More Americans are buying homes in Tel Aviv

The pandemic has sent some Americans with the means searching for bigger homes and more space.

But some are also looking abroad, and an increasing number of Americans are buying homes in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Mediterranean metropolis.

Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps people relocating from the U.S. and the U.K., found that applications from American citizens to Tel Aviv were up 126 percent last year compared to 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Two years ago, I’d have one or two inquiries a month [from U.S. citizens], now it’s around 20,” said Matthew Bortnick, a director at Beauchamp Estates’ Tel Aviv office. “The market used to be dominated by buyers from the U.K. and France, but Americans now equal them.”

Tel Aviv is Israel’s most expensive residential market and home to some of the country’s priciest properties. An American couple closed the priciest sale of last year when they bought a condo for the equivalent of $25.2 million.

The city is just behind Paris in terms of average transaction costs at $1,084 per square foot, according to a Deloitte’s 2020 property index. Bortnick said a standard two-bedroom unit in central Tel Aviv typically sells for $1 million.

The Israeli government reported that 16,000 people from 85 countries arrived in Israel last year as of October. Improved relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates is driving some demand from Middle East countries as well.

[WSJ] — Dennis Lynch