Ashdod: The oldest and one of the most modern

Ethnic melting pot with ancient roots, Ashdod is a well planned city enjoying benefits of being country’s largest port, industrial hub.

By JOHN BENZAQUEN
Ashdod City Quarter 521 (photo credit: John Benzaquen)
Ashdod City Quarter 521
(photo credit: John Benzaquen)
Ashdod is a very modern city and, by Israeli standards, is also a large city, with a population of 206,000. Only five other Israeli cities are larger than Ashdod – Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Lezion and Petah Tikva. In the mid-1950s when the government decided to build another seaport, it also decided to create an industrial zone that would create jobs in an undeveloped area of the country.
It was also decided to create a modern, model city planned to the last detail to provide a high standard of living for its inhabitants. Today, Ashdod is Israel’s largest seaport, one of the country’s major industrial centers and one of the most well-planned cities in Israel.
Modern Ashdod was founded in 1956, but its roots go back to the dawn of human history. The new city was named Ashdod because of its proximity to the ancient Canaanite city of that name. The original city was founded some 4,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
Ashdod is a meticulously planned city. Its expansion is based on a preconceived plan, which facilitates traffic, keeps low levels of pollution and allows a sustainable growth in population. The original plans were based on a city with 250,000 inhabitants, which means it is still within the bounds of the original blueprint.
The city has three industrial zones, which are adjacent to the port in the northern part of the city. The city and the port were placed north of the residential areas because of the prevailing southern winds. The pollution created in the factories and the port will not reach the residential areas.
Like many Israeli cities, Ashdod owes its growth to immigration. First were the Moroccans and Egyptians, followed by Georgians and Jews from the former Soviet Union.
The economic development of Ashdod has an important bearing on the real-estate scene in the city as a whole. But this real estate survey is not about Ashdod as a whole but one of its quarters, which goes by the name of “The City.” It owes its name to the City of London, the business center of the British capital, because the area was intended as the financial, economic and administrative center of Ashdod.
Located in the geographical center of the city, it is bounded by Jerusalem Boulevard to the north, by Oved Ben-Ami Street to the south, Bnei Brit Street to the east and Herzl Boulevard to the west. It is inhabited by approximately 20,500 people. Many of them came to Ashdod from the former USSR and are concentrated in the southeastern part of the quarter. The western part of the quarter is close to the economic and financial area, which is inhabited by a large percentage of West Europeans, mostly French. Many apartments in the area have been purchased by overseas residents for investment purposes. The socioeconomic level if the inhabitants is in the middle range, and this is reflected in the price of real estate.
The area is one of high-rise apartment buildings. For an area that was planned as the business hub of the town, there are no office buildings. Commercial enterprises and offices are located in residential tower blocks. These were custom-built with shops on the lower floor and offices on the mezzanine.
Michael Benyamini of the Anglo Saxon real-estate agencies told Metro, “The area of The City is practically built up. To the best of my knowledge, there are no new building projects, with the exception of a residential tower block that will have 170 residential units and three lower floors of stores and offices.”
Real estate prices in Ashdod are stabilizing. It would seem that the hefty price increases of the past three years, which rose by 50 percent, are now a thing of the past. The average price of a three-room apartment is approximately NIS 1.1 million. The price of an average four-room apartment rises to NIS 1.15m. to NIS 1.3m., and a five-room apartment will cost from NIS 1.3m. to NIS 1.5m. An average penthouse can cost around NIS 2m.
The real-estate rental market is very robust in the area, with monthly rentals for an average three-room apartment at NIS 3,200; a four-room apartment NIS 3,600; and a fiveroom apartment NIS 4,300. During the past three years, rentals rose by nearly 60%.
At present, the real-estate market is very unsteady because of the social unrest; but when things settle down, prices in the area for an average 120-square-meter to 150-sq.m. house will stabilize at NIS 8,800 to NIS 9,500 per square meter. Demand has dampened somewhat because demand by Jews from France has diminished significantly.