Israel Freezes Foreign Builder Hiring. Homes Wait

Wednesday was about the people and the paperwork behind building, not about prices.

The biggest item came from the Population and Immigration Authority. It told manpower firms and contractors that the 40,000 place quota for hiring foreign construction workers directly, outside government to government deals, is used up. No new requests. Even requests already sitting in the queue are frozen. Builders say projects will slip further.

Planning moved in two directions on the same day. Ramat Gan’s own city engineer filed an objection to the city’s new renewal plan and asked to cap building permits at 1,200 homes citywide in the first stage. In Haifa’s Bat Galim, a local committee approved four towers that replace 286 old flats with about 800 new ones. Rehovot’s Derech Yavne compound reached the signature majority it needed.

Money news was smaller but sharper. A Tel Aviv court ordered a Holon renewal developer to pay about NIS 273,000 for building faults and a late handover, and stripped its right to do the repairs itself. Landowners along Road 4 want NIS 215 million from Kfar Saba. The state signed as anchor tenant in a Kfar Saba office block for about NIS 60 million over ten years.

For renters, new Yad2 figures show the fastest rise in the country was in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv. And Globes found that non bank lenders are flying mortgage advisers abroad for sending them loans.

Israel Ran Out of Places for Foreign Builders, and Froze the Line

The Population and Immigration Authority told manpower companies and contractors this week that the 40,000 worker quota is “fully exhausted.” That quota covers direct hiring of foreign construction workers by Israeli firms, outside the state to state programmes.

The effect is immediate. No new applications may be filed under that fast track. Applications already filed but not yet approved, including ones already being examined, will not be authorised for now. Contractors and manpower firms had already spent time and money finding, screening and training workers abroad.

This track was created after the war cut the number of available workers. The state first leaned on bilateral, government run recruitment, but it could not bring people in fast enough. So a parallel route was opened that let contractors pick workers themselves. The industry preferred it.

The Israel Builders Association was blunt: “The government is harming a successful model for bringing foreign workers.” It says the private route worked far better than the government to government system.

Why it matters: If you are buying a new build off plan, delivery dates are the risk, not the price. Fewer hands on site means later keys. Ask your developer, in writing, what its current site manpower is and what its contract says about compensation for a late handover.

Source: Ynetnews, August 12.

Ramat Gan’s Own Engineer Asked to Slow Ramat Gan Down

Ramat Gan is replacing TAMA 38 with a new citywide renewal plan. TAMA 38 was the national scheme that let owners strengthen an old building against earthquakes in exchange for extra flats. The replacement plan sets what you may build by the type of street you are on: up to 10 floors, or 9 on secondary streets. It offers two routes. Knock down and rebuild, or strengthen the existing block and add two floors, except on commercial streets and in metro areas.

Thirty eight objections were filed ahead of a district committee hearing next month. The striking part is who filed one of the strongest.

City engineer Sigal Horesh asked for a “tracking, monitoring and control” mechanism to limit how fast the plan is used. Under her proposal, stage one permits would be capped at 1,200 homes for the whole city, and no single neighbourhood cluster would get more than 800 permits. The stated goal is to stop sewage, water, roads and public space being overwhelmed, as she says happened in the Haruzim neighbourhood. The municipality also wants every plot inside the TAMA 70 metro corridor excluded from the plan, including the second ring.

Developers pushed the other way. Edi Caspi’s Beit HaGamar company objected that the plan has too few small flats. It wants every building allowed to add at least 20 percent “micro apartments” of up to 45 square metres, with no parking requirement, to create cheaper city housing. Owners of small plots complained that capping underground floors at 85 percent of the plot makes basement parking impossible to design, which could kill projects outright.

One outlet, Nadlan Center, has reported the contents of the objection file. Treat the details as its reading of that file until the committee publishes its record next month.

Why it matters: If you own an old flat in Ramat Gan and are counting on a renewal deal, a permit cap changes your timing, not your rights. A queue of 1,200 permits citywide means some buildings wait years for their turn. Ask any developer courting your building where it sits in that queue.

Source: Nadlan Center, August 12.

Landowners Want NIS 215 Million From Kfar Saba Over One Road

Kfar Saba’s local planning committee is facing claims worth about NIS 215 million. The claims came from people who own rights in land along Road 4, after plan TTL 43A was approved to widen the road and add a public transport lane.

These are depreciation claims. In plain terms, if an approved plan makes your land worth less, Israeli planning law lets you ask the local committee to pay you the difference.

The committee was due to discuss the claims on Wednesday. The proposal on its table was not to decide, but to delay. Members were asked to push the hearing back two months, to October, so the committee can get a full response from Netivei Israel, the national roads company, and prepare its own valuations.

The stretch causing the trouble is the second section, from the Ra’anana and Kfar Saba North interchange to the Hadarim interchange, where the road cuts through open farmland in the Sharon. There the plan widens the road from two basic lanes to four, adds a right hand bus lane, and reserves an 18 metre strip down the middle for public transport, which could be a bus, a BRT line, a light rail or a heavy rail line. It also adds farm roads, bike paths, bridges and crossings.

This road is already tied to housing in the city. About three months ago mayor Rafi Saar told the National Council that building the Road 4 interchange is a condition for the Kanyel compound plan going ahead, and said building there cannot start until the junction of Road 4 and Road 541 is built.

Why it matters: A large depreciation bill is a real budget problem for a mid sized city, and cities that are fighting claims tend to move slowly on everything else. If you are buying in Kfar Saba near Road 4, ask what stage TTL 43A is at and whether your plot sits inside the affected strip. For the city’s other renewal work, see our guide to the Yoseftal renewal plan.

Source: Magdilim, August 12.

A Holon Developer Lost the Right to Fix Its Own Mistakes

This one is small in shekels and large in principle.

The residents’ committee of a Holon building, representing the owners of its 18 original flats, sued the company that ran the building’s TAMA 38 project. A couple who bought a new flat in the same project joined them. They claimed NIS 600,000 for building faults and a late handover.

The Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court had already approved NIS 19,000 for the late handover about eight months ago, by agreement. This week it ruled on the faults.

The court appointed its own expert, who priced the damage:

• NIS 127,940 to the shared parts of the building, payable to the residents’ committee
• NIS 57,300 to the couple’s flat
• NIS 7,000 to the couple for distress
• NIS 44,250 to supervise the repair work

The judge added NIS 17,700 in partial costs and fees, cut down because the award was roughly a third of what was claimed. Our figure: those five lines add to NIS 254,190, and with the earlier NIS 19,000 for the late handover the developer owes NIS 273,190. That is 45.5 percent of the NIS 600,000 claimed. Both numbers are our own addition and division from the amounts the court set out, so you can check them line by line.

The sharpest part of the ruling was not the money. Israeli law normally gives a developer the first chance to come back and repair faults itself, which is much cheaper for it than paying cash. The court took that right away here. It said it did not believe the company’s account of how it had handled the owners’ complaints, so it would not send the owners back to deal with it. The owners argued their calls were met with dismissal and denial, and that careless repairs created new faults. The company argued the faults were few and normal, and accused the owners of pressuring it with messages at night and at weekends.

Why it matters: The right to repair is the quiet lever in almost every new build dispute in Israel. Losing it is what turns a snag list into a cash payment. Keep every complaint in writing and dated, because that paper trail is what persuaded this court. Before you sign off on a handover, read our guide to a bedek bayit home inspection.

Source: Magdilim, August 12.

The State Just Became the Anchor Tenant of a Kfar Saba Office Block

Levinstein Group reported two leases in its LEVINTECH business and retail complex, at the southern edge of Kfar Saba HaYeruka, on the Ra’anana and north Kfar Saba border.

The main deal is with the Government Housing Administration, which sits inside the Accountant General’s office at the Ministry of Finance. It takes about 3,500 square metres and 65 parking spaces for the Population and Immigration Authority and for the Enforcement and Collection Authority’s execution office. The term is 10 years, with options adding up to 5 more. Levinstein expects about NIS 49 million over the base term, including management income, and about NIS 24 million more if the options are used.

Separately, the group won a National Insurance Institute tender for about 800 square metres and up to 30 parking spaces, also for 10 years with two five year options. That is worth about NIS 11 million over the base term and about NIS 11 million more across the options.

The building has nine floors: six office floors of about 9,000 square metres, a retail floor of about 1,000 square metres, and two underground parking floors of 8,000 square metres. Occupancy is about 74 percent today. At full occupancy the company forecasts net operating income of about NIS 10 million a year.

Our figure: spread over ten years, the government deal works out at roughly NIS 117 per square metre a month, and the National Insurance deal at roughly NIS 115 per square metre a month. We divided each base rent by ten years and by the floor area. Both include management income and parking, so treat them as an all in rate, not a pure rent. What is striking is how closely two separately negotiated public tenants landed on the same number.

Why it matters: Israel’s office market is weak, and the state is now doing the filling. Office construction starts have collapsed, as we covered in Office Building in Israel Just Hit a 17-Year Low. If you invest in commercial property, a ten year government lease is about the most secure income stream available in this market, and this deal shows what the state is willing to pay for it outside Tel Aviv.

Source: Magdilim, August 12.

Bat Galim Trades 286 Old Flats for About 800 New Ones

Haifa’s local planning committee approved a plan this week for four residential towers in Bat Galim, the seaside neighbourhood next to Rambam hospital and the Technion’s medical faculty.

The plan demolishes 286 flats in 1950s housing blocks and builds about 800 in their place. The homes are aimed at medical staff and students, which is why local coverage describes them as supporting the hospital and the academic campus. Shapir is named as the developer.

Our figure: that is about 2.8 new homes for each old one, our own division of 800 by 286. For context, most Israeli renewal deals need a ratio of roughly 2.5 to 3 to pay for themselves, so this one sits in normal territory rather than being unusually generous.

Four Haifa area outlets carried the same core facts on the same day, which is why we treat the 286 and the four towers as solid. The exact final unit count is still described as “about 800,” so treat it as a planning figure, not a built number.

Why it matters: Bat Galim has been one of Haifa’s cheapest sea facing neighbourhoods for years. A committee approval is the moment old flats there start to be priced on what a developer might pay, not on what they are worth as they stand. If you own there, get a valuation now, before offers arrive. This is separate from the citywide programme in Haifa Opens Its Biggest-Ever Home Renewal Plan.

Sources: Kalbo Haifa, Israel Hayom, Haipo and HKN Haifa and the Krayot, all August 12.

Jerusalem, Not Tel Aviv, Had the Year’s Fastest Rent Rise

Globes worked through Yad2 listing data to find which neighbourhoods saw the sharpest rent rises over the past year. The answer was not where most people would guess.

The top result was Beit HaKerem and Ramat Beit HaKerem in Jerusalem, for three room flats. The average monthly asking rent went from NIS 5,576 in July 2025 to NIS 6,524 in July 2026. That is a rise of NIS 948 a month, or 17 percent in one year. Sharona in Tel Aviv also rose by a double digit percentage. Some Tel Aviv neighbourhoods actually fell, though fewer of them, and by less.

Three room flats rose faster than four room flats across the board.

Set that against the official number. The Central Bureau of Statistics puts the national rise in rent at 4.4 percent over the twelve months to June. Its home maintenance index rose 1.8 percent in the same period.

Our figure: a NIS 948 monthly rise is NIS 11,376 over a year, our own multiplication. That is close to two extra months of last year’s rent, paid by the same tenant for the same flat.

One important caution the reporters flagged themselves. These are asking prices, meaning what landlords put in the listing. They are not always what the signed lease says.

Why it matters: If you rent in Jerusalem and your lease is up, the national 4.4 percent figure will not protect you. Your neighbourhood number is the one that matters, and in Beit HaKerem it is roughly four times the national rate. Bring comparable current listings to your renewal talk. For the other end of the market see Tel Aviv Rents Hit New Highs as Other Israeli Cities Cool.

Sources: Globes, August 13, using Yad2 group data, and the Central Bureau of Statistics consumer price index for June 2026.

Your Mortgage Adviser May Be Flying to Las Vegas on Your Loan

Mortgage advisers in Israel may not take side payments from banks. Globes reported on Thursday that the rule does not cover non bank lenders, and that those lenders are competing hard for advisers.

The payments come in three shapes. A cut of the deal, at 0.5 to 1 percent of the whole loan. A flat referral fee of NIS 5,000 to NIS 10,000 or more per adviser. And foreign holidays.

The trips are not hypothetical. Mimun Yashir is offering advisers “the most glittering holiday there is in Las Vegas” in November. Freesbe Mortgages, part of the Carasso group, is offering a November flight to Tanzania and Zanzibar for “only 20 points.” Loanwise is offering New York in October. Albar flew advisers to Ibiza in July. Bema ran an earlier campaign with an iPad, a television and a holiday for two abroad. Advisers earn points per deal, and people in the market estimate that closing just three to five loans is enough to qualify for a trip.

Advisers said so themselves. “The benefits push me to go to one company over another. It creates a conflict of interests,” one told Globes. Adviser Yonatan Berliner warned that “holidays abroad can cause an adviser to prefer a company where he is close to target, and route another loan there. That harms the client.” Adviser Meir Wider explained why it is happening now: fewer housing deals means every borrower who walks in is worth more. One market source said companies would rather stop the flights, but once one runs a campaign the rest are dragged along or lose business.

The scale check matters here. Non bank credit is only about 3 percent of Israel’s mortgage market, which the Bank of Israel measures at NIS 660 billion of outstanding housing debt. That is stock, not yearly lending. Globes puts the borrower money sitting in that slice at NIS 13 billion to 20 billion.

The cost to the borrower is the point. Globes reports that clients get pushed into more expensive loans, sometimes at double the interest.

Why it matters: This is a direct, checkable question you can ask. Before you accept any adviser’s recommendation, ask two things in writing. Are you paid anything at all by the lender you are recommending, in money or in kind? And what does the same loan cost at a bank? An adviser who cannot answer plainly has told you what you need to know. Mortgage volumes are running high right now, as we covered in Home Sales Are Frozen. Mortgages Just Hit a Record.

Source: Globes, August 13.

Rehovot’s Derech Yavne Reaches the Signature Line

Bolthaupt Weiss reported that it reached the owner majority it needed for a renewal project on Derech Yavne in Rehovot, about three months after its signing event for flat owners.

The site is Derech Yavne 15, 17 and 19. The plan demolishes 34 flats in three four storey buildings and builds 102 homes in two ten storey buildings. Derech Yavne is a main link between the north of the city centre and the west, and the article describes the existing buildings as old and run down.

Why it matters: Three months from signing event to majority is fast for an Israeli renewal compound, where two to three years is common. If you own in a nearby Rehovot block, a quick signing next door raises the odds that developers come knocking on your street next, and it sets the local benchmark for what owners accepted. Before you sign anything, read Selling a Property in Urban Renewal.

Source: Magdilim, August 12.

Modi’in Locks a Green Ring Around Itself

The Central District planning committee published approvals covering about 31,000 dunam of open land around Modi’in. A dunam is 1,000 square metres, so this is roughly 31 square kilometres.

There are two plans. The Modi’in Forest plan covers about 27,605 dunam, sitting between Ben Shemen forest to the north and Canada forest to the south, and joining the open land of the Shomron foothills to the open land of the Jerusalem hills. It sets rules for forest, open land, a nature reserve, farmland and streams, and covers forest roads, visitor points, grazing and continued farming. Keren Kayemet LeYisrael submitted it.

The second plan is the Givot Modi’in National Park, about 3,286 dunam covering the southern hills, east of Sderot HaHashmonaim and south of Menachem Begin street, up to the edge of the Maccabim quarter. The Nature and Parks Authority submitted it. It regulates entrances, paths, signs, enforcement and parking, and adds an ecological crossing over Sderot HaHashmonaim linking to the Modi’in forest and the Givat Sher nature reserve to the west.

One thing to flag rather than smooth over. The release presents both plans as approved together, but its own text says the Modi’in Forest plan, number 420-0713313, was approved by the district committee on 8 July 2026. So this week’s decision appears to complete the pair rather than approve both at once. We report the discrepancy as it stands.

Why it matters: Open space plans decide where a city can never expand. For a buyer in Modi’in, a formal green ring is the difference between a view that stays and a view that becomes someone else’s tower. It also means future housing supply in Modi’in has to come from building denser inside the city, not from spreading outward.

Source: Magdilim, August 12.

Who Pays the Arnona Bill After the Owner Dies?

The Jerusalem District Court has drawn a line between municipal tax law and inheritance law. The panel was judges Oded Shacham, Avraham Rubin and David Gideoni.

The case started in November 2024, when the Emmanuel local council sued for about NIS 31,000 in arnona, water, sewage and guarding charges for the years 2018 to 2024. Arnona is the municipal property tax. The council sued the taxpayer. In May 2025 it discovered he had died in February 2023, and redirected the claim at his nine legal heirs.

The lower court threw the case out entirely. The District Court split it in two.

For 2022 to 2024, the council could not show any payment demand sent to the man or to his heirs. In Judea and Samaria the 90 day clock for objecting starts when you receive the payment notice, so if none was sent, the clock never started. The judges wrote that the council “cannot be heard to argue that this is a final debt, when it has not shown that the relevant taxpayer was given an opportunity, as required by law, to object to the alleged debt.” That part of the claim stays struck out.

For 2019 to 2021, demands had been sent to the man at an address nobody disputes, while he was alive. Those objection deadlines passed during his lifetime and the debt became final. The heirs cannot reopen it. That part goes back to the lower court, which must now hear arguments on a separate question: how far heirs are personally liable for an estate’s debts under the Inheritance Law, whether the estate was properly divided, and whether creditors were properly invited to come forward.

The court also rejected the heirs’ argument that water, sewage and guarding charges follow the same rules. It ruled these are ordinary money debts that a council may include in a civil claim, with no need to exhaust the arnona objection route first.

Why it matters: If you inherit Israeli property, do not pay a municipal demand on sight. Ask one question first: was a payment demand ever properly sent, and to whom? A debt that was never properly demanded is open to challenge. A debt that went final while the previous owner was alive is not. The lawyer for the heirs was Shimon Gamal. For the wider picture see Inheriting Israeli Property as a Foreigner and our arnona explainer.

Source: Nadlan Center, August 12.

For the site’s editors: four updates, no new pages

Four stories from the last day belong on pages we already own. Update the line, do not build a page.

Existing page	New line to add
israels-housing-market-defies-doom-with-record-low-cancellations (ID 60184), and israels-real-estate-paradox-record-mortgages-clash-with-soaring-cancellations (ID 59273)	The Ministry of Finance chief economist’s August 2026 review counts 1,821 cancelled purchases of new homes from builders for deals signed in 2023 to 2025, up 41 percent on the January review. Beersheba leads with 475. Among deals signed from 2024 on, cancellation rates reached 2.7 percent in the Tel Aviv area and 2.8 percent in Jerusalem. The “record low cancellations” framing on 60184 is now out of date and should be corrected, not just supplemented.
home-sales-are-frozen-mortgages-just-hit-a-record (ID 84273)	July 2026 mortgage lending was NIS 11.563 billion, up 4.58 percent on June and 8.27 percent on July 2025. It is the highest month since December 2024, when NIS 13.81 billion was lent. Cumulative lending this year is NIS 68.7 billion, 13 percent above the same period last year. The Mortgage Advisers Association says this reflects deals signed in 2023 and 2024 completing, not new demand.
70000-homes-to-replace-haifas-oil-tanks (ID 84192)	The National Council approved the environmental survey guidelines for TAMA 75 compounds 3 and 4 on 12 August 2026. Compound 3 covers about 5,730 dunam and allows over 6 million square metres of employment space plus potential for up to 5,500 homes. Compound 4 adds about 1,700 special housing units, up to 600 hotel rooms, about 3.7 million square metres of employment and commerce, a 520 dunam logistics area, the Yagur transport hub and a 10,000 seat arena.
israel-housing-private-discount-era-2026 (ID 73418)	Hagag is offering more than 30 flats in its Infinity tower in Tel Aviv on a pay NIS 1 million at signing basis, with the balance due in about three years with no interest and no indexation, plus guaranteed rent of NIS 10,000 to NIS 22,000 a month for the first two years. The company presents returns of up to 52 percent, but that percentage is calculated against the NIS 1 million down payment only, not against the full price of the flat.

Checked and not shipped

Everything below was gathered, checked and deliberately left out, so the gap is on the record.

• Cancellations up 41 percent, and July’s mortgage record. The two biggest headlines of the day. Both are refreshes of pages the site already owns, listed above, not new sections.
• Be’er Ya’akov’s 9,623 home plan cleared for deposit. The same plan and the same fast track committee we already reported on 7 August. Covered.
• The new pinui binui compensation model. The Justice Ministry and Urban Renewal Authority framework was our lead story on 12 August. Covered.
• Kiryat Yam Ir Galim, NIS 1.2 billion of financing. Reported inside our 12 August Kiryat Yam section. Covered.
• Heavy investors leaving Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba. Our 9 August lead. Covered.
• The 120,000 dunam Negev solar settlement. Our 10 August section. Covered.
• A 1951 Herzliya house sold for NIS 3.8 million. Same neighbourhood and same old versus new gap as our 9 August section. Covered.
• Building faults in almost all new flats, and the fake municipality permit scam. Two strong stories, both dated 10 and 11 August by Globes’ own timestamps. Outside the 24 hour window, so held rather than shipped.
• The office companies’ joint approach to government on land payments. Globes timestamp 10 August. Outside the window.
• Yitzhaki group buying 60 dunam in Ra’anana from Mishan for NIS 250 million. Only a paywalled Calcalist headline was reachable. No second source and no body, so no numbers shipped.
• The NIS 1 billion Jerusalem land valuation story, the 43 buyer suit over a Mechir LaMishtaken delay, the Tax Authority arrest of a contractor, and the Kibbutz Ha’On lakeside marketing. Headlines confirmed, article bodies not reachable. Nothing verified, so nothing written.
• A couple who came home from holiday to a stranger living in their flat. Reshet 13 reported that a building doorman handed over the keys and that it was all caught on camera. One outlet, no reachable detail, and no way to confirm the legal position. Held.
• The fight over Kfar Saba’s Kiryat HaTze’irim site. Sharon Online ran an update on 12 August. The headline text was reachable but the article body was not, so there is nothing verified to report yet.
• Company results. Ari Real Estate, Afi Properties, Reit 1, Manof and Azrieli’s London data centre are investor news, not housing news for this audience.
• Reddit and YouTube. Both swept. YouTube’s only relevant last day upload was a political interview with MK Yaakov Asher about the housing crisis, which is opinion, not a verifiable event.

Sources

• Ynetnews, on the foreign worker recruitment freeze, August 12
• Nadlan Center, on the Ramat Gan objections, August 12
• Nadlan Center, on the Jerusalem District Court arnona ruling, August 12
• Nadlan Center, on the chief economist’s June review and cancellations, August 12
• Nadlan Center, on July mortgage volumes, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Kfar Saba depreciation claims, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Holon TAMA 38 ruling, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Levinstein state leases, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Rehovot Derech Yavne signing, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Modi’in open space plans, August 12
• Magdilim, on the Haifa Bay TAMA 75 environmental guidelines, August 12
• Globes, on the Yad2 rent data, August 13
• Globes, on non bank lender incentives for mortgage advisers, August 13
• TheMarker, on the chief economist’s cancellation data, August 12
• Calcalist, on the 41 percent rise in cancellations, August 12
• Bizportal, on the Hagag Infinity sales offer, August 12
• Bizportal, on the Kiryat Yam Ir Galim financing, August 12
• Kalbo Haifa, Israel Hayom, Haipo and HKN Haifa and the Krayot, on the Bat Galim approval, August 12
• Israel Land Authority, news page, checked August 13
• Central Bureau of Statistics, consumer price index for June 2026, for the 4.4 percent annual rent rise and the 1.8 percent home maintenance rise
• Bank of Israel, monthly mortgage data for July 2026, as reported on August 12