Why Elections Could Push Prices Down

When elections are coming, buyers wait. It is human nature. “Let us see who wins first, then we will decide.” That hesitation slows demand, and with developers already sitting on large unsold inventory and carrying heavy financing costs, they are forced to offer more discounts, more promotions and more upgrades just to move units. A quieter market gives buyers more negotiating power.

Add to that the flood of campaign promises that always appear before an election. Lower housing prices, subsidized apartments, free land for veterans. Whether or not any of it materializes, enough people believe it to keep sitting on the fence a little longer.

Why Elections Could Push Prices Up

Here is the flip side. The months between an election and the formation of a functioning government are months of paralysis. And that paralysis hits supply hard.

Planning committees stall. Projects get delayed. Government housing programs get shelved. Right now in Israel, the head of the Israel Land Authority has been disqualified by the Supreme Court. The chair of the National Planning and Building Council has not been formally confirmed. The Tel Aviv District Planning Committee has no chairperson. At every level of the system, the people responsible for approving and advancing new housing projects are either absent or distracted.

Meanwhile city mayors, who never loved approving new housing in their towns to begin with, have even less pressure to move things forward. The result is that while demand pauses, supply freezes too. And when supply freezes for long enough, prices do not stay down.

The Bigger Question

Beyond the economics, there is a more personal question hanging over the market. When Israelis vote in what is always described as the most fateful election yet, the result affects more than politics. For many families, it determines whether they believe in the Israeli future enough to commit to buying a home here.

That question does not get answered on election night. It gets answered slowly, in the weeks and months that follow, as families decide whether they still believe in the dream.

Source: Dror Marmor, Globes, July 17, 2026. Read the original article here.