Sharp jump in mortgage taking by foreign residents

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In June 2026 foreign residents took out mortgages totaling NIS 686 million, the Bank of Israel reports, up from NIS 582 million in May. These are very low volumes, making up about 0.1% of all mortgages taken, but the fact that they grew in a month by just under 20% is still remarkable.

Luxury apartment buyers

At the same time, June stood out in terms of mortgages taken out to purchase expensive apartments: apartment buyers in the higher-end sector, which includes apartments worth NIS 5 million shekels and above. These buyers took out mortgages of about NIS 1.8 billion - an all-time record. Buyers of apartments worth NIS 3-5 million took out mortgages worth NIS 3.1 billion shekels, the second highest of all time. In total, 44% of all mortgages taken were for apartments worth more than NIS 3 million, which was also a record.

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In total mortgages worth NIS 11.1 billion were taken out last month. The gross average of mortgages taken out was about NIS 1.1 million, the same amount as the average mortgage taken out in the free market for buyers who are not investors.

Investors continued to take out very high mortgages last month: the average mortgage for an apartment purchased by an investor reached NIS 1.37 million. While buyers of apartments in government subsidized programs took out an average mortgage of NIS 748 million.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 21, 2026.