In Billion Shekel Deal, The Syrian Jewish Community Purchases Two Towers In Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A huge and unprecedented deal has taken place in Jerusalem, as an entire community from the United States has purchased two towers for about 200 families, according to a Channel 12 report on Tuesday.  This represents a significant wave of immigration to Israel, and is also good news for developers in the country, who are currently struggling to sell apartments.

Nir Shmul, CEO of Snir Real Estate Marketing, is very familiar with projects of this kind. Speaking to Channel 12 News, he said: “In my estimation, this is the largest deal ever made in the State of Israel. We’ve never seen numbers like these, this is a transaction of at least one billion shekels.” He described the exceptional scale of the deal and congratulated the developers: “I congratulate the developers on this important deal. It involves Jewish immigration, and at the same time helps developers cope with the difficult situation in Israel.”

However, these two towers tell a much bigger story. Ultimately, the Syrian (Halabi) community wants to ensure a full communal framework and a strong sense of community. According to Shmul, this is not a purchasing group (who have no connection to each other) but rather an association of people from the same community. This sheds light on the possibility that many other communities and groups may immigrate to Israel in the coming years.

“The community itself will not necessarily come to live in Israel in the near future, perhaps their children are serving in the army here or studying here,” Shmul said. “But this deal points to the great potential of the market, especially during this period of stagnation in Israeli real estate. It gives developers a lot of optimism, and I think we will see major developers launching projects abroad. This also connects to the wave of antisemitism around the world and the rising fear index among Jews. We may indeed see a large wave of purchases that could change the real estate industry.”

It is important to note that there is concern that such apartments, partly purchased for the day when rising antisemitism intensifies even further, may ultimately become “ghost apartments” in the heart of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, a deal like this could also have a significant impact on renters, Shmul argued. Foreign residents may purchase more apartments in Israel, and perhaps taxation policy will be updated accordingly.

The Halabi community comes mainly from Brooklyn and Manhattan, as well as having another branch in Deal, New Jersey . It is a close-knit community in which the communal structure is very important. Therefore, despite expectations of similar moves in the future, it will be difficult to see other communities replicate this step, as they are characterized by a different communal nature.