Thanks to the warm climate in this country, most people do not give much thought to the various methods of heating homes in Israel. Since heating isn’t necessary most of the year, the vast majority of Israelis have settled for using the heating mode of their wall-mounted air conditioning units. The last decade has seen...

As we cautiously look forward to an exit from the Covid crisis, Marc Rosenberg of Nefesh B’Nefesh reports over a 100% increase in Aliyah requests from North American Jewry, despite the fact that this year’s process will be more complex than in the past. The large conferences that the organization usually holds have been moved...

While for a long time, developers avoided building small homes, within just a few short years, the rate of new 2-room apartments being constructed has more than tripled. Today, the small apartment has become a sought-after product among investors. An analysis conducted by the Real Estate Appraisers Association in Israel found that the Return on...

When purchasing a second-hand home in Israel, it is customary for the purchaser’s attorney to conduct negotiations with the vendor’s attorney by discussion, exchange of correspondence, and drafts of the contract of sale which reflect each party’s concept of how the transaction should be structured. The following is a selection of some of the more critical issues that a purchaser’s attorney will address during the process of a second-hand transaction:

When clients come to me with a specified budget for buying a new home in Israel, I promptly inform them that they should reduce that budget by at least 5-10% because of the various fees and expenses that they will likley incur during the purchase process. There are generally 12 additional items to take into account:

The municipal property tax in Israel, known as “Arnona,” is levied by the local authorities in order to finance their activities and services. It is calculated according to a variety of parameters, including the purpose of the building, its size, the socio-economic status of the neighborhood, and more. These variables can result in an enormous...

A common trend nowadays in Israel is to build a basement beneath a house. The addition of a basement to an existing property, can provide the owner with a large amount of additiona living area and can also add significantly to the value of the property. However, basement excavations and conversions, carry many regulations and permissions with them. They are each unique and very much depend upon the condition and structural ability of the existing property.

Purchasers of new apartments in Israel, directly from developers, could find themselves paying a significantly higher price than they’d agreed upon when they initially closed the deal. The reason for this comes down to fluctuations in the residential construction cost index, published monthly by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which estimates changes in construction...

The “Sukkah balcony” has become a must-have for almost any religious person interested in buying an apartment in Israel. According to Israel real estate appraisers, a Sukkah balcony may raise the value of an apartment by around 5%, while the planning committees use it to funnel ultra-orthodox buyers into certain neighborhoods and turn them away...

Purchase groups in Israel are a popular and less expensive way to buy a new apartment than through a developer. But with potential savings up to 20% of the apartment price, this route bears a greater risk and the Government is now considering tightening regulations to protect purchasers. Increasing signs of instability followed by legal...