The number of new apartments sold by contractors decreased by 14.9%

The number of new apartments sold by contractors decreased by 14.9% to 5,310 units in the three months March-May 2019, compared to the previous three months (December 2018-February 2019). This emerges from data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is a continuation of the trend recorded in the last two reports from previous months, which review the period since the beginning of the year. This followed several months of gradual increases in demand for new apartments.
Even after deducting the seasonal effects (obtained from the original data), an identical decline was recorded in sales of new dwellings during the same period, of 14.9% compared to the previous three months.
As of May 2018, there was a 12% drop in the number of new apartments sold by the contractors compared to the previous month (April 2019), and a decrease of 19.4% compared to the same period last year (May 2018).
Trend data also indicate a deterioration in the downward trend reported last month for the first time, following a long period of increases. Thus, since December 2018, there was an average monthly drop of 2.8% in the number of new dwellings sold, following an average monthly increase of 1.9% between February and November 2018, from about 1,670 dwellings to about 2,030.
The new dwellings sold by the contractors constituted 50.6% of the total quantity requested for new apartments in the market, which stood at 10,500 dwellings in the period reviewed (a rise of 1% in demand compared to the previous three months). The rest, 49.4% (5,190 dwellings), were dwellings not for sale that began construction, for example, for the owner's own use of the building rights in the land, for purchase or rental groups.
Of the total quantity of new dwellings, 25.6% were in the Central District, with 1,848 new dwellings sold and 21.1% in the Tel Aviv District (1,439 dwellings). In the Southern District, 22.4% of the new dwellings (567 dwellings) were sold, and 12.5% ​​were sold in the north (only 235 apartments). 9.2% of the new dwellings were sold in Haifa, and Jerusalem - with only 6.8%.