Share your details, and we’ll be in touch promptly
The year 2025 will be remembered as a year in which Israel’s luxury map changed its face. While the market as a whole grappled with upheavals and recorded a significant slowdown in recent quarters, data from the Israel Tax Authority and Madlan reveal a surprising trend: Tel Aviv is losing its near-absolute dominance in favor of a striking comeback by Jerusalem and Herzliya Pituach to center stage.
From a historic villa in the Talbiya neighborhood to the ultra-luxury towers on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv—perhaps the city’s last remaining stronghold—we have compiled the most expensive properties purchased over the past year. The data were collected from the Tax Authority’s website and reviewed and refined by Madlan’s research team in order to filter out irregular transactions and consolidate deals that were split. It should be noted that several mega-transactions reported in the media this year have not yet been reported to the Tax Authority and therefore are not included in the list.
Roie Kaner, CEO of the Montefiore Real Estate Group, which specializes in the luxury and mega-luxury real estate market as well as in foreign residents and new immigrants, actually disagrees with Kopel and believes that “2025 clearly marked the return of Israel’s luxury real estate market to a position of strength—and beyond. The leading transactions signed this year reflect a mature, focused, and high-quality market, in which demand is concentrated in exceptional properties: historic villas, penthouses with iconic views, special projects that combine preservation, hospitality, and the highest level of services, and locations that have no substitute.”
Kaner adds that “the Israeli luxury market is not a mass market, but a market of quality. As long as supply remains limited and demand continues to come from strong, well-established audiences from Israel and abroad, luxury apartment prices are expected to remain stable and even rise in the right properties and buildings. In Jerusalem, the attraction to properties with historical value is particularly prominent, and in Tel Aviv the trend continues of concentrating luxury transactions along the Rothschild axis and its surroundings, where there is a willingness to pay very high prices for a combination of a central location and an urban living experience at an international level. Caesarea and Herzliya continue to consolidate their status as preferred destinations for private homes in neighborhoods with a very high socio-economic standing.”
**The identity of the buyers**
According to Kaner, “One of the most prominent characteristics of 2025 is the significant share of foreign residents in luxury transactions. Buyers from North America and Europe, including Italy and Canada, are involved in some of the most expensive deals. In our company this year, nearly 60% of luxury transactions were carried out by foreign residents—and we are talking about a year of war. That’s a crazy figure. This year we noticed that for those foreign residents, it’s no longer just about purchasing a vacation apartment but about a long-term strategic investment. For many of them, Israel is perceived as a safe anchor economically, culturally, and in terms of identity, and owning property here is a combination of security, belonging, and quality of life.”
Kaner estimates that 2026 will continue these trends. “Against the backdrop of rising antisemitism worldwide and a growing sense of uncertainty among many Jewish communities, a further increase in demand from foreign residents for luxury properties in Israel is expected. Demand will focus on unique assets—those that cannot be replicated: prime locations, projects with a story, international-level services, and uncompromising planning and architectural standards. This is a wake-up call for developers in 2026 who are building in luxury areas and wish to sell to this audience. The vast majority do not specialize in the construction and marketing of true luxury residences—those that attract luxury buyers and lead them to pay record-breaking prices per square meter.”
