ISRAEL: Tel Aviv firm combines real estate agency with cafe

SCRIPT: Tel Aviv is trendy, sprawling, and for now, prices are booming. Yaffa Golan, a semi-retired bank manager, saw that as a business opportunity - and turned her neighbourhood cafe into a real estate agency. "When we need to close deals, we do it here, over a cup of coffee, a meal, on the house," Golan said. Her cafe doubles as her office. Instead of daily specials on the wall, there's the hottest property deals. Golan passed her real estate agent tests, and urged her staff to do the same. Their certificates hang on the wall. "If someone comes and he wants to order a meal and at the same time he asks you about apartments, and you can do another deal with him, its great, isn't it?" said cafe employee and now licensed real estate agent Miri Cohen. Realtors say that property prices here have increased by around 50 percent in the last two years. At this luxury development, costs range from six thousand US dollars a square metre up to 18,000. That's comparable with prices in New York and Paris. "If you have intention to buy, it is the time to buy," said Savyonei Ramat Aviv marketing manager Daniella Sheleff. And there's a lot of that going on, thanks largely to foreign investors. That has sent prices - and construction - spiralling. In Golan's cafe, the customers seem satisfied - if not with housing prices, then with this city's sense of style. "I have to say it's not cheap to live in Tel Aviv, but this is the place for youngsters," said Nili Tagher, who is looking for an apartment to rent in Tel Aviv.

ITN Source | March 24, 2007

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