And it shall be that after I uproot them I will pity them again, and I will return each man to his heritage and each man to his Land. JEREMIAH (12:15)
While much of the world feels the pinch of a housing crunch, all signs point to a continued increase in demand for real estate in Israel, according to Tzvi Shapiro and Chaim Friedman, co-founders of the First Israel Mortgage company. In a recent interview with Breaking Israel News affiliate Yishai Fleisher, Shapiro and Friedman explained where the recent growth in the Israeli housing market was coming from.
Friedman and Shapiro are both immigrants to Israel from the United States. They opened the First Israel Mortgage Company in order help other immigrants navigate the system of Israeli bureaucracy and enable more Jewish families to purchase homes in Israel. What they encountered once opening their company surprised the two founders. According to Shapiro, it is not just Jewish families from New York or Los Angeles who are buying property in Israel for purposes of visiting during the summer or over the Jewish holidays. There are also many Jews from places such as Mexico City, Panama, and Europe, who are buying property in Israel just in case they need it as an “insurance policy.” Anti-semitism in these countries has led to an increased interest in immigration to Israel from Jews in these countries.
Jews are not the only buyers of homes in Israel. There are a good number of non-Jews who are buying property in Israel as well, said Shapiro. In recent years, a number of Chinese Christians have purchased homes in Israel for reasons over than as an investment opportunity. Many have bought property and donated the homes to provide housing for Israeli soldiers whose families are overseas. “Lone Soldiers” often have to rent rooms or find other less than ideal housing accommodations, and as a result of the demand from Jewish and non Jewish sources from all over the world, Israel has escaped the global housing bubble.
While there are certainly universal aspects to the Israeli mortgage industry, there is one particular reason to be optimistic about the housing market in Israel. First Israel’s Friedman stated that “if you look at what’s going on now, and how much it’s Israel’s been built up and how much it’s blossomed, it would be very hard for me to believe that God did all this just for it to all go away.”
