11,000 New Homes, and a Fire Sale of Flats

The planners just cleared the way for a whole new city district. A national committee approved the “Karmei Gat East” plan for deposit, the step where a plan is published so the public can object before final sign off. It holds about 11,000 homes east of Kiryat Gat.

The state also opened a fourth round of urban renewal grants and, for the first time, invited small and outlying towns in. And a large builder, Prashkovsky, said it will sell hundreds of finished flats through a 72 hour online auction next month. That is a sign of how hard flats are to move right now.

The strain showed in the courts and the banks too. A district court ordered the failed builder M.G.A.D wound up and let trustees hunt for money moved out before the crash. Two separate rulings drew new lines on urban renewal. And fresh figures show the average mortgage is now stretched over a record 27 years. Below: every story we could verify, with the numbers checked and the source on each line.

A national committee just cleared a new district for 11,000 homes east of Kiryat Gat

The Vatmal, the national committee that fast tracks big housing plans, approved the “Karmei Gat East” plan for deposit. Deposit is the stage where a plan goes public so anyone affected can file an objection before it is finalised. So this is a milestone, not the final green light.

The committee’s fast track powers were themselves just extended by law, in a vote gazetted on July 20, to keep hearing big housing plans until August 2027. So the pipeline that produced this plan stays open past the coming election.

The plan covers about 2,314 dunam (a dunam is 1,000 square metres) just east of the existing Karmei Gat neighbourhood, across the Tel Aviv to Beersheba railway. It sets out roughly 11,000 homes, of which about 600 are for special housing. Alongside the homes it plans about 550,000 square metres for shops and offices, about 55 dunam for schools and public buildings, and about 440 dunam of open space. Buildings run 5 to 7 floors, with towers of 12 to 23 floors. Six bridges and underpasses will tie the new district to the old one over and under the rail line.

Most of the area sits within walking distance of the planned “Kiryat Gat North” train station, approved back in 2023, which is meant to link straight to Beersheba and the Tel Aviv area. One outlet put the home count at 11,350; the plan documents describe about 11,000 (roughly 7,000 in the north part and 4,000 in the south).

Our figure (check it): 11,000 homes on 2,314 dunam is about 4.75 homes per dunam across the whole plan (11,000 divided by 2,314), and the 440 dunam of open space is about 19 percent of the site (440 divided by 2,314). Basis: the plan’s own area and unit figures, nothing else. That is a dense, transit built district, not a low rise suburb.

Note this is a different plan from the proposed new ultra Orthodox city west of Kiryat Gat, which a Beersheba court slowed last week. That one is west and still fighting over whether it can proceed. This one is east and just moved forward.

Why it matters: Kiryat Gat keeps drawing state backed housing at scale. For a buyer priced out of the centre, the south is where the new supply, and the new train links, are actually being built.

Source: Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22, Mako, July 22, and the Israel Land Authority notice on gov.il.

The state opened a new round of renewal grants, and this time small towns can apply

The Government Authority for Urban Renewal and the Housing Ministry published a fourth round of “framework agreements.” Under these, a town gets a state grant of 15,000 to 38,000 shekels for every extra home that wins a building permit inside an urban renewal project. In return the town promises to push those permits through faster.

The new part: for the first time, small and outlying towns can join. To qualify, a town’s yearly property tax income must be no more than 5,440 shekels per resident (using 2023 figures), and it must already have plans on the books for at least 1,200 homes that have not yet been built. The fourth round puts up about 210 million shekels.

The state says the first three rounds signed up 18 towns, with a total budget of about 700 million shekels, and produced building permits for 44,221 homes.

Our figure (check it): 700 million shekels across 44,221 permitted homes is about 15,800 shekels of state grant per home (700,000,000 divided by 44,221). That lands right at the floor of the program’s own 15,000 to 38,000 range. So on average the grant has been paying near its minimum, not its maximum. Basis: the two official totals above.

Why it matters: renewal often stalls in poorer towns because the town cannot fund the roads, schools and pipes a bigger project needs. Money that follows the permit, and now reaches smaller towns, is aimed straight at that block. This new round was first reported by Merkaz HaNadlan, so treat the exact 210 million and the thresholds as reported until the tender text is public.

Source: Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22.

A builder is auctioning hundreds of new flats online over three days

Prashkovsky, a veteran developer, will sell hundreds of finished flats through a digital auction that runs 72 hours, from 7pm on August 9 to 7pm on August 12. Each flat carries a minimum price. The highest bid above that price wins, bids stay hidden during the sale, and winners must sign within 14 business days. To bid you post a 25,000 shekel bank guarantee, which lets you make up to three offers but win only one flat.

Six projects are in the sale, in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ashdod and Haifa. The starting prices:

Globes reports the floor prices sit under 10 percent below what comparable flats have sold for. The company is spending about 15 million shekels on the ad campaign. N12 framed the move plainly, as a sign of builders’ distress.

Our figure (check it): the same size flat, a 4 room, starts at 1.9 million shekels in Haifa and 6.6 million in Tel Aviv. That is about 3.5 times more in Tel Aviv (6.6 divided by 1.9), from one builder, in one week. Basis: the starting prices above. It is a clean snapshot of how far Israeli prices stretch by location.

Why it matters: when a builder turns to a timed online auction with published floors, it is trying to move stock fast without openly cutting its list price. For a buyer, the floor is a real signal of where the seller will actually deal. For the market, it is another sign that finished flats are not selling at the old pace.

Source: Globes, July 22, Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22, N12, July 22.

The M.G.A.D collapse got worse: a court ordered it wound up, and trustees are chasing money that left before the crash

We flagged M.G.A.D Building and Investments on July 2, when the veteran builder, working since 1980, filed for insolvency. Now the Lod District Court has ordered the company into liquidation, a court run shutdown where the assets are sold off to pay creditors. The court gave the trustees, Adv. Chaviv Biton and accountant Omer Sriansky, powers to investigate. They say that just before the collapse the company fired its staff and moved equipment, servers and documents out, and they want to question related companies.

The human edge is one project in Kafar Bara: 7 buildings, 85 flats, about 81 percent built, then frozen. Of those, 56 flats were already sold and 29 were not. Two lenders, Phoenix and Top Capital, are owed about 65 million shekels and had asked the court for a receiver.

Our figure (check it): 56 of the 85 flats were sold, so about 66 percent of the building has buyers waiting on a site that is 81 percent finished but stopped (56 divided by 85). The other 29 flats, about a third, are unsold, which at least gives the trustees stock to sell to help fund completion. Basis: the unit counts above.

Why it matters: if you are buying a new build, the builder’s health is now part of the product. Ask who finances the project, and make sure your payments sit behind a bank guarantee under the Sale Law, so your money is protected by the bank until the flat is delivered. That guarantee is what stands between a buyer and a frozen site like this one.

Source: Ynet, July 22, Calcalist, July 22, TheMarker, July 22.

A court just enforced the exact protection those buyers needed

On the same day, a Tel Aviv administrative court backed the Housing Ministry’s sales law commissioner against a developer, Galgal Holdings. The company had taken money from 4 buyers in a Tama 38/1 project on Aharonovich Street in Holon without giving them the guarantees the law requires. Tama 38/1 strengthens an old building and adds floors. The company argued the buyers were really a “purchase group,” a set of buyers who band together to build, which would sidestep the guarantee duty. The court rejected that.

Why it matters: this is the M.G.A.D lesson in a ruling. A guarantee, the bank backed protection that returns your money if the project fails, is not optional, and dressing a deal up as something else does not remove it. If a seller asks you to pay without a guarantee, that is the moment to stop.

Source: Housing Ministry (gov.il), July 22.

Two courts just drew fresh lines on urban renewal

Two rulings this week change how renewal fights play out, and they pull in different directions.

In Tel Aviv, a district court judge, Gilad Hess, told an appeals committee it cannot dodge a planning question by hiding behind a property dispute. The case involved a Tama project on Pinsker Street. Tama is a renewal track that lets an old building be rebuilt bigger. The committee had thrown out the permit because a ground floor window would be blocked, a property matter, without first deciding whether the plan even needed shops on the ground floor. The judge said decide the planning point first: if the shops are not required, the window is not blocked and the dispute disappears. The file goes back for a fresh hearing.

In Bat Yam, a different district court refused to force a holdout owner into a Tama 38 project, even though 92 percent of owners had signed and the building has been declared dangerous since 2014. The court backed the land registrar: a majority alone cannot override real gaps in the deal, and here the bank guarantee was only 300,000 shekels and the parking was thin.

Why it matters: renewal lives and dies on consent. One ruling tells committees they must actually rule on the planning, not duck it. The other tells developers that signing up most owners is not enough if the deal itself is weak. If you own a flat in an old block being courted for renewal, both rulings strengthen your hand to demand a solid contract.

Source: Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22 (Pinsker), Ynet, July 23 (Bat Yam).

Mortgages are getting longer and more stretched

We covered the “upmarket” shift in mortgages yesterday, where more of the money went to expensive homes. Today’s numbers show a second problem: leverage. New figures put the average new mortgage at about 1.1 million shekels, now spread over a record average term of 27 years. A longer term lowers the monthly payment but raises the total interest paid.

By one reading of the current data, about 47 percent of new mortgages now cross two risk lines at once: the loan is more than 60 percent of the home’s price (called loan to value), and the monthly repayment eats more than 30 percent of the household’s take home pay. New mortgage lending hit 57.1 billion shekels in the first half of 2026, the busiest half since the 2022 peak, and refinancing (swapping an old loan for a new one) set a record at about 25 billion shekels, up 25 percent on the year.

Our figure (check it): of that record 25 billion shekels refinanced, only about 4.6 billion actually moved to a different bank. That is roughly 18 percent (4.6 divided by 25); the other 82 percent just re-cut terms at the same lender. Basis: the two reported totals. It fits the state comptroller’s finding that only about 37 percent of buyers even ask more than one bank for a quote.

Why it matters: a 27 year term and a payment near a third of income leave little room if rates or income move. And most borrowers are not shopping their loan around, which is free money left on the table. If you are taking a mortgage, get quotes from more than one bank before you sign. For the beat itself, see our earlier piece on the record share of mortgages going upmarket.

Source: Calcalist, July 22, Maariv, July 22.

Two renewal projects cleared real milestones

Away from the courts, two tear down and rebuild projects moved a step forward.

In Ashkelon, the builder Y.H. Dimri reached the owner majority it needs to push a large pinui-binui in the Neve Yam neighbourhood, near the beach. Pinui-binui means old blocks come down and a bigger project goes up. Today the site has 4 old buildings with 120 flats. The plan being advanced would replace them with about 650 new flats in towers. The owners are offered an extra 25 square metres plus a 12 square metre balcony, parking, storage, a safe room, a 10 year maintenance fund, and a 15,000 shekel grant per flat.

In Petah Tikva, the builder Av-Gad got its first building permit for a Tama 38/2 project in the Amishav neighbourhood, where an old building is demolished and rebuilt bigger. It will clear 10 old buildings holding 40 flats and put up 5 new buildings with 130 flats. The investment is put at 187 million shekels, and residents have been told to move out by October 8. Work is due to start during 2026.

Why it matters: these are the small, real steps that turn a renewal promise into cranes. If you own in an ageing block, note what the Ashkelon owners actually secured: not just a bigger flat, but a safe room, parking, and a fund to cover upkeep. That package is the benchmark to negotiate for.

Source: Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22 (Ashkelon), Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22 (Petah Tikva).

Planners advanced settlement homes in the West Bank

The Higher Planning Council, the body that approves building plans in the West Bank, validated a Housing Ministry plan for about 732 homes at Givot, in the Gush Etzion area, on July 22. The same planning round also deposited a plan at Talmon and validated one at Elkana, which are standard steps on the way to building.

Why it matters: Gush Etzion and this belt draw many English speaking families. A validated plan is the stage where homes become buildable, so this is where future supply in these communities is set. These are factual planning steps; the wider politics of settlement building sits outside this brief.

Source: Housing Ministry (gov.il), July 22.

Shorter items, all from the last day

A property share swung hard on a pulled fundraise. Electra Real Estate lost about 475 million shekels of market value over two days, falling roughly 6 percent after a 12 percent drop the day before, and slipping below a 2.3 billion shekel valuation. The trigger: it cancelled a planned share and options offering “in light of market conditions.” A stronger shekel also squeezes the value of its United States housing portfolio when counted in shekels. Globes, July 22. Single outlet on the market move, so treat the exact figures as reported.

Planners back a new Druze village in the Galilee, and it lands in a fight. A national planning subcommittee recommended setting up a new Druze community at a Galilee junction, against the view of district committees and several community leaders. The head of the Daliyat al-Karmel council, Rafik Halabi, called it empty election talk and said the state should instead fund and expand the existing Druze villages. Israel votes on October 27. No home count or exact site was set, so this is a direction, not yet a plan. Magdilim, July 22.

In Haifa, a safe room is now a deal breaker. A market feature reports that only about 36 percent of Haifa flats have a mamad, a reinforced safe room built into the home, and that since the war many families will not even view a flat without one. Flats with a mamad are said to sell within days, and to command a rent premium of about 700 to 1,000 shekels a month. The Haifa share is from one outlet, but the national backdrop is official: the statistics bureau has found that about half of Israeli homes have no safe room at all. Maariv, July 22.

One luxury sale, as a price marker. A 144 square metre flat in the Liber tower by Park HaMesila, next to Neve Tzedek in Tel Aviv, sold for 13.25 million shekels, about 87,750 shekels per square metre. The sellers were foreign residents who had bought it as an investment; the buyer is an Israeli family that plans to live there. One brokerage announced it, so read it as a single data point, not a trend. Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22.

A construction tax case in the south. The Tax Authority charged a Rahat man and his building company, Hetz HaNegev, over about 33 million shekels in what it calls fake invoices during 2022, used to claim about 5.1 million shekels of tax it says was not owed. These are charges, not a verdict. Tax Authority (gov.il), July 22, Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22.

Already covered: one line each to update

These ran in earlier briefs. New detail landed, but no new page is needed.

• Ramat HaSharon land deal. We ran the Shviro win in the July 22 brief at 230 million shekels for a 128 home plot. Merkaz HaNadlan now reports 232 million and about 260 owners in the partition (we had about 200), and quotes the receiver saying the rate cut has brought cash buyers back. Same deal, small number differences across outlets. Merkaz HaNadlan, July 22
• New flats are shrinking. Yesterday’s brief covered the record. Globes adds the room count: new flats started in 2025 averaged 4.1 rooms, the fewest since 1991. Globes, July 22
• 283 families suing over late discounted homes. Covered July 22. Ynet now totals the claims at about 35.4 million shekels across 8 suits, 1.02 to 9.68 million each. Ynet, July 22
• New ultra Orthodox city west of Kiryat Gat. Covered July 22. A Beersheba court asked the attorney general whether the state can plan it before formally deciding to build it. TheMarker, July 22
• Landlord who evicted tenants with a renewal option. Covered July 22, ordered to pay 80,000 shekels. TheMarker, July 22

What we checked and set aside

• Foreign buyers and the weak dollar. A Maariv feature says overseas buyers have lost about 20 percent of purchasing power and are shifting to Raanana, Netanya and Bat Yam. It rests on agent quotes with no official figure, and it overlaps a beat we already cover, so we held it.
• Gindi’s billion shekel move. A video framed it as fresh, but Gindi’s plan to buy unsold flats from struggling builders is from June 23. Old news.
• The betterment levy ruling. A video claimed big savings for sellers. It traces to the Supreme Court decision from October 2025, a beat we have already covered. Not new.
• Analyst and feel good items. A Psagot “buy” call on Argo, a magazine buyer story about a 100,000 shekel gap, and a channel claim that it takes 157 salaries to buy a flat. Opinion, PR, or unsourced, so not shipped.
• The June luxury mortgage record. Strong data, but it published July 21, outside our 24 hour window, and overlaps yesterday’s mortgage story.
• Two planning rulings we could not date. Trade reports described a Tel Aviv ruling that basements cannot be used as flats, and a Netanya case reopening pinui-binui compensation caps. We could not confirm when either was decided, because the court sites were unreachable, so we held them rather than risk running an old ruling as new.
• More construction sector enforcement. A separate 18 million shekel tax fraud sentence and a raid that found 10 workers without permits are real, but they sit to the side of what a buyer or renter needs today.

Dates to watch

• August 9 to 12: Prashkovsky’s 72 hour online flat auction. Its floor prices will be a public read on where a big builder will deal.
• October 8: residents of the Av-Gad site in Petah Tikva must move out, with work due to start in 2026.
• October 27: the national election. Housing promises tend to multiply, and some, like the Galilee village, are already being read as campaign moves.
• Open window: the Karmei Gat East plan is now open for public objections before it can be finalised.

Sources

Primary and independent reporting used above, tracking removed: Israel Land Authority (gov.il); Merkaz HaNadlan; Mako; Globes; Calcalist; Maariv; Ynet; TheMarker; Magdilim. Bank of Israel and State Comptroller mortgage data as reported by the outlets above.