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Israel’s wealthiest citizens, together with many foreign investors, are buying up some of the most expensive real estate anywhere in the Middle East, located along the Tel Aviv Beach. Now this mile-long strip of land along the city’s promenade, from the Tel Aviv Dan Hotel to the David Intercontinental on Herbert Samuel Street, has been dubbed by CNN “The Golden Mile.”
Apartments in the Golden Mile are going for as much as NIS 1000, 000 per square meter (almost $3, 000 per square foot) in one of the many new high-rises currently under construction there. That’s the price for an apartment with a sea view.
This puts the area in the same category as the real estate along the French Riviera. Some real estate experts attribute the high prices to the many foreign investors who want apartments here and whose purchases have driven up property values in the area.
In fact, the majority of the people seeking apartments on the Golden Mile are foreign residents and businesspeople who wish to be close to the beach, to the Miami style hotel row, and to the Dizengoff shopping area. They come from all over the world, including, France, Britain, Belgium, South Africa, and the United States.
Any visitor to the Tel Aviv promenade these days cannot help but notice the new apartment buildings that are either still under construction or already completed. Most of the city has no room left for development, while the area along the Tel Aviv beaches by the corridor of luxury hotels had managed to remain untouched until now.
Most of the new buildings should be completed within three years’ time. Many investors have already signed to buy units that are yet to be finished. Some projects have not even begun yet, because, as developers complain, it is difficult to get the Tel Aviv Municipality to issue the necessary construction permits.
But some will soon be completed, including Ofer Investments’ 10 Herbert Samuel, expected to open in 2015. Canadian real estate mogul Sylvan Adams has already paid NIS 120 million ($35 million) for roughly 850 square meters (8, 500 square feet). Last year businessman Gaby Taman spent NIS 47 million ($13.6 million) on a 470 square meter (4, 700 square feet) apartment in the same building.
The “David Promenade Towers” project, between Herbert Samuel and Yarkon Streets, sold a 600 square meter apartment for NIS 81.5 million
