From agricultural village to urban estates

Together with Savyon and Herzliya Pituah, Kfar Shmaryahu is Israel's most high-end country-style urban center.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Kfar Shmaryahu home 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Kfar Shmaryahu home 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Kfar Shmaryahu is a very upscale residential area to the north of Tel Aviv. It is situated between the eastern and western halves of Herzliya, with the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway as its western municipal boundary. Together with Savyon and Herzliya Pituah, Kfar Shmaryahu is the most high-end country-style urban center in Israel.
Like many urban entities in this country, Kfar Shmaryahu was founded by refugees from Nazi Germany in 1937. It was named after Shmaryahu Levin, a prominent Zionist leader who was born in Russia and immigrated to Germany.
Kfar Shmaryahu was established as an agricultural settlement of small land holdings. Its German residents called it Shmaryahu Dorf, or village. But Kfar Shmaryahu did not remain an agricultural village for long. In the late 1950s it started to attract wealthy families who purchased land from the residents and built themselves large houses with large gardens. By the mid-1960s it had become the most prestigious address in Israel and the most expensive from a realestate perspective.
It was an attractive location for the growing superrich sector of the community. These families lived in Tel Aviv, the commercial center of Israel. Consequently, they were on the lookout for somewhere close to Tel Aviv, and Kfar Shmaryahu is a mere 10 kilometers away. At peak hours it takes more than an hour to navigate the traffic jams from Kfar Shmaryahu to the business centers of Tel Aviv, but geographically it is very close.
Savyon and Herzliya Pituah were also exclusive expensive locations, but for some reason Kfar Shmaryahu started to outclass them. Perhaps it emanated a more stable atmosphere and thus attracted old established affluent families rather than those who had made their money relatively recently.
In the early 1950s the place was dotted with modest one-story houses and farm homesteads. Today, the old buildings have been torn down, and large palatial residences with spacious grounds have been erected in their place.
Kfar Shmaryahu is an independent urban entity, which means it has its own elected local council. This is a great advantage for neighboring Herzliya Pituah because its municipal problems are solved in a much quicker and more efficient manner.
From a social aspect, the Kfar Shmaryahu of today is a far cry from what it was in the second half of the 1930s. The former struggling agricultural settlement of German Jewish professionals-turned-farmers is now the abode of millionaires and dignitaries.
It is one of the few places in Israel where it is possible to buy what for Israel are large tracts of land of 2,000 to 5,000 square meters. This is because the original residents had land to grow crops and raise livestock. The plots were small by European agricultural standards, but they are huge by local urban standards, where a plot of 350 sq.m. is considered large.
Kfar Shmaryahu has approximately 2,500 residents in 670 households. Most of the residences are grand single-family homes with large well-tended gardens, and most have private swimming pools. The municipal authorities make it a point to maintain the rural green communal ambience, which is one of the major selling points of Kfar Shmaryahu. Most of the residents do their shopping and use the entertainment resources of Tel Aviv, but Kfar Shmaryahu has a small commercial center at its entrance that caters to the residents’ daily needs, such as groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables, a coffee shop and a bank. In the Weill Auditorium, residents have a focus for their cultural needs, and at the local club a swimming pool and tennis courts cater to the sporting needs of the residents.
It is also a very safe place to live. It has its own police station, as well as a special force of 70 volunteers who keep the area secure.
From a real-estate perspective, prices are creeping up, though they are rising less than they did in recent years due to the current real-estate downturn.
The price increases have restricted buyers to a very narrow band of the very wealthy. The price of a 1,000- sq. m. plot costs from NIS 9 million to NIS 12m., depending on the location. The more central and quiet the location, the higher the price. The size of the plots on offer range from 500 sq.m. to 8,000 sq.m. They may be former agricultural land with old houses and outbuildings that are then torn down. The price for modern palatial-style residences is much higher. And price tags of tens of millions of dollars are not unusual.
Oded Nahum, who is in charge of marketing in the Kfar Shmaryahu area for the Naot Shiran real-estate agency, told Metro, “The real-estate transactions that we recently brokered show that real-estate prices in Kfar Shmaryahu are holding their own. A modern single- family home on a 1,000 sq.m. plot was sold for NIS 17m., while a similar residence in the eastern end relatively close to the Tel Aviv-Haifa railway was sold for NIS 11.5m., which shows the importance of the location. A very large single-family home in the center, with nine rooms on a 1,250-sq. m. plot, is on offer for $6m. A 2,000-sq.m. plot in the center with a large 1,000-sq.m. home in need of renovation is being offered for $7.5m., and a 4,000-sq.m. plot of land is being offered for $8m.”