Tel Aviv Real Estate - July 15, 2005

Minrav Holdings Ltd. won a tender from Israel Railways for construction of two bridges for the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem line for NIS 140 million. These two bridges would be 1,200-meter long, 7.4-meter wide, and 30-meter high. These bridges will be built near Latrun. Till now, these are the longest bridges under the Israel Railways work plan. Work is expected to begin in a month and will take approximately 28 months to complete. Also the IDF residences administration is in advanced negotiations with Minrav for the purchase of a Kiryat Ono lot, zoned for 90 apartments. Two alternative methods for the purchase are under consideration.

As per a cost of living index conducted for 27 selected cities around the world, the cost of living is higher in Tel Aviv than in Prague, Johannesburg, Bangkok, and Manila, but lower than in New York, Hong Kong, Geneva, London, and Paris. This around the world survey was compiled by British weekly “The Economist”. The index is based on a more extensive survey by the "The Economist Intelligence Unit" (EIU) that includes 127 cities around the world. Tel Aviv is the only Israeli city included in the prestigious survey, which omits cities like Barcelona and Rome. Tel Aviv was seen to rank 16th on the list which was topped by Tokyo at the first position. The next most expensive cities after Tokyo are Oslo, Paris, and London, followed by Geneva, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Seoul, Sidney, Hong Kong, and Singapore all of which are more expensive than New York.