Rehavia maintains its tranquil, upper-class aura to this day.
By JOHN BENZAQUENApartments at Ahad Ha’am Street in Rehavia.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
In the not-so-distant past, Rehavia was the most sought-after address in the capital. Today it is still a prestigious neighborhood, but prices in other parts of Jerusalem, such as Talbiyeh, are higher.The official residence of the prime minister is still in Rehavia and is still a coveted address. It is not what it was during the British Mandate and up until the late ’60s, but it is still considered one of the high-class residential areas in the capital, with a distinctive central-European accent. When the British established their rule in Palestine, the Jewish Agency expected a large influx of Jews from Europe. As such, it considered it imperative to create suitable accommodations in Jerusalem for middle-class families from countries such as Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.The agency planned a middle-class neighborhood with apartments that were more or less equal to what these families were accustomed to in Germany and the successor states of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire.The new neighborhood was built on land purchased from the Greek Orthodox Church, which was and still is the largest single proprietor of land in Jerusalem.The planning was entrusted to famous German Jewish architect Richard Kaufmann, whose design centered around the incorporation of urban garden suburbs – a concept pioneered by noted British urban architect Sir Ebenezer Howard. This model was meant to emphasize the Zionist movement’s social ideals and emphasis on agriculture.Work on planning and building Rehavia started in the early 1920s. Jerusalem was a small city at the time, but Kaufmann was forward-looking, and he designed Rehavia as a garden suburb of a bustling metropolis, based on the Howardian “garden cities” in Britain and the US. The central idea was a series of apartment buildings that were not connected to each other but formed a residential “island” in the middle of a sea of green. This style contrasted with the rows of houses in European capitals, which stretched the length of whole streets and were not separated from each other.Rehavia was to be a quiet suburb within walking distance of the center of town – then as now, in the area of King George Avenue and Jaffa Road.By intentionally designing narrow roads that prevented easy access to traffic, and only allowing commerce to take place on its bordering streets – Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, King George, Ussishkin and Aza streets – Kaufmann enabled Rehavia to maintain its tranquil, upper-class aura to this day.Most of the area was built in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.It boasted sturdy stone houses, some of them in the Bauhaus style. The plan was for the grounds to be maintained as flowery gardens, but this was not always the case, since the people who shared the homes did not always care about communal maintenance of the gardens and property.In its heyday, the area was home to many famous members of the intellectual and political elite, including prime ministers David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir. The first official residence of the president was in Rehavia.However, the original Rehavia residents are dying out, and their homes are being rented – many of them to overseas residents, and some to students. In addition, the population has become increasingly religious, as an affluent Anglo population has purchased properties and begun renovating some of the older homes. (Thanks to Israel Antiquities Authority’s Conservation Department, which regulates building in the area, the historical charm of these old mansions has been preserved.) With a high density of religious institutions and synagogues throughout the neighborhood, young religious families have begun to populate the area.As such, although Rehavia is not the most expensive area in the city, real-estate prices are still very high.The apartments fetch premium prices from $10,000 to $12,000 per square meter, while penthouses built atop these old apartment buildings can go for $15,000 to $20,000 per square meter.Supply in Rehavia is limited because there are no empty plots. New projects only come along when old buildings are torn down and new ones built in their place – not a common occurrence, since most of the buildings are marked for conservation. A better solution is to add more floors to existing apartment buildings. The extra floors go on top of buildings with historic façades, which are then restored, and the public areas – the entrance, lobby and stairwell – are upgraded. The new apartments are designed to blend in with the period structure, sporting high ceilings and large rooms, but modern appliances and technology.Such new apartments are in high demand.In Rehavia, demand usually outstrips supply, and whatever comes onto the market sells relatively fast.The same goes for rental apartments.The area is attractive to students, since it is close to the Hebrew University’s Givat Ram campus and near the bohemian coffee shops and restaurants on Aza Street.The three-room, relatively run-down apartments that students tend to favor can rent for as little as NIS 4,500 a month, while a fancy four-room apartment of the type overseas students prefer can rent for as much as $4,000 a month.RECENT TRANSACTIONS• A three-room, 64-square-meter apartment on the second floor sold for NIS 2.095 million.• A three-room, 60-sq.m. first-floor apartment on Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Street sold for NIS 1.81m.• A 38-sq.m. two-room apartment sold for NIS 1.45m.• A three-room, second-floor apartment measuring 63 sq.m. sold for NIS 2.34m.• A four-room, 84 sq.m. apartment on the third floor sold for NIS 2.5m.• A ground-floor apartment measuring 138 sq.m. sold for NIS 4.15m.
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