Buying an apartment in central Tel Aviv

What Lev Ha’ir covers

The centre runs roughly between Allenby, Ibn Gvirol and the sea, around the Rothschild axis. It takes in Gan HaHashmal, Montefiore, the streets around Yehuda ha-Levi and Levontin, Sheinkin, Nachalat Binyamin and the edges of the Carmel market. Everything is fifteen minutes on foot, which is the main reason this district never stays down for long.

But “the centre” does not describe one market. A quiet street behind Ahad Ha’Am and a building facing a busy boulevard have neither the same price, nor the same buyer, nor the same ease of resale.

Two markets in one district

This is the most useful distinction to grasp before viewing anything at all.

The older stock

Buildings from the 1930s to the 1970s, often with no lift, rarely with parking, almost never with a safe room. The charm is real, the entry price is lower, and the spending continues after the purchase: renovation, wiring and plumbing, sometimes building works already voted through.

Recent construction

Built or rebuilt in the last fifteen years: lift, mamad, often parking, sometimes a pool or a gym. The square metre costs distinctly more, but the spending stops at the purchase, and the property lets and resells more easily.

Most of what I handle in the centre is in that second market: properties you lock up when you leave, that do not call for building work managed from abroad, and that have a safe room.

Why the price per square metre varies by two and a half times

Within one area the gap comes down to a handful of factors, nearly always the same ones:

• The age and condition of the building — the number one factor, far ahead of the address.
• A safe room (mamad), which in practice exists only in recent buildings or heavy renovations.
• Parking — rare, expensive, and decisive at resale in a district where parking is a competitive sport.
• The lift and the floor — a fourth floor with no lift is not addressing the same buyer.
• Aspect and noise — facing a boulevard people spill onto at closing time cannot be undone.
• The balcony, which counts towards the price without fully counting towards the floor area.

As an order of magnitude, an apartment in the centre currently costs between 45,000 and 75,000 shekels per square metre. The bottom of the range is older stock needing work; the top is recent construction with a lift, a mamad and parking. Above that you leave the ordinary market: those are exceptional properties, and the price no longer reasons per square metre.

The mamad: the question I am often asked

The mamad is the reinforced safe room built into the apartment itself, required in new construction since the early 1990s. An older building does not have one: at best it has a communal shelter in the basement, sometimes none at all.

For a buyer who does not live here, and who sometimes leaves family in the apartment, this now weighs as heavily as the kitchen or the view. It has also become a resale factor: at equal size and address, a property with a mamad sells faster.

One distinction that often escapes people: “recent building” does not guarantee “mamad in the apartment”. Some heavy renovations add the lift and the extra floors without creating a safe room in every unit. That is checked on the floor plan, not in the listing.

TAMA 38: what it changes when you buy older stock

TAMA 38 is the scheme for seismic reinforcement of older buildings. In practice a developer strengthens the structure, adds a lift, balconies and safe rooms, and is paid by building additional floors on top.

For a buyer, three very different situations hide behind the same phrase: a building already renovated — the work is done and the price reflects it; a project voted and signed — you will live through the works, or be unable to occupy the property for months; or a building merely “eligible”, which commits absolutely nobody. Before any offer, the only question that matters is: which of those three am I in, and on what written document?

And buying off-plan?

Part of the recent supply in the centre sells before completion. There is a case for it: a new property, to current standards, with payments spread over time. It suits some buyers, and it is not a bad choice in itself.

It is simply not what I do. A project sold off-plan carries too many unknowns: handovers slip by months, sometimes by years; build quality can only be judged when you are handed the keys, too late to negotiate; and the finished result often bears little resemblance to the renderings used to sell it.

I work only on properties that already exist. You see the real condition, the light, the view, the neighbours, the noise, the building and how it is run. You buy what you visited, not a promise. If your plan involves buying off-plan, you will need someone other than me. That is a deliberate choice, not a limitation: I do not want to commit a client to a property that neither of us can see, and I would rather say so at the outset.

That is one of the nine rules that define how I work for a buyer. See how I work.

Tax and financing for a non-resident buyer

Buying in Israel does not work the way it does in France or the UK. There is no notary in the continental sense: a lawyer drafts and secures the transaction, and each side has their own. Signing can be done remotely by power of attorney.

Purchase tax (mas rechisha)

This is the main tax item, and it often surprises people. Three principles before any figures. It is progressive: it applies in bands of price, not at a single rate. It depends on your status: an Israeli resident for whom this is the only home is taxed far less than a buyer who already owns one, or than a non-resident. And the bands are revised every year.

That is exactly why you will find no rate table on this page: an out-of-date band costs more than no band at all. The figure that applies to you depends on your personal situation and the year of the transaction — your lawyer calculates it before the offer, and it belongs in the budget from the start rather than being discovered at signing.

Financing

Israeli banks do lend to non-residents, but on different terms from residents: a lower loan-to-value, so a larger deposit, and a longer approval process. The most important practical point is timing: having your financing agreed before you make an offer rather than after is what lets you negotiate from strength instead of against a deadline.

On top of those two come the lawyer’s fees and the agency commission. So the budget is not the asking price: it is the asking price plus those three lines.

Common questions

Renovated older stock or recent construction?

It depends on how you will use it. For a pied-à-terre used a few weeks a year and let the rest of the time, recent construction with a lift, a mamad and parking needs less managing and lets more easily. For a main home with renovation you actively want, older stock gives more space and more character for the same budget.

Can you buy without coming to Israel?

Yes: viewings by video call, a detailed report, a lawyer here and signing by power of attorney. It does require someone who genuinely visits on your behalf, and who tells you what a listing never does — the floor with no lift, the noise from the bar below, the state of the stairwell.

What should you budget beyond the price?

Purchase tax, lawyer’s fees and agency commission. Each can be costed precisely before the offer; none should be a surprise. It is the first calculation I do with a client, before we even talk about properties.