Update - As of August 2017, this tax has been cancelled. Therefore, as of now, the below is no longer relevant. The war that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has been waging on Israeli property prices has been well documented and shows no sign of abating. His newest weapons to date is the ‘Third Property’ Tax law, which was proposed in 2016 and was passed a few weeks ago in January 2017. There are still a number of legal hurdles to be overcome, however assuming that these are re

It is no coincidence that the strong run that Israeli property as an asset class has enjoyed over the last years - prices have more than doubled in less than a decade - has gone hand in hand with an equally impressive run in the Israeli mortgage market - mortgages now account for one third of the credit in the banking system. Indeed, the more people purchasing real estate the more mortgages that are being taken, and, conversely, the increased ability to take a mortgage (due t

There is no doubt that one of the major factors driving up Israeli house prices in recent years has been the large volume of real estate purchases by investors - both local and foreign. With the vast majority of these properties being rented out, we thought it would be helpful to take a brief look at the Israeli tax regime on rental income. Before beginning it is important to note that the information below pertains to residential and not commercial real estate. Residential r