Making Aliyah is a significant step at any age, and for disabled seniors, finding suitable and affordable housing is a top priority. Fortunately, Israel has several housing options designed to meet these needs, along with government support systems to help navigate the financial and logistical challenges. Understanding these options is the first step toward a comfortable and secure life in Israel.
Sheltered Housing (Diyur Mugan)
This may suit seniors who can live independently with some support. Diyur Mugan facilities are residential complexes designed for independent seniors that offer a supportive community environment with a range of services.
- Accessibility: Check the actual apartment and common areas against your needs, including entrances, routes, bathrooms and emergency call arrangements. Visit and ask the residence what is available before committing.
- Services: Ask each residence which security, nursing, medical, social, meal, housekeeping and maintenance services are available, when they are provided and what costs extra. Check whether the support meets your needs.
- Locations: You can find Diyur Mugan facilities throughout the country, in major cities and smaller towns, allowing you to choose a location close to family or in a community you love. Prominent chains include Mishan, Palace, and Ad 120.
Private sheltered housing may require a substantial deposit or rent and ongoing fees. Public housing assistance and nursing-care funding are separate eligibility-based routes; disability alone does not establish that the state will pay a private residence’s fees. This is general information, not legal or tax advice; confirm with a licensed professional.
Renting a Standard Apartment and Adding Grab Bars
For seniors who are still very independent and prefer not to live in a formal community, renting a regular apartment is a viable option. The key is to find a property that is either already accessible or can be easily modified.
When searching, look for:
- Access to the apartment: If you need step-free access to an upper floor, check whether the elevator meets your needs. An accessible ground-floor home may be another option.
- “Zero-Step” Entry: An apartment with no stairs to enter the building or the unit itself.
- Newer Construction: Modern buildings are more likely to be built to higher accessibility standards.
- Proximity to Services: Look for apartments near a health clinic (kupat cholim), supermarket, and public transportation.
Yad Sarah offers mobility and rehabilitation equipment, including aids for use at home. Ask the organization what is available and about any fees or deposit.
If you rent, discuss changes to the apartment with the landlord before arranging work. For changes to shared areas or access, check the requirements for the particular change, including any required consents or building permit.
Making shared entrances and routes accessible
A suitable apartment also needs a usable route through the building. Before commissioning a shared-area change, identify the exact work, its consent category and the documents needed. If you rent, involve the landlord in that plan.
An apartment owner may use the common-property adaptation procedure when the owner, a family member living with the owner, or a person renting the apartment has a disability within the statutory definition. The adaptation must be needed for safe, independent access to the apartment or the common property serving it.
Prepare the plan, certificate and written notice
If the proposed adaptation is work or a use that requires a permit under the Planning and Building Law, the owner must obtain the permit and comply with its conditions.
A doctor, physiotherapist or occupational therapist must sign the form in Part D of the Second Schedule, certifying why the specified adaptation is needed because of the disability. The form identifies the adaptation, its location, reasons, statutory category and supporting findings or documents.
The adaptation must leave the other apartment owners able to use the common property reasonably. It must be carried out in a way that minimizes harm to those owners and to the building’s appearance as far as possible.
The owner or a representative must give the building committee a detailed written notice describing the intended adaptation at least 40 days before carrying it out. If there is no committee, the notice must be delivered to every apartment in the building. Keep the plan, certificate and a record of delivery together. A no-consent category does not remove these other requirements.
Listed adaptations that need no other-owner consent
The adaptations listed in Part A of the Second Schedule do not require the other apartment owners’ consent. The applicable permit, professional certificate, notice and protection-of-shared-use conditions still apply.
- Entrances and controls. At an entrance or gate to the shared courtyard, or a door or entrance to the building, Part A allows accessibility adjustments without changing the opening, gate or door’s structure, shape or dimensions. Examples include a handhold, door closer, intercom, call button, bell or speaker, an easier-to-operate lock, and changes to their positions.
- Handrails and path edges. Part A includes installing, changing or relocating a handrail. It also includes a side edge on an existing access path to prevent a wheelchair rolling off or to guide a person with low vision.
- Small manual lifting arrangements. A manual means of moving between levels, including a ramp, falls within Part A only if it is no longer than 8 metres, the difference in height is no more than 75 centimetres, and the local planning and building committee’s engineer confirms that reasonable and safe use of the common property by other owners is preserved.
- Drainage and thresholds. Part A includes installing or replacing a drainage grille. Other changes to plumbing, sewerage or drainage fittings require the local committee engineer’s confirmation that the building’s shared systems will not be harmed. Threshold heights may be changed only if the change will not cause drainage faults.
- Lighting. Part A includes installing lighting, including emergency lighting, on an access path or at the building entrance, and changing the light intensity.
- Grip and signs. Part A includes gently roughening steps or the paving of an existing access path to prevent slipping, and installing direction or information signs, including adding raised lettering or Braille to existing signs.
- Existing controls and fixtures. Part A includes adapting existing electrical, computer, television and communications fittings to the person’s needs and dimensions. It also includes changing the height of existing fixtures and aids, such as a mailbox, mirror or washing tap.
Adaptations that need a majority of owners
The adaptations listed in Part B require the consent of a majority of the apartment owners. This is an owner-consent requirement, not approval by whichever residents happen to attend or by the committee alone.
- Structural entrance changes. Part B covers changes to a courtyard entrance or gate, or to the building’s entrance or door, that alter its structure, shape or dimensions. Examples include removing a lock or door or gate, widening an opening, or installing a door or gate. Opening an additional entrance or gate to the courtyard or building is also in Part B.
- Paths. Part B includes widening an existing access path and changing its route, including laying a new path.
- Fences and safety barriers. Part B includes demolishing fences, building fences or protective barriers, and installing safety arrangements on an existing access path to protect against vehicles or equipment, falls or wheelchair roll-off, or to guide a person with low vision. The small side-edge adaptation listed in Part A is a separate case.
- Other lifting arrangements. Part B includes a manual lifting arrangement outside the Part A limits, and electrical, mechanical, electronic, hydraulic or other lifting arrangements between levels, including a ramp or platform lift. The local planning and building committee’s engineer must confirm reasonable and safe shared use. An elevator governed by section 59ו follows its separate installation procedure.
- Paving and entrance steps. Part B includes replacing paving, removing or altering existing steps, and building entrance steps for the shared building.
For a proposal to install an elevator, see the separate elevator approval and cost rules. Classify the actual equipment before choosing a voting rule.
Creating a parking space and adapting an assigned space
Preparing an area as a parking place, or designating or allocating an existing parking place, requires the consent of owners holding 60% of the apartments in the building under Part C. The denominator is the apartments owned, rather than a headcount of residents or attendees.
Adapting an existing parking place already assigned to the owner is listed in Part A only when its location, size and shape are unchanged. The exemption from the other owners’ consent does not itself allocate a new space or authorize moving or enlarging an existing one.
Apply the same certificate, permit where required, notice and shared-use checks to the relevant parking work. These are the building’s common-property rules; a request for a reserved space on a public street is a separate local-authority matter.
If another owner objects
The committee, or an apartment owner who considers themselves harmed by the adaptation, may bring a claim to the Supervisor of Land Registration within 30 days after receiving the statutory notice. The Supervisor may extend that deadline for special reasons recorded in the decision.
Filing that claim does not by itself prevent the adaptation, unless the Supervisor orders otherwise. The other conditions for carrying out the work, including the advance-notice requirement, still apply.
If the Supervisor finds that an owner’s refusal or conditions for consent are unreasonable and permits the adaptation, the decision replaces that owner’s consent for the Part B or Part C requirement. Merely filing a request does not supply that consent.
Installation, upkeep and removal costs
Under this common-property adaptation procedure, the apartment owner bears the cost of carrying out the adaptation.
The owner who carried out the adaptation normally bears all ongoing expenses needed to keep it in proper condition. If the resulting adaptation is intended to serve all or most of the apartment owners, all owners bear those ongoing expenses. That exception concerns upkeep and does not itself transfer the initial installation bill.
When the need for the adaptation ends, including when the person with a disability stops living in the apartment, the residents’ assembly may decide that the owner must remove it, restore the previous condition and pay the related expenses. That decision must be made no later than 90 days after the need ends; the provision does not set a universal 90-day deadline for finishing the removal work.
Discuss the future maintenance and removal arrangements before work starts. Check any separate funding application against its own current conditions; the housing-assistance section below addresses that distinction.
The governing text is in section 59ג of the Land Law and the Second Schedule, including the professional certificate form. Have the proposed work and the applicable requirements checked before committing to a contractor.
Government Benefits for Disabled Olim Seeking Housing
The Israeli government provides support for new immigrants (Olim) and disabled individuals.
- Ministry of Aliyah and Integration (Misrad HaKlita): The Aliyah Ministry can help identify the relevant housing route and participates in eligibility checks. The Ministry of Construction and Housing pays ordinary rental assistance automatically, subject to those checks; senior and higher-assistance routes have separate conditions. Age or disability alone does not establish an extended award. Check the official ordinary-assistance guidance and rental assistance for olim.
- National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi): Disability and mobility benefits have separate age, residence and other conditions. Under the National Insurance mobility agreement, a first mobility claim cannot be submitted after retirement age. Some people who received the benefit before retirement may continue if they meet the agreement's conditions. See the National Insurance guidance.
- Ministry of Housing (Misrad HaBinui v’HaShikun): This ministry offers programs for public housing and increased rental assistance for those who meet their disability and income criteria.
- Israel Tax Authority (Rashut HaMisim): If you buy a home to live in rather than rent, a buyer who meets the definitions in Regulation 11 of the purchase tax regulations, which include qualifying disabled and blind people, pays purchase tax (מס רכישה, mas rechisha) at a reduced rate. You claim it on Tax Authority Form 2973, and one person can use it only 2 times in a lifetime. Our guide to purchase tax relief for disabled and bereaved buyers explains who qualifies and how the tax is worked out.
Public housing for wheelchair users and disability-pension recipients
Public housing (דיור ציבורי, diyur tziburi) is a state-owned flat let at a subsidised rent. New olim apply under the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration’s procedure 5.084, from 7 months until 15 years after their eligibility as an oleh begins. Its groups include people with a severe disability recognised by National Insurance or the Defense Ministry, people with certain serious illnesses, and senior citizens, single or in a couple, who live on an old-age pension with a National Insurance income supplement. Those seniors do not have to meet the income ceiling, and for a household with a permanent wheelchair user the ceiling is the national average wage. Someone who made Aliyah as a senior citizen, or became one within that period, can still apply after it ends. The Housing Ministry routes below come from its own allocation procedure 08/05, which covers Israeli residents who are not new immigrants, so ask the Aliyah Ministry which route fits you before you apply.
Wheelchair users. A family where a spouse or a child is permanently confined to a wheelchair, or a single wheelchair user aged 21 or over, can get public housing if they are “housingless” (חסר דירה, chasar dira) as the procedure defines it and their total income is no higher than the national average wage. That is a higher ceiling than the “qualifying income” used in most other routes. You apply online on gov.il, choosing one of the Housing Ministry’s registration companies on the form, or in person at one of those companies. You need a certificate from the Health Ministry’s district health bureau confirming 100% permanent disability and permanent wheelchair confinement, a recent nursing and functional report from your health fund (kupat cholim), income certificates for the last 6 months and current-account bank statements for the last 4 months.
Wheelchair users who are waiting for a public flat, or for a flat from the ministry’s nichsei rechisha stock (דירת נכסי רכישה), receive increased rent assistance (סיוע מוגדל, siyua mugdal) toward a private rental in the meantime. Our Housing Ministry rent assistance guide explains how those rent payments work.
Priority, flat size and offers. Wheelchair users get priority for ground-floor flats. A vacated ground-level flat is offered first to them, then to families whose Housing Ministry medical committee found they must live on a ground floor or in a building with a lift; if nobody like that is waiting in the town, it goes to such people in nearby towns. A household with a wheelchair user is allocated 3 rooms for up to four people and 4 rooms for five or more; other single applicants are offered a one-room flat. Most people who refuse 2 suitable offers get no more until their eligibility ends; wheelchair users are entitled to 4 offers.
Disability-pension routes. A married couple where both spouses live on a stable National Insurance earning-incapacity (general disability) pension at the 75% incapacity degree qualifies if they have at least one child, or have been married for more than 5 years with no children. The other pension routes, where one parent receives a stable pension at that degree, or a temporary one for the 24 months before applying, require at least two or three children and family income within the qualifying income, so they are built for families with children at home.
Our guide to public housing in Israel sets out every eligibility route, the waiting list and the olim procedure in full. For sheltered buildings for independent older people, see our sheltered housing guide for English-speaking retirees.
When disability affects mortgage life insurance
A refusal of ordinary mortgage life insurance does not necessarily end every financing route. The Commission for Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities explains a special route for a legally qualifying life-shortening disability. The insurer assesses the application and supporting material; a diagnosis or disability pension alone does not establish that classification. Request the written decision and reasons, and check the applicable review or complaint route if refused.
The Commission’s bank guidance makes the protection conditional: the qualifying single-home or self-build transaction, the ordinary financial requirements and a mortgage life policy must be addressed. It is not automatic loan approval.
Read the special policy’s qualifying period and cover carefully. The Commission’s explanatory guide warns that death during that period can leave heirs facing repayment or sale of the mortgaged property. Confirm current limits, timing, cover and any state-assistance application separately before committing to a purchase.
The Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law also provides monthly State aid toward the housing loan of a person with a life-shortening disability who holds that special insurance. Section 19עא, added in 2018, sets the amount in a schedule at NIS 300 a month, adjusted every July for the consumer price index, so NIS 300 is the 2018 starting figure and not today’s amount. The Housing and Finance Ministers may set conditions for the aid, and a Housing Ministry notice of 3 March 2019 lists assistance for a person with a life-shortening disability who took a mortgage to buy a first home among its services. Ask the Housing Ministry for the current amount, conditions and application route before relying on it, as of 12 November 2026.
Funding to adapt a home for mobility
For mobility-related adaptations to a home or its access, the Housing Ministry and Health Ministry operate a separate application process. Eligible applicants may receive a loan or a loan combined with a grant. The Housing Ministry's home-adaptation guidance lists people living in private monthly rental housing among those not eligible for this particular program, along with other exclusions. Read the official guidance. Before work begins, check the current criteria and ask your clinic about referral to an occupational therapist. Other forms of assistance may have different rules.
If the Defense Ministry or Bituach Leumi recognised your disability, look at their grants first, because this Housing Ministry programme excludes people who have received or receive housing-improvement help from them. The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Division (אגף השיקום, Agaf HaShikum) pays disabled IDF and security-forces veterans grants to adapt a home and to install a lift, platform lift or stair lift, and Bituach Leumi runs its own grants for victims of hostile action (terror victims) and for work-injury victims with a high stable disability. Our guide to home and lift grants for disabled veterans and terror victims compares those routes, who qualifies and how to apply.
Who can apply for home-adaptation funding?
The program covers adaptations to the inside of a home and its access for people with limitations in mobility and functioning who use mobility aids. Examples include widening doorways, adapting a bathroom, toilet or kitchen, access paths, ramps or bridges, stair handrails and a platform lift. The grant share depends on family composition and income, and is subject to the Housing Ministry's rules on making use of earning capacity.
As of 12 November 2026, the Housing Ministry’s page on aid amounts for people with limited mobility (last updated 6 February 2025) and its procedure 08/10 (in force from 28 October 2025) set a ceiling of NIS 65,000 for internal or external changes to the home and NIS 130,000 for installing a lift (maalon). Both say the amounts are updated from time to time. The grant share is 90%, 60%, 30% or 0% of the approved aid, with the rest as a loan, depending on family size and income band. The procedure updates the income bands each January, so check the current table before assuming a tier.
The basic eligibility route requires recognition by a recognized medical institution, such as a hospital, health fund or government rehabilitation facility, and at least one listed condition. These include a permanent limitation in movement or functioning caused by illness or injury to the motor system, or a progressive disease where the person uses a wheelchair or walking aids such as crutches or a walker. The listed routes also include a person with an IDF disability recognized by the Defense Ministry who was found ineligible for that ministry's home-adaptation assistance; a work-accident or hostile-act victim with a disability recognized by Bituach Leumi; and a road-accident victim recognized by an insurer or another body who has not received compensation for the adaptation.
The Housing Ministry’s procedure 08/10, in force from 28 October 2025, defines a recognised medical institution as a hospital, a health fund or a government rehabilitation framework. It requires the medical certificates to be dated no more than 3 months before the application is submitted.
The program excludes someone who owns more than one home, someone who owns a home but asks to adapt a relative's home, and requests for an extension or self-building. A home adapted before the application is also excluded unless the applicant's condition has deteriorated. An IDF-disabled applicant who has received or receives housing-improvement assistance from the Defense Ministry is excluded. The same exclusion applies to hostile-act and work-accident victims who have received or receive that assistance from Bituach Leumi, and road-accident victims who have received or receive it from an insurer.
Procedure 08/10, in force from 28 October 2025, also lists among those who are not eligible a person recognised by Bituach Leumi as a work-injury victim with a work disability of 65% or more. The ministry’s service page, last updated 26 October 2025, words the exclusion differently, covering work-accident victims who received or receive housing help from Bituach Leumi, so anyone in this group should confirm with the ministry which rule applies.
Repeat assistance can be considered after deterioration in the health and mobility of a previous recipient. Another listed case is a move to another city because the applicant or the family caring for the applicant changed jobs: the inter-ministerial committee must consider the move necessary, and the new home must be unsuitable to the point of impairing daily functioning.
Prepare the home assessment and supporting documents
Start by asking the family doctor or clinic nurse for a referral to occupational therapy for housing adaptation. An occupational therapist will arrange a home visit and prepare a plan for the applicant's functioning and mobility. At the visit, specify whether to receive the recommendation by post, email or personal collection; the therapist's report follows the visit. The application needs a medical and functional form signed by a doctor and nurse at the health fund or treating medical institution, together with the occupational therapist's recommendation and a plan showing access before and after the proposed changes.
Obtain a detailed contractor quotation for the changes in the occupational therapist's report. It must state prices, dimensions and quantities, follow the therapist's recommendation, and be approved and signed by the therapist. If the quotation exceeds NIS 45,000, the submitted quotation must be from a contractor registered in the Contractors Register in branch 131.
Procedure 08/10, in force from 28 October 2025, also requires the contractor’s quotation to be dated no more than 90 days before the application is submitted. It gives NIS 54,000, not NIS 45,000, as the renovation cost above which a registered contractor in branch 131 is required, and says the amount is updated from time to time with the index. The ministry’s service page, last updated 26 October 2025, still says NIS 45,000, so the figure in force should be confirmed with the ministry before choosing a contractor.
For a platform lift or elevator, submit two quotations from companies holding an Israeli Standard Mark and evidence that the applicant is fully confined to a wheelchair. For an older applicant, the listed evidence is Health Ministry approval for participation in purchasing a wheelchair. For someone who is not elderly, it is the latest mobility-committee protocol showing wheelchair confinement and a permanent mobility disability of at least 80%.
In procedure 08/10, in force from 28 October 2025, an older applicant means a senior citizen who has reached retirement age as defined in the Retirement Age Law and holds a Health Ministry approval for participation in buying a wheelchair. The procedure ties this to retirement age and does not state a fixed age.
For an access path, ramp, bridge, platform lift or elevator, ask the local authority for approval that the changes are permitted or for instructions on obtaining a building permit. If the authority requires a permit, attach it to the application.
Normally, provide income evidence covering at least the three months before the application for all family members living in the home. Include wages or pensions, Bituach Leumi or other benefits, and any additional income. For an adult applicant with limited mobility living in a first-degree relative's home, only the applicant's income is considered. The program's listed relatives are a child, parent, sibling, grandparent or grandchild. Income certificates are not required from an applicant living in public housing or in a cooperative kibbutz that has not been privatized.
Procedure 08/10, in force from 28 October 2025, adds that an applicant whose income is above the levels in its income table and who wants a loan only does not have to provide income certificates.
Provide evidence of rights in the home: a Land Registry confirmation, contract or local-authority confirmation, including the block and parcel numbers. The linked official brochure also lists a copy of an arnona payment with the block and parcel numbers. Because the main service page gives a shorter list, confirm acceptance with the handling office if relying on that alternative. An applicant seeking adaptation assistance in a first-degree relative's home must attach a copy of the relative's identity card and the required undertaking. The undertaking says that, for four years from receiving the assistance, the applicant cannot have eligibility for a public-housing apartment examined. It also says that any public-housing eligibility previously granted is cancelled. Read the official relative-home undertaking before signing.
Supply bank-account details for any approved grant, and report an attachment, block, charge or other problem affecting the account. An IDF-disabled applicant recognized by the Defense Ministry must provide confirmation of no present or past entitlement to that ministry's home-adaptation assistance. A hostile-act victim must attach Bituach Leumi's decision rejecting adaptation assistance; a road-accident victim must provide the insurer's confirmation of no present or past entitlement. If the applicant's spouse is a foreign worker, attach a valid permit to stay in Israel. Copies of the applicant's identity card and appendix, and those of family members living with the applicant, are required for a manual application through the health-bureau social workers. They are not required in the online form.
Submit the application and follow the decision
The recommended online form may be completed by the person with the disability, their spouse, a parent of a child with a disability or a guardian. It requires government identification-system sign-in and the prepared documents. The Save button lets the applicant receive a link to the saved form by email or mobile phone and return to it later. If the online form cannot be used, email a social worker at a Health Ministry health bureau with contact details and the occupational therapist's recommendation and plan. Contact the social worker only after receiving these documents: the social worker cannot assist without them. The official service links to the social-worker directory. Without internet access, leave a request through *5400 or ask the treating occupational therapist how to send the request to the housing-adaptation committee.
The joint Housing Ministry and Health Ministry committee may approve a loan, a loan combined with a grant, or reject the application. It does not necessarily approve the full quotation. A committee decision may be appealed through the social worker at the health bureau near the applicant's home.
Payment, completion and help
For an approved grant, the guidance says half of the approved amount is paid to the bank account within 15 working days. The balance is paid after the occupational therapist certifies that the work followed the approved specification. For a loan, open a file with a mortgage bank. Half is released after arranging the security required by the bank; the other half follows completion and the occupational therapist's approval. The program guidance describes a CPI-linked, subsidized loan for up to 30 years. Its interest is 0.5 percentage points below the Bank of Israel's published average for the selected repayment term, and no more than 3.0%.
Complete the adaptation in accordance with the occupational therapist's report within six months of receiving approval. After the work, arrange a return home visit so the therapist can approve completion; an eligible grant recipient then receives the remaining half. Submitting the assistance application is free. Opening the bank file after eligibility approval involves a fee.
For technical problems with the online form or government sign-in, contact 1299. For procedure, documents and eligibility questions, consult the official FAQ and contact the Housing Ministry at *5442. If an immediate home adaptation is needed while the applicant is hospitalized, contact the hospital's occupational-therapy service; it will refer the request to the health fund. The official application brochure brings the steps and document list together. Check the current service before committing to work or borrowing; applicable law takes precedence if it conflicts with the information page.
When considering the best housing options in Israel for disabled seniors making Aliyah, it’s crucial to connect with organizations like Nefesh B’Nefesh, which specializes in assisting North American Olim, and to consult with the relevant government ministries as soon as you arrive to understand the full scope of benefits you are entitled to.
If you are planning to buy property in Israel, explore current homes for sale and our buyer guidance: browse Israeli homes for sale.
Thinking about your next move in Israeli real estate? Tell us what you are looking for and the Semerenko Group team will help.
Is this page useful?
