Capital’s priciest apartment snagged

What housing crisis?

A Swiss Jew has bought the most expensive apartment per square meter ever sold in Jerusalem last week, shelling out a cool NIS 17.7 million ($4.49 million) for the yet-to-be built property.

While not the most expensive apartment in the country (that honor goes to a NIS 81 million apartment on Tel Aviv’s shoreline), at NIS 84,000 ($21,285) per square meter, it clocks in as the capital’s priciest apartment by area, according to Israeli news site Ynet.

The identity of the buyer was not released.

The 212-square-meter apartment (2,281 square feet) is part of the new luxury Isrotel complex under construction in Jerusalem’s tony German Colony neighborhood.

The hotel and apartment complex is slated to open in 2016.

The complex has 11 apartments, which average NIS 70,000 per square meter. Two 19th-century German Templer structures are being incorporated into the project.

“This is the first time in the company’s history that we’re selling apartments,” Isrotel CEO Lior Yaniv told the Globes business news outlet in 2014. “The apartments, which the buyers will fully own, are completely separate from the hotel building. The residents will have the option of using the hotel’s services, including the spa, fitness room, and swimming pool, but they will have a completely separate building, which includes underground parking with direct access to the apartments, allowing privacy.”

Isrotel, which own 17 other hotels in the country, bought the property in 2011 for NIS 127.7 million ($32.4 million).