Tel Aviv building starts drop

Could the high housing prices in Tel Aviv finally be getting to buyers? Construction is booming around the country, but new building starts in the first Hebrew city dropped 39% in the first nine months of the year, compared with the same period in 2008, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday.

In total, however, the figures were similar to last year's - nationwide, there was only a 3% decrease in housing starts.

During that period, 23,350 new residences broke ground, 43% of them single-family homes or duplexes.

The bureau based its survey of building starts and completions on reports from the Housing and Construction Ministry, planning and building committees, data collected by the CBS itself, construction companies and contractors. The survey includes construction in all Israeli towns and cities.

In Jerusalem, construction began on 1,560 new apartments, up 18% compared to the same period in 2008. New building starts in Petah Tikva were up a whopping 64% in the first nine months, for a total of 1,210 residences begun in the aforementioned period.

In Netanya, new building starts were also up 22%, with 960 new homes breaking ground.

In Tel Aviv-Jaffa, on the other hand, construction began on only 840 new residences.

Farther south, housing and construction is booming. Ashdod has seen a 91% increase in the number of new housing starts, for a total of 660 homes between January and September. Building in Ashkelon was quite brisk as well, with 560 starts - 83% more than the same period last year, which came on the heels of a decline the year before.

The steepest increase in new construction projects was experienced in Ramle, with 330 new residences coming under construction, compared to only 40 in the same period in 2008, for a whopping 725% increase.

A total of 23,540 new residences were completed, up 3% from the first nine months of 2008.