Tel Aviv: A city that only the mega-rich call home

Tel Aviv resident Ran Binya is caught between two conflicting forces in the city he loves.

On the one hand, he’s enjoying a golden age in the real estate business he founded 16 years ago. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had such a crazy period for housing demand and deals like we have now,” he says. “Properties are being snatched up – and I’m not talking only about new apartments straight from contractors but rather people looking for a bigger place who plunk down a huge amount of cash to buy second-hand apartments in the center of town. Just this week I sold a large three-room apartment in the center of town for 5 million shekels ($1.5 million), which was on the market for barely a week an a half. A similar apartment was sold in the same building three months ago for 4.5 million shekels.”