Israelis continue to take out mortgages - volumes rize in April to NIS 8.3 billion

Israelis continue to take out mortgages, and in volumes that continue to rise. During April this year, the public took out NIS 8.3 billion in new mortgages, according to data from the Bank of Israel.
This is a figure almost 70% higher than in April last year, when the public took about NIS 4.9 billion with the outbreak of the corona plague, which led to a temporary and short dive in taking out mortgages and a figure 25% higher than the average last year. But it should be remembered that the average in the past year continues to rise even compared to previous years, so in fact - the public continues to storm the housing market and buy apartments.
If the rate of taking out mortgages continues like this until the end of the year, it is likely that the high threshold of NIS 78.1 billion that the public took last year will also be exceeded - and perhaps even much more. Currently, this is a rate that could reach as much as $ 100 billion. The Bank of Israel's move to allow mortgages of up to two-thirds of the total mortgage also also contributes, as expected, to the onslaught of the real estate market in Israel.
Meanwhile, data from the Central Bureau of Statistics indicate a jump of 5% in the sale of new apartments during March, but since the beginning of the year there has been a decrease of about 2%. After deducting the effect of seasonal data, this is a decrease of 4.6%. According to the data, the number of new apartments purchased in the first quarter of the year stands at about 11.4 thousand apartments and in March, 3,946 apartments were sold. This is double the sales figure compared to March.
Leading the list of cities is Ashkelon, where 988 new apartments were sold, an increase of 26%, followed by Tel Aviv with 648 apartments, a slight decrease compared to the previous quarter. And the third is Ramat Gan, where 598 apartments were sold.