Israel’s third large city, Haifa is located in the northern part of Israel, along the green slopes of the historic Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It offers biblical holy places, nature reserves, the most beautiful gardens in Israel. It is a quiet, beautiful, residential city with a decidedly European flavor, great beaches and a high quality of life.
Haifa covers 63.67 sq. km. bordered by the Krayot area (Motzkin, Yam and Bialik) on the north, the Emeq Z’vulun Regional Council on the north-east, Nesher and the Carmel Park on the south and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. The Carmel ridge, stretching from south-east to north-west and descending to the sea, creates a unique topography of sea and mountain.
This topographical structure has influenced the development of Haifa. The urban area of municipal Haifa is divided into two parts which are separated by the Haifa bay area: Kiryat Hayim and Kiryat Shmu’el on the north and Haifa to the south. The commercial activity is located mainly in the Haifa bay industrial zone and the harbor in the north and MATAM, the science-based industry park at Haifa’s southern outskirts.
Haifa has 8.9 million sq. meters of built-up area, consisting of 111,000 housing units. In the last ten years 148,000 sq. meters were added each year, making up 1,190 housing units per annum. For all other uses there are about 14 million sq. meters split up into 17,000 units. In the last decade 353,000 sq. meters of construction were added each year.
