Today, Ashdar is involved in the construction of hundreds of apartment buildings throughout the country, including in Haifa, Netanya, Tel Aviv, Ramat Hasharon, Bat Yam, Rehovot, and Jerusalem. The company moved into Modi’in three years ago and began marketing its exclusive Ashdar Buchman Modi’in project, which encompasses 78 apartments in six six-story buildings.
According to the Israel Lands Administration, property buyers for pieces of land in the Buchman neighborhood in Modi’in paid NIS 607,000 per unit in 2010. A year prior, they paid just NIS 300,000. That’s an increase of better than 100 percent. Similar results were reported in other parts of Modi’in.
The deals in which people bought apartments in the Ashdar Buchman project were also indicative of the record-high prices in real estate that people paid to live in Modi’in. Recently, the company sold a four-room apartment in the project for NIS 2.1 million. Two years ago, a similar apartment went for NIS 1.8 million. A five-room apartment in the complex was recently sold for NIS 2.3 million, while two years ago it would have been sold for NIS 2 million.
“This is a 15-percent jump within two years,” Brizel says. “This is all the result of supply and demand, as well as market conditions. The demand for housing in the upscale Buchman neighborhood is among the highest in the city. Ashdar recognize the high demand for apartments in the city as well as the quality of the population that was willing to pay a lot of money in order to live in high-end neighborhoods like Buchman.”
“The project being offered by the company is tailored to the clientele and it offers four- and five-room apartments with a garden, a scenic view, and physical separation from the other apartments,” she says. “The buyers who come to purchase our apartments are looking for individual space, high-quality living arrangements, and nature. That’s why our apartment buyers are not just young couples but also those looking to upgrade their living arrangements and come from all over, including the center, the Sharon region, Modi’in, and English speakers.”
There are 20 apartments remaining to be sold in the complex, among them six penthouse apartments that take up the entire floor and could be had for a price of NIS 3.8 million each. According to Brizel, penthouse apartments are always the last to be offered for sale in projects like this, particularly when buyers could gain a greater appreciation for the complex’s development and the surrounding environment.
“The prices of the penthouse apartments, just like the rising prices in the city, stem from the massive development that has been poured into the city, and this has attracted quite a number of people from a high socioeconomic strata,” she says.
Modi’in boasts a large number of businesses and employment opportunities, top-quality educational institutions, and a strategic location – right between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (the city is a 25-minute drive to each). It is also a short, 10-minute drive to Ben-Gurion Airport as well as the main highways that connect it to the south and center of the country.
Modi’in is also ranked among the cities with the highest socioeconomic quality of life for its residents. In addition, 63 percent of its inhabitants completed high school, among the highest in the country. As of 2008, it had a well-above-average annual salary for wage-earners (NIS 14,496 per month). In terms of employment, 79 percent of Modi’in residents have jobs, and its unemployment rate is extremely low (2.5 percent, well below the national average of 6.6 percent).