Toward A Better Jerusalem Real Estate Ecosystem
On its face, it might be surprising to launch a real estate focused offering for a place like Jerusalem during a pandemic that has stunted travel across the globe. After all, Jerusalem is an international travel destination, and much of the real estate market caters to the variety of demand that emanates from travel. Whether it is those most reliant on short-term vacation rentals such as property managers or real estate agents catering to Jews looking to buy property in the city, almost all of this business has ground to a halt due to COVID. Still beneath the surface and particularly with an eye on the future, the pandemic has created numerous new dynamics. These changes, combined with various data points, lead us to be confident that the Jerusalem real estate market will see unprecedented demand post-pandemic. With vaccinations gaining steam, we are also of the opinion that this renaissance in demand is months away versus years. Based on this thesis, we believe JerusalemSpaces is uniquely situated to help bring value to the Jerusalem real estate ecosystem as it navigates a challenging time in the now but one of great opportunity in the near future.
The Upcoming Demand Surge
There are numerous factors that, in our opinion, will drive the possibly unprecedented demand in the coming months for Jerusalem real estate properties and services. First, based on data coming out of organizations dealing with immigration and Aliyah, there has been double the interest from a year previously.
The Aliyah numbers for the year coincided with a sharp increase in people interested in moving to Israel. Since the start of the year, The Jewish Agency has received around 160,000 inquiries about immigration to Israel and has opened roughly 41,000 new Aliyah application files, including 28,000 files from Western countries – twice the number opened in 2019.
The Jewish Agency For Israel
Further, even in a pandemic year, the fact that more than 20,000 people became new immigrants even though there were arduous quarantine requirements speaks volumes as to what will happen post-pandemic.
The trends driving greater rates of Aliyah are multi-variant from our perspective to include a perceived tumultuous future in the USA in light of the political and social climate and greater adoption of “work from anywhere” in the corporate arena. There is also the increasing emigration trend from increasingly hostile environments such as France on the European front. In light of this, the Jewish Agency estimates that Israel can expect in the realm of a quarter-million Olim over the next 3-5 years.
In addition to immigration and its effect on demand, by all accounts, once the vaccine achieves its impact of immunity and travel becomes relatively safe, there will be enormous pent-up demand. Short term rentals and investment properties in Jerusalem can expect to see the positive effects of this cohort.
Adding Value By Streamlining The Supply & Demand Sides
There are two core components in the Jerusalem real estate ecosystem, whether in the context of properties such as rentals and sales, or services, such as real estate agents and property managers. The suppliers provide the properties or services while the customers are the demand. In the current state, this is a disjointed market. There is a lack of a powerful and dedicated platform for sellers and buyers to find and communicate with each other easily. The core goal of JeruslaemSpaces is to provide value to the supply side by offering centralized visibility and associated marketing services. In turn, the buy-side will gain from being able to seamlessly browse Jerusalem real estate properties and services without having to jump from one website to another. The buy-side will also benefit from the best in class user experience and decision-making tools such as reviews and ratings.
Additional Benefits For Jerusalem Real Estate Professionals
Besides the mentioned streamlining value for real estate professionals, JerusalemSpaces offers other advantages. From networking opportunities, marketing services, and webinars, we are just getting started with the tools we will provide to make property and service providers have an easier and more effective business.
