The members of a single family – grandfather, children, and grandchildren – have bought eight apartments in an urban renewal project in David Elazar Street in Ra’anana, for a total of NIS 36.5 million. Some of the buyers currently live in Israel, and some live in France but are considering moving to Israel.
Seven five-room apartments were sold for NIS 4.6-4.7 million, and one four-room apartment for NIS 3.8 million. The four-room apartment is 100 square meters in area, and has an 18 square meter balcony. The five-room apartments are 129 square meters in area, and have 20 square meter balconies. The apartments are on the second and third floors of buildings that will be constructed at David Elazar 5-7. The developer says that the deal was at pre-sale prices.
“The family bought special apartments with unique characteristics: a landscape view from the balconies, large balconies, and common areas for all the residents,” says Itai Tirosh, a partner in Erez Tirosh, the company carrying out the project.
David Elazar Street is in the east of Ra’anana, north of Ahuza Street, Ra’anana’s main thoroughfare, and not far from the Ra’anana Central Interchange. The housing on the street is a mixture of old houses with gardens, mainly at the northern end of the street, and old multi-occupancy buildings from the 1970s, at numbers 1-11.
There are several urban renewal projects in the area, in which three-room apartments average NIS 2.8 million, four-room apartments average NIS 3.4 million, and five-room apartments average NIS 4.4 million.
“David Elazar Street in Ra’anana is a street in very high demand, located in the heart of a quiet and high-quality neighborhood of private houses, but close to main arteries – roads 531 and 4 – and also to the main foci of life in the city – offices, community centers, schools and kindergartens,” the company says.
The project involves the demolition of five buildings built about 50 years ago. It drew vocal opposition from residents of the neighborhood, especially those living in houses with gardens. Nevertheless, it was approved, and the developer is building five buildings containing 150 housing units, 60 of which will be given to the original apartment owners and 90 of which are for sale.
The new project offers four-, five-, and six-room apartments, with a wide variety of sizes, balconies, and locations, some close to Ahuza Street and some facing north towards a park and houses with gardens, which means a very large range of prices.
The company reports that four-room apartments start at NIS 3.45 million, five-room apartments start at NIS 3.7 million, and six-room apartments start at NIS 5.3 million. According to deals reported on the Israel Tax Authority website, however, five-room apartments sold so far start at NIS 4.4 million.
“Four-room apartments cost NIS 3.4-3.5 million and five-room apartments reach levels of NIS 4.5 million, so the prices paid in the deal are high,” says realtor Daniel Kupervaser of Anglo-Saxon Ra’anana. “It seems that what explains the high price is the relatively large area of the apartments and the large balconies.”
A survey of the area by “Globes” found that new homes offered there average about NIS 35,000 per square meter. The prices in the current deal are indeed higher than average for the neighborhood, especially as they are pre-sale, which can partly be explained by the large balconies attached to the apartments bought, which are six to eight square meters larger than the average, but by itself this does not explain the price gap.
In our view, the extra element is scarcity. Large balconies are in demand, but hardly exist, and so buyers are prepared to pay more for them than their theoretical appraisers’ valuation.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on August 3, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
