The prices are also sky-high

On a warm Saturday in September, two amateur pilots in their forties took off from the Herzliya airport on a routine flight. When they were coming back to land, a technical hitch apparently occurred in their light plane and the two tried to make an emergency landing. Fortunately, they were merely lightly injured when their plane crashed into a public garden near the airport, between the town's Nahalat Ada and Gan Rashal neighborhoods.

This was yet another one in a series of accidents that have occurred in the vicinity of the Herzliya airport. But it, too, did not deter a young couple from buying a four-room garden apartment for $280,000 in the Nahalat Ada neighborhood a few weeks later.

The Airports Authority operates six airports in different parts of the country, five of them close to residential neighborhoods and hotels. (The Haifa airport is located in the heart of the industrial area.) Perhaps because of the expansion of built-up areas, perhaps due to the lack of far-sightedness, or because of the increased frequency of flights - the risks in the operation of these airports have increased in recent years.

However, if one thought these risks would find clear and unequivocal expression in a decline in the demand for homes close to the airports, reality has proven otherwise. While the prices of properties adjacent to the airports have perhaps to some extent reflected the air traffic's negative influence, the level of demand has remained stable. In some places, the negative influence is counteracted by other advantages such as location and infrastructure, which are sometimes stressed to promote sales.

There is no tourist who does not hold his head in amazement as he watches the planes coming in to land at the Eilat airport - the planes appear to be "shaving" the roofs of the Meridien Hotel or the Mul Hayam shopping mall that are located close to the landing strip. At the same time, this concrete security danger did not prevent the Phoenix and Tau Tsuot companies from announcing about two weeks ago that they had acquired a 50 percent control of the shopping mall for NIS 925 million and for them to enjoy a return of 7.5 per cent per annum.

"It is not as if jumbo jets are landing here," says Arik Handel, the Anglo-Saxon real estate franchise holder in Eilat. "So long as the airport is here, the roads around it are busy and the constant stream of people ensures that demand will be high." He says that there are hotels scattered around the area of the airport as well as commercial centers that benefit from nice returns - and these properties are likely to enjoy a sharp rise in price when the airport is vacated. "There is no doubt that the [intended] moving of the airport and the rezoning of the land for building purposes have created expectations. There are those who believe it is worth acquiring properties in the area as a long-term investment," he says.

Long-term expectations are also likely to push up the demand to expand the moshavim that surround Ben-Gurion International Airport, according to the estimates of the appraisers and economists of Ehud Meiri and Partners. The Maccabit road that is being paved will likely have the impact of making these moshavim reachable in only a few minutes' drive from Tel Aviv and will open up a new market for private homes on the outskirts of the Dan region. The realization of the house-with-a-garden dream, and the proximity to Tel Aviv, experts at the company say, will make the noise from the airport seem less relevant.

This forecast is based on reality, says the realtor Bentzi Desha of Re/Max Unique in Yehud. Half-dunam plots in Kfar Truman and Nehalim sell for $200,000, while a private home with a plot of 220 square meters at Moshav Rinatiya went for half a million dollars recently. The prices of moshavim that are closer to the airport and suffer more from the noise, are influenced significantly, Deshe says, but it is precisely these low prices that make more people interested in the area.

"A half-dunam plot including development in the extension of Moshav Zafriya goes today for a mere $85,000," he says. "At first, people were put off by the proximity to the airport, but today almost everything can be sold. The price is ridiculous and people are prepared to suffer because it is so close to the center."

The proximity ot the airport has advantages as well, Deshe says. Every month, two or three customers who work at the nearby Airport City approach the real estate agency to see if there is a property available close to their place of work. The franchisee of the branch, Asher Peretz, says these people also come to Kiryat Hasavyonim in Yehud which has a positive image even though it is so close to the airport. The demand for homes here is steadily growing.

The sounds coming from the direction of Or Yehuda are different, however. Or Yehuda and nine other communities for years have fought against the building plans for Terminal 3 at the airport and the city is still involved in legal proceedings over its demands for compensation for the noise. According to Nurit Shulman, the director of the mayor's bureau, the noise has become so unbearable that the municipality is now working on a plan to evacuate the residents of the town's southern neighborhoods to alternate housing.

Nevertheless, even in Or Yehuda there are people who suffer more and people who suffer less from the noise, especially those who are offered a decent payment in return for the disturbance. The demand for apartments in the town's Neveh Savyon and Neveh Rabin neighborhoods, says Efrat Levy of Anglo-Saxon real estate in Savyon and Bik'at Ono, is maintaining a steady level. Five-room apartments in the center of these neighborhoods are also going for $290,000 and the price of homes with gardens has risen to $600,000 or more.

"The accelerated development in these neighborhoods, the feeling of community and the public infrastructures encourage more and more potential buyers to come and see," says Levy. "True, the customers hear the planes taking off but those who intend to buy are already aware of this and there have been no cancelations registered as a result of the airport."

The Lamed Plan neighborhood in north-western Tel Aviv was built in the 1970s alongside the Sde Dov airport with the belief that, in the not too distant future, the airport would be vacated and the plots of land from the "Big Bloc" north of it would be rezoned for building purposes, says Ran Virnik, chairman of the Real Estate Appraisers Bureau. At the time, the apartments were sold at prices that were 20 percent lower than those in Ramat Aviv and Neveh Avivim, he says. The prices in the Lamed neighborhood have remained lower by the same percentage until today, but over the years they, too, rose together with other prices in the metropolitan area and the demand for apartments in the neighborhood has remained steady.

Azorei Chen, which lies north of Sde Dov, gets not only the noise but also the strong burning smell from the planes as they take off and land, yet the demand for homes in this neighborhood has remained steady, says Yishai Besserglick who holds the Re/Max Nechasim franchise in Tel Aviv. At the same time, he notes, the prices of apartments in the Big Bloc are continuing to rise and now stand at about $150,000 per room.

Virnik believes that the proximity to the airport has in fact made these neighborhoods more attractive from a real estate point of view. The growing number of forecasts about the evacuation of the airport and the rezoning of the lands in the area for high-end building, as well as the potential opening up of access to the beach, make the neighborhood very sought after. "If 30 years ago, people had known that the airport would not be dismantled, they would not have bought there. The forecast is the rationale for buying," says Virnik.

The neighborhoods of Nahalat Ada and Gan Rashal, as well as the outskirts of Herzliya Hayeruka, serve as the arena for dangerous aerobatic shows on Saturdays. This does not deter potential buyers who come to the area and inquire what kind of discount they will get for an apartment because it is close to the airport.

"The Gan Rashal neighborhood is in constant demand by students because it is close to the Interdisciplinary Center and therefore rents reach between $500-$700 for three rooms," says Erez Poraz, the Re/Max Star franchisee in Herzliya. "In Nahalat Ada, the apartments and the private homes are an attraction because of their prices which are 20-25 percent lower than properties in newer parts of town. A six-room town house on a plot of 600 square meters, for example, was recently sold for $435,000," he says.

But it is not merely the influence of the nearby airport that has caused the prices there to remain low. Prices are also linked to the weak image of the neighborhoods and the age of the buildings. Evidence of this can be seen when the neighborhood is contrasted with the town houses of Herzliya Hayeruka which also looks out onto the airport but whose qualitative surroundings virtually counteract the negative effect of the location on the price.

A completely different story is that of the residents of the prestigious neighboring community of Kfar Shmaryahu. The residents of the eastern part of the community suffer both from the proximity to the Ayalon Highway and the railroad, and from the proximity to the airport and the flight paths around it. "The planes fly overhead in the whole area. They fly low and make such a noise that I cannot even talk to my clients," complains Nehama Oron of Anglo-Saxon real estate, Herzliya Pituah and Kfar Shmaryahu. "There have been people who canceled plans to buy and there have been some who said the noise is so unbearable that they just want to get out of there."

Most of the deals, Oron says, are made in the center and western part of Kfar Shmaryahu although there are also fancy homes to be had in the eastern section to the tune of three to five million dollars. How is that? "There are people who are not sensitive to noise; there are those who take advantage of the relatively low prices; and there are those for whom the name is important," she explains.