Tabu (Land Registry) in Israel: How a Foreign Buyer Verifies Title

Tabu is Israel’s Land Registry. A land deal finishes only when the registrar records it (Land Law s.7). Anyone may inspect the books and take a certified extract (nesach) — the official 2026 fee is ₪88, not a guessed citywide bill. That extract is title; the listing is not. A warning note blocks a conflicting later sale.

What Tabu is — a public book, not a listing

Land Registry (colloquial) (טאבו) is the colloquial name for a registration office (לשכת רישום) and for the the land registers (פנקסי המקרקעין) those offices keep. Section 1 of the Land Law, 5729-1969 (Sefer HaChukim 5729, 259) defines registration as an entry in those books, and a registrar (רשם) as the person appointed under s.116 for the office in whose area the land sits. Section 115 tells the Minister of Justice to establish the offices. Chapter 9 then names the register (המרשם).

Section 123 says what goes in. Each office keeps the registers for land in its area and records the transactions the registrar approved, court and authority orders that were filed, and anything else a statute requires or permits. Section 124 opens those books: any person may inspect them and take copies. That is the opposite of a portal card. A tracked asking price is an advertisement. A register entry is the right. English-language listicles that treat “check Tabu” as a screenshot of the listing are pointing at the wrong file.

A deal finishes only at registration

Section 7 is the line that surprises remote buyers. A transaction in land requires registration. It is completed by registration. The hour the registrar approved it for registration is treated as the time of registration. A deal that has not been registered is treated as an undertaking to do a transaction (s.7(b)), and that undertaking must be in writing (s.8). Section 6 defines the transaction itself as the grant of ownership or of another right according to the grantor’s will — not inheritance under a will. Keys, a signed contract, and a wire are not the register.

Two other sections decide who wins if two people think they bought the same flat. Section 9 prefers the first undertaking — unless the second buyer acted in good faith and for value and got registered while still in good faith. Section 10 then protects a purchaser of settled land (registered after a settlement of title) (מקרקעין מוסדרים) who relied in good faith on the registration, even if that registration was wrong. Settled land is land registered after a settlement of title (s.1). Section 125 makes the book conclusive evidence for settled land and only prima facie evidence for unsettled land. That is why the extract is pulled before you bind yourself, on the buying-process track, and why a signed memorandum is still only an undertaking until the registrar records the transfer.

What a nesach shows, and who may pull one

The Land (Management and Registration) Regulations, 5772-2011 define a certified extract of a land-register entry (נסח) as a copy of an entry in the land registers certified by a registration office (reg. 1). Regulation 91 lets anyone inspect by viewing the recorded information, including online. Regulation 92 lets anyone request an extract: state the land particulars, pay the fee, and take delivery as a certified photograph, printout, or electronically signed message. A paper printout of an approved electronic extract is not treated as a faithful copy and is not admissible to prove rights in land (reg. 92(c)). Ask the lawyer which file they will keep.

On a Tel Aviv apartment the extract is also how you see the land form. Privately owned freehold and Israel Land Authority leasehold are different registers; that contrast lives on leasehold versus freehold, not here. A condominium (a building of two or more apartments entered in the condominium register) (בית משותף) is a building of two or more apartments entered in the condominium register (s.52, s.141). Buildings that are not yet on that register can still be lived in — Chapter 6.1, which Tel Aviv applies, is the va’ad bayit file. Rights may sit on a company record. None of that is a filter on a classified card.

The official extract fee — not a guessed citywide bill

Unlike an appraisal, this file has a tariff. The Land (Fees) Regulations, 5735-1974 (KT 5735, 222), made under Land Law s.149, charge a registrar fee for each service. The consolidated Schedule we fetched is marked updated to 2026. Regulation 2(b) moves the amounts on 1 January each year by the November-to-November CPI change, rounded to the nearest shekel. A certified extract is ₪88 ($24 / €22 / £19; item 7(a)). A securely e-signed electronic extract is ₪18 ($5; item 7(a2)). A concentrated condominium extract is ₪154 ($42; item 7(a1)). Inspection is ₪85 (item 8(1)).

Those cells are the Justice Ministry’s price for the book. They are not the lawyer’s fee for reading it, not purchase tax, and not a citywide average of what buyers spend on title. Item 13(a)(1) then charges ₪188 ($51) to register a warning note, and ₪127 to delete one at the parties’ request. Confirm the current Schedule notice before you pay; we reprint the 2026 consolidated cells, not a private quote.

The warning note that blocks a later sale

Section 126 is the buyer’s lock after a written undertaking exists and before s.7 finishes the transfer. If the registrar is satisfied that an owner — or a holder of a lease, loan-for-use, easement, right of first refusal, or mortgage — undertook in writing to do a transaction, or to refrain from one, the registrar records a warning note / caution (הערת אזהרה) at the request of either party. The undertaking may be in an agreement, an irrevocable power, or another document; it may be express or implied, absolute or conditional.

Section 127 is the bite. Until the note is deleted, a conflicting later transaction shall not be registered except with the entitled person’s consent or by court order. A later attachment, bankruptcy receiving order, winding-up, or receiver does not wipe those rights while the note stands (with the statute’s insolvency caveat). Deletion is s.132: a court order, the parties’ consent, or proof that the ground has lapsed after the registrar gave notice. A warning note is not ownership. It is why the process page files it within a day or two of signing, and why a non-resident mortgage later needs the same book for the appraisal to match.

What our tracked panel can say without inventing title

We will not invent a citywide cost of “getting title done.” The official extract fee is a tariff cell. The lawyer’s work is a private quote on the costs page. What the panel does record is how far current asking ₪/sqm sits from recently registered closed ₪/sqm — the asking-vs-closed spread, published only where both sides reach n ≥ 20, never a paired same-flat comparison. Those closed deals come from nadlan.gov.il. They are registry facts. They are still not your nesach.

Of the 11 neighborhoods that currently clear both gates, 3 ask above the median registered closed ₪/sqm and 8 ask below. The widest asking-above-closed row is Jaffa / Noga at 13.5% (asking ₪49,844/sqm, 4,631/sqft, versus closed ₪43,919/sqm; n_asking = 22, n_closed = 45). The widest asking-below-closed row is Florentin at -18.3% (asking ₪50,568/sqm versus closed ₪61,875/sqm). Snapshot versus trailing. Not the registrar’s line on one apartment.

Our implied median tracked apartment is 88 sqm (950 sqft) — July 2026 median asking ₪4,850,000 ($1,310,811 / €1,212,500 / £1,021,053) divided by ₪54,945 per sqm ($14,850 / €13,736 / £11,567 per sqm; n = 1,037 tracked active listings). That size is a ratio of two medians, not a surveyed floor plan, and it is the same implied size the arnona page uses. It is a reasonable starting point for the asset the registrar is being asked to move. It is not the extract.

What we still will not invent

Four things we will not put a number to. A citywide lawyer-plus-extract package: the Schedule prices the book; the lawyer prices the reading. A share of Tel Aviv apartments that are “clean” Tabu: our panel has no title-status field. That a warning note is ownership: s.7 still finishes the deal only at registration. That the asking-vs-closed spread is your nesach: it is a neighborhood statistic on two different samples, stated on methodology. Ask the lawyer which office, which parcel, and which extract they will keep — the same way you ask the committee for va’ad bayit about that building, in writing.

Frequently asked questions

Where this fits

Tabu sits on the buying-process track next to leasehold versus freehold and the closing-cost stack, after who may buy and before handover. The Hebrew terms are in the glossary, the cluster map is the foreign-buyer guide, and live asking figures sit on Tel Aviv property prices. Return to the buying-guide hub.