Tel Aviv’s green sister

Hod Hasharon’s mayor promises to offer a high level of education, employment and housing – all with a view.

By JOHN BENZAQUEN
Hod Hasharon 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Hod Hasharon 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Hod Hasharon is one of those dormitory towns in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv that developed from existing agricultural settlements. It’s a satellite town that is in the process of acquiring a life of its own.
These days most Hod Hasharon residents work in the in the surrounding hi-tech industrial parks or in the financial center of Tel Aviv. Most do their shopping and get their entertainment outside the municipal boundaries of Hod Hasharon. But this is changing.
Hod Hasharon Mayor Hai Adiv is intent on developing and enlarging the town’s small existing hi-tech industrial park as well as increasing local commerce and entertainment facilities. In addition, Hod Hasharon has an abundance of green areas at a time when green is definitely in.
In the not-so-distant past Hod Hasharon was considered something of a backwater, and real-estate prices there were relatively low. This has changed – housing there is still cheaper than in Tel Aviv but it is becoming more expensive.
Demand for housing in Hod Hasharon took off some five years ago, mainly due to hefty price increases in Tel Aviv, and in consequence residential real-estate prices have risen by some 25-30% since that time.
Orly Lahav, from the Anglo-Saxon real estate brokerage network in Hod Hasharon, told Metro: “The price of an average three-room terraced apartment up to five years old is NIS 1.5 million, an average four-room 100-sq.m. terraced apartment costs NIS 1.7m.”
“I believe,” she added, “that demand will increase in the future – but not prices. At their present levels they have reached a maximum.”
Adiv believes, however, that in the future demand for housing in Hod Hasharon will stem not only from lower prices relative to Tel Aviv, but also from the high quality of life on offer there. “We have one of the best educational systems in the country, we are enlarging the hi-tech industrial parks so as to be able to create well-paid jobs and we are also the greenest city in Israel,” she says.
Hod Hasharon is an amalgamation of five adjacent agricultural settlements: Ramatayim, Magdiel, Hadar, Ramat Hadar and Naveh Sha’anan.
In 1964 they were amalgamated into one municipal entity but, 46 years on, they still retain some of their rural charm. Its municipal boundaries encompass 24 sq.km. (5,000 acres). A lot of space – at least in Israel – for a town of 47,000 which is set to grow to not more than 80,000 in 10 to 15 years’ time.
The municipality intends to keep the town relatively small and green. Adiv is making use of all this space to build green areas. A 250-acre park on the banks of the Yarkon River, another 100-acre park with a 40-acre lake on what was once a garbage dump, the 25-acre four seasons park and an additional 25-acre park called Beit Hana’ara developed around a large natural grove of trees.
Dudu Tavor, general manager of building and development company Adirim, agrees that those moving to the area are seeking a better quality of life, not only lower prices. “We have adapted our new projects to wishes of the market. We know that those moving to a new city, a new environment, want something better. We make it a point to build spacious dwellings.”