Foreigners Start Buying up Israeli Homes

Earlier this year, with the country still at war in Gaza and recovering from the shock of the Oct. 7 attack, Marc and Yael Azran bought an apartment in Beit Shemesh, a city of some 175,000 situated in the hill country about 18 miles west of Jerusalem.

The Azrans, who live in Silver Spring, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., closed the deal in March. Since then, the family has spent the Passover and Sukkot holidays in their second home, despite the continuing threat of rocket and missile attacks on Israel from Iran-backed groups in Gaza, Lebanon and around the region.

Buying a property in Israel was always a dream for the Azrans. Both had spent time in Israel on youth programs as teenagers, and when they married, they lived in Israel for a while. The idea was to someday return, said Marc Azran.

Get The AJT Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The push came after the Oct. 7 events, he said, because the couple felt the need to “be connected” and support Israel. Though they continue to live in the U.S., they now have a home to visit in Israel and hope to eventually move there.

“I feel like it’s time for the Jewish people to be in Israel, and I want to be part of that destiny, and I want my children to be part of that destiny,” Azran said over the phone as he drove to his job where he works as an anesthesiologist. “I do not feel that there is a bright future for Jews in America and in Europe, in the long term.”

According to official figures, the Azrans are just one of hundreds of foreign residents who have snapped up homes in Israel since the start of fighting some 15 months ago. By all appearances, the trend is being driven by Jewish buyers who want to enhance their connection with the Jewish state, and by fears of rising antisemitism around the globe, which outweigh concerns about the threat of war or terrorist violence.

Antisemitic incidents have surged around the world since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which terrorists from the Gaza Strip invaded and killed some 1,200 people, took 251 hostages and triggered the ongoing war there.

According to data published in November by the Finance Ministry, foreign residents in September acquired 254 apartments in Israel, a sharp increase of 119 percent compared to September last year, and the highest level of acquisitions since July 2022, when the market was infused with post-COVID optimism and a lower tax rate.

Home purchases by foreigners dropped steeply in October 2023 in the wake of the attack and war, official figures show, but quickly rebounded, reaching pre-war levels by December. They mostly continued to rise throughout the year before the September surge.

“After Oct. 7, for one month, there was nothing…. It was dead, nobody was calling,” said Donny Fein, a real estate agent who owns the Elite Israel Realty firm which focuses on the Beit Shemesh area. “It took about three or four weeks, [and then] the phones did not stop ringing.”

Fein should know, Beit Shemesh and the larger Jerusalem area are ground zero for the resurgent foreign buyer phenomenon, making up over half the properties purchased by foreigners in September. In Beit Shemesh alone, 87 apartments were purchased by non-residents in September, outstripping even the capital despite being less than a fifth of its size.

A Brooklyn native who immigrated to Israel, Fein said some customers had bought homes in Israel without ever visiting them in person. The buyers aren’t necessarily looking for their dream home, but rather to have a safe haven in their back pocket should trouble strike and they need to flee, he said. Until then, the foreign owners generally rent out their units on short-term leases of two years or less, to keep their options open.