For the first time in decades, Haifa has become the leading city in Israel in terms of the number of residential real estate transactions per quarter, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics’ real estate survey for the third quarter of this year. Tel Aviv saw a significant recovery this quarter, while the new home market in Beersheba saw very low transaction numbers throughout the year.
Overall, the property market continued to be weak in the third quarter, with a total of 23,330 transactions, more than in the second quarter, which was weaker, but slightly lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2,924.
As mentioned, Haifa topped the list, the first time it has done so since the Central Bureau of Statistics began counting the total number of transactions for each city in 2018 (until then only new home sales were counted), but as far as we know, this is actually something that has never happened in recent decades.
This is due to the scarcity of new homes being built in the city, as the real estate market was mainly based on used homes. The unusual thing that happened in the third quarter of this year was the sale of 466 new homes, three times the number in the second quarter and at least a five-year record, making Haifa come into third place for new home sales after Tel Aviv and Ofakim.
The used home market in Haifa continued to be active, with 936 sales, the highest number since early 2023. In total, there were 1,404 residential real estate transactions in the city in the third quarter.
Tel Aviv takes off
Tel Aviv comes in second place in the table, with transaction numbers jumping by 38% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. Tel Aviv featured two types of homes: 608 new homes were sold there in the third quarter, 54% more than in the second quarter, the highest number nationwide, but at 726 the number of used home sales was the highest quarterly number since 2022.
Jerusalem comes in third place, with 1,327 deals, despite new home sales jumping 45% to 436, while Beersheba comes in fourth place, with 923 deals in total. New home sales in Beersheba have reached their lowest levels in five years.
Looking at the real estate market over the past few months, there is a slight growth trend in new home purchases. In the past three months, monthly growth averaged 0.9%. But these numbers must be viewed with caution, as government-subsidized housing represented about a third of all new housing transactions during this period, and it is not certain that this trend applies to the open market per se.
In used homes, year-to-date, there has been an average monthly decline of 2.5% in the number of transactions.
Due to the lower number of sales and the large number of constructions, the inventory of new homes continues to grow, reaching about 84 thousand homes at the end of September. Over the past year, the supply of homes has increased by 1.5% per month on average.
Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on November 13, 2025.
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