Neighborhood Watch: Looking east

Demand for apartments in parts of Netanya is holding steady.

By JOHN BENZAQUEN
Kiryat Hasharon (photo credit: Netanya Municipality)
Kiryat Hasharon
(photo credit: Netanya Municipality)
Netanya is a charming coastal town in the geographical center of the country’s Mediterranean coastline. In the not so distant past, it was considered a holiday resort, with a large number of hotels and miles of sandy beaches. Today, it is less of a tourist resort. The decline of tourism in Netanya is difficult to explain, and the local government mandarins are trying hard to turn the clock back.
Netanya is 83 years old. The idea to create a settlement there was decided at a meeting of the Bnei Binyamin association in nearby Zichron Ya’acov, an association for promoting agricultural settlements in Palestine. It was decided to locate the new settlement near the ancient biblical site of Poleg, and it was decided to name it in honor of Nathan Straus, co-owner of New York’s Macy’s department store, who was also New York City’s parks commissioner and president of the New York Board of Health. But the reason they named the new settlement after him had nothing to do with his activities in New York but with his Zionist leanings. In 1912 he visited Palestine and was so impressed with Zionism that he donated twothirds of his very substantial personal fortune to projects benefiting all the inhabitants of the Holy Land, both Jews and Arabs.
Netanya was named for Straus in the hope that he would donate money to the Bnei Binyamin association. Unfortunately for the association, by the time it asked him for financial help, it was too late, as he and his wife had already donated most of their personal fortune to charities in Palestine and the US.
The settlement was set up on December 14, 1928, when a group began digging for water at the site. Agricultural activity began in February 1929.
Today, Netanya is famous for its waterfront and its beaches. East Netanya, the area east of the Haifa-Tel Aviv coastal highway, is being developed rapidly. The eastern part of Netanya can be divided into three areas.
The area nearest the Haifa-Tel Aviv coastal road is made up of apartment houses built in the 1950s and 1960s to accommodate new immigrants. It is called Mishkenot Zevulun. The inhabitants are of a relatively low socioeconomic level. Amalia is an area that was built in the 1990s to cater to the needs of newlyweds. And Kiryat Hasharon is in the heart of eastern Netanya. Kiryat Hasharon has a quarter built by the Mishav Construction company for religious families. The compound has some 700 dwellings, its own schools and religious institutions.
The municipality considers Kiryat Hasharon as the central element in eastern Netanya. It covers an area of approximately 275 acres. It has 4,500 dwellings and a population of some 20,000. When completed and fully populated, it will have 40,000 residents.
Kiryat Hasharon, where the Netanya Academic College is located, has a small forest. The area has access to the national road grid and to the railway, with the Netanya railway station nearby.
The area is much in demand partly because the local government has invested heavily in infrastructure projects. It has invested NIS 100 million in schools, green areas, sports facilities, roads, etc.
Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg-Ikar told Metro, “Netanya is expanding rapidly. In the past five years, more dwellings have been sold in this city than in many others in Israel. In 2011 alone, we authorized the building of 2,000 new dwellings. One of the reasons for the rapid expansion of the city is the high level of its infrastructure.
The city houses a large Englishspeaking community of immigrants from the US, Canada, the UK, etc.
And they keep coming, because in Kiryat Hasharon they can find dwellings of a very high standard, as well as educational and cultural facilities.”
A number of real-estate development companies have building projects in Kiryat Hasharon. One of these is Shikun Ubinui, which has a project called The Pure Hasharon Dreams. A green endeavor, the project has three 20-story apartment towers and two seven-story apartment buildings. One of the interesting features of the project is that there is a special space for 450 bicycles.
Kiryat Hasharon was much in demand. During 2009-2010, prices rose by 25% on average. At present, prices are more or less holding steady.
“There is demand for real estate, but it is nothing like it was two years ago,” says Haim Machluf, the Re/Max Real Estate agent in east Netanya.
“Still, this is something that is common all over the country, and east Netanya is not immune to the slump in the housing market. Nevertheless, in the past two months demand has been recovering, and I am optimistic.”
Although demand is recovering, prices are still staying put. Demand is based on families who want to buy an apartment in the center of Israel at reasonable prices and with good transportation links to Tel Aviv. Kiryat Hasharon fits the bill nicely. It has good road and rail links to Tel Aviv, and the prices compared to Tel Aviv, Givatayim or Ramat Gan are very attractive. An average four-room apartment in Amalia costs NIS 850,000; in the religious area of Kiryat Hasharon it costs NIS 1.1 million; and in Kiryat Hasharon proper NIS 1.3m.