A builder walked off a nearly finished renewal project in Jerusalem, and the developer is now looking for a new one. Haifa approved a tower that swaps 42 old homes for 182. Two court rulings, from Tel Aviv and Holon, show how a permit or a will can fall on a detail.
Photo: older apartment blocks in Kiryat HaYovel, Jerusalem, April 13, 2022. בר, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Building and supply in Jerusalem and Haifa
- The main contractor on the Yuval HaTzeira renewal project, Avraham Stern Street 34 to 42 in Kiryat HaYovel, stopped work and said on September 24 that it could not go on. On September 26 the project company, half owned by Carasso Real Estate, cancelled its contracts and removed it. The building is about 80 percent complete, and several other builders are willing in principle to finish it (Carasso stock exchange report, September 28). Globes, citing Carasso’s reports, says the project has 226 flats, 159 of them for sale, and was about 92 percent sold by mid-2026, with completion planned for the second quarter of 2027 (Globes, September 28). If you bought here, ask in writing for the new delivery date and keep the Sale Law guarantee you got for each payment, the bank or insurer promise to return your money if the flat is not delivered. Our guide to off-plan buyer protections explains it.
- Haifa’s district committee for urban renewal approved plan 304-1279249 on September 23, after ruling on three objections. At Brenner Street 20 to 30 in Ramot Remez, two old buildings with 42 homes come down, and a 29-floor tower and a 10-floor building with 182 homes go up on 3.856 dunam, with the developer Avnei Derech (Planning Administration plan page; Merkaz HaNadlan, September 28). Our math from the plan page: 140 net new homes, about 4.3 new for every old one, and about 18 months from filing in March 2025 to approval. Approval is not a permit: the plan takes effect only once its approval is published.
Court rulings from Tel Aviv and Holon
- A Tel Aviv court upheld the cancellation of permits for two seven-floor buildings mixing homes, hotel rooms and shops at HaYarkon Street 162 to 164, planned by A.P.Z. Investments of Sefi Tzvieli’s group. Neighbours on Arnon Street had won an appeal in November 2025. Judge Limor Bibi agreed that the local plans do not clearly allow homes and a hotel mixed this way, and the developer must restart licensing. The judgment is not public yet (TheMarker, September 28; Merkaz HaNadlan, September 27). Before you buy off plan in a mixed project in central Tel Aviv, ask whether any appeal against the permit is still open.
- The Tel Aviv Family Court threw out a 2019 will that left a Holon flat almost entirely to two nephews. Each of the two witnesses had signed alone, without the widow or the other witness present, and the law requires both to confirm the will at the same sitting. Judge Gali Ron restored the 2009 will, which split the flat four ways, and ordered the nephews to pay NIS 59,000 in costs (file 22430-07-21, August 23, 2026, as reported by Bizportal, September 28). If your will covers a flat in Israel, sign it with both witnesses in the room at the same time. Our estate planning guide covers the rest.
How these projects move from plan to permit to keys is explained step by step in our guide to urban renewal in Israel.
