It’s been quite a month. Started off with a family vacation trip of a lifetime to Dubai, followed by my 40th birthday celebration.  My wife got me an awesome watch, and my folks got me a super cool bike, my kids gave me lots of hugs and kisses, and other fun times were had.  Yet...

This week, the Bank of Israel announced the raising of the restriction on the prime interest track in mortgage lending. Until now, borrowers have been limited to taking up to a third of their loan linked to the prime rate, which is considered to be the cheapest lending rate. Experts in the Israeli residential real...

Since the Coronavirus crisis began in March 2020, the Bank of Israel allowed all Israel mortgage borrowers to defer repayment of their loans, without having to show any proof of their financial strain. As a result, up until mid-November, a total of NIS 11 billion in loan repayments were delayed. The central bank recently announced...

In Israel, there are a large number of different mortgage options, rates, and tracks available to home-buyers.  Rates can be variable, fixed, or semi-fixed; loans may be linked to an index, and banks can lend in various different currencies. These choices can be confusing especially to foreigners who are familiar with completely different mortgage offerings...

One of the most commonly asked questions by people seeking to buy a home in Israel is “how much can I borrow to buy a home in Israel?” The response to this question is twofold and can best be answered by asking two further questions: 1. What is the value of the property you are...

Mortgages in Israel have been affected by Coronavirus too. Due to the pandemic, some significant changes in home-financing arrangements have been introduced in an attempt to minimize the negative impact on the public. The new mortgage policies are intended to provide mortgage-relief to existing borrowers and to offer more favorable terms for homebuyers in Israel:...

Mortgages in Israel are different from those in other countries. Buyers and investors from outside of Israel should be aware of certain important factors before beginning the process of financing a property purchase.   One of the very first steps a prudent prospective buyer of Israeli real estate will do is gather information regarding the available...

The COVID-19 pandemic is still raging strong. Nobody knows with any certainty if we, in Israel, are in the beginning, the middle, or towards the end of this ordeal. These are treacherous unchartered waters and it is unclear what the effects on the financial markets will be in the long term. While we are all...

The Madad, which is the Hebrew for Consumer Price Index (CPI) or rate of inflation, is followed very closely by Israelis since movements in the monthly index affect nearly every aspect in life from salaries, mortgages, housing, transportation costs or prices of fruit and vegetables, and other expenses. In brief, a number of very important income and other expense items of every household are linked fully or partially to monthly or quarterly inflation.

In Israel, the rate of interest is announced by the Bank of Israel at the end of every month. These announcements have been made since 1991, and provide the commercial banks with a benchmark for their rates on local-currency unindexed deposits and credit. This rate also affects the banks' prime rates. In the last few years prime interest has been about one and a half percentage points higher than the interest rate announced by the Bank of Israel. Prime rates are particularly important to mortgages linked to the prime interest rate. A mortgage linked to the prime interest rate based on the Bank of Israel rate is usually taken out for a period of up to 25 years.