Home purchases by foreign residents fall

Despite all the talk of foreign residents rushing to buy homes in Israel amid rising antisemitism abroad, total purchases by foreign residents amounted to just 77 apartments in April, according to the Ministry of Finance chief economist. This compares with 106 apartments sold in April 2025 and 177 apartments in March 2026.

After deducting the homes sold by foreign residents in April, the total net purchases by this segment was 56 homes, down from 67 apartments in April 2025.

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This figure is included in Investor purchases, which totaled 751 homes in April, down 12% from April 2025. The share of total transactions was 15%. Investor sales in April totaled 922 apartments, down 28% from April 2025.

Overall residential real estate transactions in April 2026 were very weak. April is normally a weak month because of the holidays but this year it was even more so. In April 5,081 homes were sold, down 31% from March 2026 and down 19% from April 2025.

2,107 new homes were sold in April, down 11% from April 2025 and down 25% from March 2026. 2,974 second-hand homes were sold in April, down 24% from April 2025 and down 35% from March 2026.

The chief economist’s review noted, “A multi-year comparison of the number of transactions in the free market in April found that this level in April 2026 is one of the lowest recorded since the early 2000s, and only in April 2023 and 2020 (the outbreak of the Covid pandemic) were lower levels of transactions recorded. Contractors’ sales in the free market are also near the bottom of the ranking.”

The review stresses that the war with Iran was still underway in the first week of April, although the seven days of fighting in that month coincided with Passover week.”

It can be assumed that Passover and the war had a great impact on the numbers in April 2026, although it should be noted that Passover also occurred in April 2025.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 11, 2026.

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