The Great Jewish Hedge: Capital First, People Later

By Dan Peretz · Jun 25, 2026

487 foreign passport-holders bought apartments in Israel in Q1 2026. The data, the deals, the dollar figures — sourced from Hebrew and French press never written for English-language Jewish business readers.

Capital First, People Later — 487 foreign passport-holders bought apartments in Israel in Q1 2026. Here is the data, the deals, the dollar figures, and the named buyers — sourced from Hebrew and French press never written for an English-language Jewish business audience.

By Olam Editorial Desk

The Q1 2026 dataset

487 foreign passport-holders bought apartments in Israel in the first quarter of 2026. Source: Israel Tax Authority data, reported in Hebrew by Ynet on May 13, 2026; extended in French by immobilier.co.il on May 30.

Breakdown by passport: Americans 238 (49%); French 108 across named cities (Netanya 35, Tel Aviv 28, Jerusalem 28, Bat Yam 12, Ashdod 5); British 57; Other / not separately disclosed 84. American purchases concentrated in Jerusalem — 125 apartments, 52.5% of the American cohort.

British purchases rose from 37 in Q1 2025 to 57 in Q1 2026 — a 54% year-on-year increase. The French median ticket Q1 2026: 2.8 million shekels. The French median in Tel Aviv specifically: 5 million shekels.

The driver, named on the record

Beni Lubel, owner-manager of four Anglo-Saxon branches in Jerusalem and its surroundings, to Calcalist (January 8, 2025): "Almost all luxury buyers in Jerusalem now are foreign residents. Most are religious of one kind or another, and that wasn't the case before. For part of this public, buying an apartment in Israel is an expression of support and faith in Israel. Others meet antisemitism abroad — and that also pushes them to buy here."

Kobi Bir, Jerusalem real estate appraiser, to Credit-Immobilier-en-Israel (February 22, 2025): "Antisemitism is resurfacing everywhere, and buyers are coming here from every direction. A large part of them simply want a first foothold in Israel."

Foreign residents bought 22 apartments priced over 10 million shekels each in Jerusalem in November–December 2024 alone — roughly 30% of the city's entire 72-deal annual cohort in that bracket.

The deal: OP Jerusalem — 1 billion shekels near Mahane Yehuda

Developer: OP Jerusalem, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. Acquisition: approximately 200 luxury apartments under construction near the Mahane Yehuda market in central Jerusalem, late 2025. Estimated total transaction value (Israeli media): one billion shekels. Buyer base named publicly in advance: the Syrian Jewish community of Brooklyn and Deal, New Jersey.

Elliot Shelby, co-director of sales, OP Jerusalem, to the Times of Israel (December 25, 2025): "The idea of the project is to create a center in Israel for our community."

OP's prior Israel project: a 33-floor luxury tower with 120 apartments in Netanya's Ir Yamim quarter, marketed to the same Syrian-Jewish diaspora cohort. The Mahane Yehuda buy scales that template up by roughly 66x apartment count.

The American transactions

Named American foreign-buyer concentrations, 2024–Q1 2026:

Talbieh penthouse — Villa Schreiber project — 62 million shekels (2024 top single Jerusalem sale; foreign religious buyer). Source: Calcalist.

Sde Dov, Tel Aviv — Q1 2026 — 27.785 million shekels, 43rd floor of 44, 255 square meters. Most expensive single Israeli apartment of Q1 2026. Source: Ynet, June 15, 2026.

Tzeitlin 5, Tel Aviv — penthouse — approximately 24 million shekels. Bnei Dan 54-56, Tel Aviv — two adjoining penthouses — approximately 28 million shekels combined. Both deals closed in the months leading into Q1 2026 by Montefiori Real Estate, a firm specializing in foreign residents and new olim. Source: Ynet, June 15, 2026.

Tzarfati Shimon "Luria" project, Arnona neighborhood, Jerusalem — presale — six apartments sold as a single block to a group of American Jewish friends for approximately 30 million shekels combined (≈5 million shekels per unit), coordinated in North America before construction began. Source: Ynet, October 3, 2025.

American Q1 2026 Jerusalem cluster geographies (Anglo-Saxon Jerusalem data): Rehavia, Talbieh, German Colony, Baka. Haredi-American cluster geographies: Romema, Schneller, Geula.

The French transactions

French Q1 2026 city breakdown: Netanya 35; Tel Aviv 28; Jerusalem 28; Bat Yam 12; Ashdod 5. Ashdod was the second-most-French Israeli coastal city for the previous decade. Source: Ynet, May 13, 2026.

Hatzelet HaSharon project, Netanya — Q1 2026 — duplex and penthouse, both at approximately 7 million shekels each, both to French foreign-resident buyers. Marketing director quote (Ynet, October 3, 2025): "Most are buying as olim, or as an option for aliyah if antisemitism worsens."

The British transactions

Q1 2025 British apartment purchases: 37. Q1 2026: 57. Year-on-year: +54%. Source: immobilier.co.il, May 30, 2026, citing Israel Tax Authority data.

Jewish Agency 2025 aggregate inputs: 126,000 inquiry calls handled across four languages (English, French, Spanish, Russian); 30,000 new aliyah dossiers opened worldwide; one-third of 2025 olim aged 18–35. Source: Jewish Agency 2025 figures via immobilier.co.il.

British buyer geographies: Ra'anana (anglophone aliyah capital); Jerusalem Rehavia, Baka, Talbieh (overlap with American cohort).

The standing playbook

Publisher: Hagnère Patrimoine, Lyon, France. Document: Expatrié en Israël 2026: la stratégie patrimoniale complète. Publication date: May 10, 2026. Format: patrimonial planning manual for French Jewish families repositioning capital into Israel.

Locked recommended geography list, verbatim: "Apartment kept in Paris or Lyon, post-Aliyah purchase in Tel Aviv (Florentin, Rothschild, Neve Tzedek), Jerusalem (German Colony, Rehavia, Talbieh), Netanya (Sironit), Herzliya Pituach, Caesarea, or Raanana."

Locked Israeli tax components named: Mas Rechisha (acquisition tax). Mas Shevach (capital gains on resale). Mashkanta (mortgage), with loan-to-value ceilings differentiated by olim status.

Locked French-side residual exposures named: Article 244 bis A representative requirement; residual IFI (wealth tax) liability.

The parallel aliyah curve

2025 aliyah cohort: 21,900 olim from 105 countries. Russia stripped out: Western-country aliyah +23.6% YoY, +81% since 2023. France: +45% YoY. North America: four-year high. Nefesh B'Nefesh North American pipeline 2025: 13,389 aliyah files; 4,150 olim closed. Source: Israeli government data via The Olam, February 20, 2026 (The 2025 Aliyah Cohort: 21,900 Olim).

Three numbers to watch

1. Full-year 2026 foreign-buyer total. Q1 2026 ran 487 units. Run-rate annualized: 1,948. Aliyah tax window closes December 31, 2026 — historically compresses Q3 and Q4 above trend. Threshold to watch: 2,000.

2. Coordinated community purchases. OP Jerusalem closed 200 units in one community-targeted block. Templates to watch for replication inside twelve months: Persian-Jewish (Los Angeles, Long Island, Great Neck), French-Sephardic (Paris, Marseille), South African (London, Sydney).

3. Jerusalem and Netanya share of foreign-buyer volume. Q1 2026: Jerusalem 125 American + 28 French = at least 153 (31% of the 487 total) before British and Other are added. Netanya: 35 French + uncounted American and British. Tel Aviv remains an individual ultra-luxury market; the community-anchored volume engine is the two-city axis.

The receipt

487 foreign passport-holders. One billion shekels into Mahane Yehuda alone. 22 Jerusalem 10-million-shekel-plus apartments to foreign residents in two months. 54% British growth in twelve months. 30,000 open aliyah dossiers worldwide.

The receipt is registered at the Israel Lands Registry.