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Tabu, ILA or Housing Company: What Registration Means

Q: Can I get a mortgage on an apartment that is not in Tabu?

Israeli banks lend against ILA-registered and housing-company apartments, but they will want the confirmations of rights and will record their lien in the relevant files until Tabu registration. Each bank sets its own conditions.

Q: Who pays to register the condominium?

Under the Sale (Apartments) Law the developer is responsible for registration, and regulations under that law limit what the developer's lawyer may charge the buyer for it. Ask your lawyer about the current cap.

Q: How do I know if the land is state land?

The Tabu extract shows the registered owner. If it names the State of Israel, the Development Authority or the Jewish National Fund as owner, with a lessee underneath, the land is ILA-managed.

Close-up of an Israeli land registry document on a desk

Where the seller's rights are recorded tells you what you are buying. Rights registered in the Land Registry (Tabu) are property rights under the Land Law; rights recorded only with the Israel Land Authority or a housing company are, for now, contractual rights that still have to make their way into the registry. Both are routinely bought and sold, but they call for different checks, different documents and different expectations about when your own name will appear as the holder.

The three places an apartment can be registered

Tabu: the Land Registry run by the Ministry of Justice. Ownership and long-term leases are recorded per block (gush) and parcel (chelka), and within a condominium per sub-parcel (tat-chelka). A registered right is good against the world.
Israel Land Authority (ILA): for state land not yet registered in Tabu, the ILA keeps its own records of who holds the lease. The transfer is done by the ILA issuing an updated lease or recording the transfer in its files.
Housing company (chevra meshakenet): a developer or a management company that holds the rights for a building until the condominium is registered in Tabu. The company keeps a register of purchasers and issues confirmations of rights.

Why Tabu registration is the strongest position

The Land Law 5729-1969 provides that a transaction in land is completed only by registration. Once you are registered in Tabu, you hold a property right that binds everyone, you can register a mortgage against it, and no competing transaction can be registered without your consent. A Tabu extract is a public document that any lawyer can pull online and read in minutes.

With ILA-only or housing-company registration, the chain is longer. Your lawyer must obtain confirmations of rights from the ILA or the company, check that the seller is the person recorded there, and check that no caveats, liens or attachments have been recorded in those files. The transfer may also depend on the company's or the ILA's consent and on fees being settled.

What a housing-company registration involves

When a building is new and the condominium has not yet been registered, the Sale (Apartments) Law 5733-1973 obliges the developer to register the building and the apartments within a period set in the law after certain milestones, and to record the purchaser's rights in the meantime. Until that happens, the company holds the rights and the buyer's protection is a caveat in the registry on the whole parcel plus the company's undertaking.

Ask for the company's letter of confirmation of rights (ishur zchuyot) for the specific apartment and its date.
Ask why the condominium has not been registered yet and what is holding it up: a pending parcellation, an unresolved planning issue, or just a slow lawyer.
Check whether the purchase price includes the company's fee for recording the transfer.

ILA leases: what to look for

On ILA land, the Israel Land Authority rules govern the lease term, renewal, permitted use and the transfer procedure. The lease may be 'capitalised', meaning the lessee paid the lease fees for the whole term up front, or it may carry ongoing fees. The ILA may charge a consent fee on transfer in some leases, and in others the fee is already covered. Your lawyer obtains the ILA's confirmation of rights and the lease, and confirms that the seller's rights are free of claims. If the leasehold has already been registered in Tabu, the Tabu extract will show it as a lease (chakhira) and the ILA as lessor.

What this means for a buyer abroad

Expect a Tabu-registered apartment to be the simplest to check and to register in your name.
For ILA or housing-company apartments, allow more time and more documents, and do not pay the final instalment until the transfer documents are complete.
In every case, a caveat is registered in your favour immediately after signing; our separate guide explains how.
In urban renewal projects, such as those Kobi Elkayam Real Estate develops, the land is usually already registered in Tabu as a condominium and the new building is registered on the same parcel once construction ends, so the path to registration is clear from the outset.

Common mistakes

Treating a housing-company confirmation letter as equal to a Tabu extract.
Not asking for the ILA lease and reading its term and renewal clause.
Assuming an unregistered condominium will be registered 'soon' without a contractual deadline.
Forgetting that a registered mortgage of the seller must be removed before your registration.
Skipping the check of attachments and liens in the ILA or company files.

FAQ

Can I get a mortgage on an apartment that is not in Tabu?