Family goods and services

At lower prices than other Jerusalem neighborhoods, Gilo provides facilities and spacious dwellings for the younger generation.

By JOHN BENZAQUEN
Gilo neighborhood 521 (photo credit: Reuters)
Gilo neighborhood 521
(photo credit: Reuters)
Gilo is one of the capital’s largest neighborhoods.
With 35,000 inhabitants, it is larger than many Israeli towns. It has a heterogeneous population, a socioeconomic mix. Among its residents are low-income as well as middle-class families. Native-born Israelis and new immigrants, secular and religious, young and old make up the mix.
Gilo is one of the five ring neighborhoods built around pre-Six Day War Jerusalem. The government wanted to increase the Jewish population of Jerusalem, and it did so by massive building projects in land annexed after the Six Day War. Work in Gilo proper started in 1970, and by 1975 the first residents started moving in. These were not the first residents to live in this area. Archeological excavations reveal habitation dating back 3,000 years from the Israelite period, continuing during the Roman and Byzantine periods.
The archeological site revealed a small planned settlement with dwellings along the perimeter, together with pottery dating to the 12th century BCE.
The southern part of the area is believed to be one of the earliest Israelite settlements from this period.
The settlement was surrounded by a defensive wall and divided into large courtyards that possibly housed sheep pens, with houses at the edges.
Buildings at the site are among the earliest examples of the pillared, four-room house characteristic of Israelite architecture of that period. It consisted of a courtyard divided by stone pillars, a rectangular back room and rooms around the courtyard.
During the construction of Gilo, archeologists also discovered a fortress and agricultural implements from the period of the First Temple. After the area was conquered by the Arabs and up to 1975 it was uninhabited.
Gilo is located on a hilltop in southwest Jerusalem, separated from the Arab town of Beit Jala by a deep gorge. The tunneled highway to Gush Etzion is one of its eastern perimeters, and the settlement of Har Gilo is to the west. Beit Safafa and Sharafat are to the north, with Bethlehem to the south.
Gilo has biblical antecedents, being mentioned in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Samuel. Some scholars believe that biblical Gilo was located in the central Hebron hills, while mainstream scholars believe that Beit Jala is a corruption of “Gilo,” which was the reason the name was chosen.
During the War of Independence, the Egyptian army had its artillery at Gilo because from there it could shell Jewish Jerusalem. An attempt to advance on Jerusalem from Gilo was beaten back in a fierce battle, and Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, located northeast of Gilo, changed hands three times. Ramat Rahel was included within the borders of the Jewish state, but what is now Gilo became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan until 1967.
In 1970, the government used 12,300 dunams (3,000 acres) of annexed land to build the ring of new neighborhoods around Jerusalem. From the beginning, Gilo provided housing for new immigrants who flocked to Israel after the Six Day War. The Jewish Agency built a large absorption center in Gilo, and many chose to live in the neighborhood after they had found jobs and were settling in.
Since the 1990s when the first wave of Jewish immigrants started coming to Israel, 15 percent of all immigrants settling in Jerusalem went to live in Gilo.
Modern Gilo is divided into six main areas named according to the first six letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
As can be expected in such a large area, there are sections that are more expensive than others.
Topography has an important bearing on price.
Buildings located in the higher parts of Gilo tend to fetch better prices. An apartment with a scenic view can also fetch good prices. Jerusalem’s hilly topography creates opportunities to build apartments with spectacular views.
Gilo is not a high-end neighborhood. Most of the buildings were constructed with prefabricated elements in what is called “industrial building methods.” The facades are clad with slabs of Jerusalem stone.
At the lower end of the price spectrum, a three-room apartment in the part of Gilo Alef that is being populated by haredim can cost NIS 800,000. This part of Gilo Alef is a “closed” area surrounded by a ringed street in which the haredim can feel more insulated.
At the high end of the price spectrum, a single-family home on a 500-square meter plot of land costs more than NIS 3 million.
Prices in Gilo have been stable for the last five years, despite the fact that real-estate prices in general have risen sharply. Prices there have risen on average by 10%, while in other parts of Jerusalem they have risen by an average of 25%.
The area attracts mostly young families because prices are lower than in other parts of Jerusalem.
Furthermore, it has all the services needed to cater to young families with children.
Prices in the neighborhood as a whole are comparatively affordable. An average four-room, 120-sq.m.
apartment can cost NIS 1.6m. An average three-room apartment costs NIS 1.3m. Single-family homes or semi-detached dwellings cost NIS 2.5m. on average.
Recent real-estate transactions in Gilo
• A three-room, 61-square-meter ground-floor apartment on Afarsemon Street was recently sold for NIS 880,000.
• On Shabtai Hanegbi Street, a four-room, 70-sq.m. ground-floor apartment was sold for NIS 1.2 million.
• On Hate’ena Street, a four-room, 90-sq.m. second- floor apartment was sold for NIS 1.14m.
• On Shamir Street, a renovated three-story, sixroom single-family house of 175 sq.m. on a 500 sq.m. plot was sold for NIS 3.15m.
• On Dagan Street, a six-room 250-sq.m. single-family home on a 350-sq.m. plot was sold for NIS 3.14m.