Bank of Israel's record data revealed

Alongside the slowdown in the real estate market, there is one figure keeping apartment prices up: luxury real estate. Foreign residents and wealthy individuals are purchasing apartments worth more than 5 million shekels. This is not just about detached houses — luxury apartments in the Sde Dov area, in Tel Aviv, and in Jerusalem are bypassing the market slowdown.

According to Bank of Israel data, in June, mortgages totaling nearly 1.8 billion shekels were issued for apartments or houses priced above 5 million shekels. This is an all-time record figure from the Bank of Israel. True, apartment prices have risen significantly over the last decade, and yet, one would expect to see a slowdown in the luxury segment given the difficulties in the housing market.

(Source: Bank of Israel data)

One of the reasons for this is that foreign residents and wealthy individuals continue to purchase luxury apartments. This is also visible in the financing rate. Regarding loans for apartments priced above 5 million shekels: only 28% of these borrowers need financing of more than 60%. In other words, the wealthy are not only purchasing luxury apartments, but also with lower leverage relative to people purchasing regular properties.

According to Bank of Israel data, the volume of loans for properties priced above 5 million shekels stood at 850-900 million shekels at the beginning of 2025. That is, within a year and a half, the volume of loans in the luxury apartment market has doubled. We have been writing for a long time that luxury apartments are keeping Tel Aviv's head above water. Without these apartments, prices in Tel Aviv would have fallen significantly more. There is a significant difference between the luxury segment in the city and regular apartments.

An examination shows that in January 2025, the number of people who took such high mortgages with a 60% financing rate stood at 31%. That is, not only has the volume of loans grown by 2 times, but the equity of these apartment buyers has also increased. This figure reflects, to some extent, the gaps in Israeli society.

We recently checked how much a detached house costs in various areas in the center. The surprise: Ramat Gan has overtaken Tel Aviv, where the average price of a detached house stands at 7.91 million shekels. It sounds strange, but sometimes within one year, a small number of transactions causes the data to change. In the last year, the average price of a detached house in Ramat Gan crossed the 8 million shekel threshold.

Givatayim is next among the large cities, with an average price of 6.87 million shekels. In Rishon LeZion, the price is higher than 6 million shekels. In the other cities we surveyed, we did not find that the prices of detached houses range between 5 and 6 million shekels, but rather at a lower threshold. In Rehovot, an average detached house will cost 4.85 million shekels. In Beersheba, the price is the lowest — 2.49 million shekels.