Housing · First-pass estimate

Rent vs buy in Israel

The classic post-aliyah question. This is a deliberately simple first-pass comparison: the yearly cost of renting versus the yearly unrecoverable cost of owning (interest, taxes, maintenance, and what your down payment could have earned elsewhere). It won't decide for you — it shows which side the math leans.

Monthly rent for the home you'd want (₪)

Price of a comparable home (₪)

Down payment (%)

Mortgage interest rate (%)

Expected annual return if invested instead (%)

Renting: yearly cost

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Owning: yearly unrecoverable cost

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Owning cost = mortgage interest (first-year approximation) + 1% maintenance + opportunity cost of the down payment. It excludes principal payments (that's savings, not cost) and excludes home price appreciation (that's speculation, and it's your call). Purchase tax (mas rechisha) is also excluded — olim may qualify for reduced rates on a first home, a meaningful one-time factor worth checking separately.

Israeli mortgages are typically built from several tracks (fixed/variable, CPI-linked and not), so a single rate is a simplification. This tool frames the question; a mortgage advisor (yoetz mashkanta) answers it.