Kiryat Shmona has a population of 24,000. But despite its small size, it is has metropolitan attributes.
By JOHN BENZAQUENManara Cliff cable car over the Hula Valley.(photo credit: WWW.GOISRAEL.COM)
Kiryat Shmona is the northernmost town in the country, located in the protruding territory called the Galilee Panhandle.This bulge’s northern and western edges extend into Lebanon, and until the Six Day War its eastern edge bordering Syria. We owe the sovereignty of this small territory to British imperial policy in the 1920s, which included getting as many of the area’s water resources as possible under the Union Jack’s control. The Galilee Panhandle included the head waters of the Jordan River, so the British decided that they, and not the French, would control it. And since it was the writ of London that ruled supreme in the Middle East at the time, the French had no choice but to accept the situation.The town of Kiryat Shmona was established in May 1949 on the site of the former Arab village of Al-Khalisa.The area was initially used as a ma’abara, one of the shanty-town transit camps for Jewish immigrants, mainly from North Africa. These people primarily worked in farming on the surrounding kibbutzim.When those were industrialized, the North African immigrants worked in industry.The ma’abara quickly became a town, and the Jewish Agency and Housing Ministry built permanent but basic housing. This started modern Kiryat Shmona. In 1953, it was classified as a development town.The town’s name means “city of the eight,” in honor of the eight members of the Tel Hai settlement who were killed in 1920 during the Arab revolt against the French. France had received the mandate over the Levant – modern Syria and Lebanon – and this was the last thing the locals wanted. In the ensuing revolt, they perceived or mistook the Jewish European settlers of Tel Hai for French settlers and, tragically, dealt with them accordingly.TODAY KIRYAT Shmona has a population of 24,000. But despite its small size, it is has metropolitan attributes.It is in the far North, which means that it is one of the most distant towns from the center of the country.Consequently it contains all the commercial and administrative services needed by its hinterland, where 60,000 people live. These people are mostly engaged in agriculture, but the Tel Hai Academic College is located there as well. At present, it has 4,500 students, expected to grow to 5,000, and a staff of over 1,000. Kiryat Shmona also has a technological incubator, and these two institutions have a strong bearing on both the life of the town and the real-estate scene.The town itself is in one of the country’s most attractive tourist locations, particularly for green tourism.Although the area has sites of historical interest like the Banyas Nature Reserve and Nimrod’s Fortress, most of the people who come do so for the area’s natural beauty. They usually stay in small boutique-type hotels or guest houses in rural areas. The town also has a cable car link with Manara above in the Naftali mountain range, where one has a stunning bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area.Hanan Dadon is the manager-proprietor of the Meirav Investments real-estate brokerage. Speaking with Metro, he details the real estate scene.“There are two main sources and one minor source of demand,” he says. “A: Investment demand from people who buy real estate to rent to students; B: Local residents who have improved their economic situation and also want to improve their residential standards; and C: Newlyweds – that is, the creation of new households.”The academic college has a big impact on the town. Today it has the highest student-to-population ratio of any town in the country. Not all the students and staff live in Kiryat Shmona, but 2,000 students and a few dozen staff members do, which means that 8.4 percent of the town’s population is made up of students.Furthermore, these students are deeply involved in the social life of the city.Because of the steady demand for rental housing, investment demand is strong and focuses on the least expensive parts of the city. That’s where one finds the old 1950s and ’60s dwellings on which investors are most keen. In these areas, it is possible to buy an apartment for NIS 350,000 on average and rent it for a monthly NIS 2,000.This works out to NIS 24,000 a year, an annual yield of over 6%. Not bad when interest rates are at historic lows.The second source of real-estate demand, which is much smaller, is the upgrade market, in which locals sell their apartments or houses to buy better, more expensive accommodations.Whereas the rental market is dominated by outside buyers, the upgrade market is entirely local.Today there are two new development projects – Bimat Tel Hai and Pele Hahermon – with some 100 new apartments that will be sold to those who want to scale up their lifestyle.These apartments sell for NIS 700,000 on average.Another element of the upgrade market is the sale of semidetached or single-family residences. Locals who sell their apartments, have some savings and take out a mortgage can become the proud owners of semidetached homes that cost just over NIS 1 million on average, or single-family homes that cost approximately NIS 1.3m.RECENT TRANSACTIONS• A three-room, 84-square-meter apartment with storeroom, elevator, terrace and parking sold for NIS 630,000.• An old 2.5-room, 56-sq.m. apartment with no terrace and no elevator sold for NIS 304,000.• A single-family home on a 330- sq.m. plot with a 180-sq.m. built-up area sold for NIS 1.4 million.• A four-room, 80-sq.m. apartment sold for NIS 440,000. It is being rented for a monthly NIS 2,200, an annual yield of 6 percent.