Zakaut Mortgage for Olim: What the Directed Loan Actually Is

Zakaut is not a 3% mortgage on a Tel Aviv apartment. Housing Loans Law s.1 limits the directed loan to a housing-lacking eligible person under Ministry rules. Section 4 sets CPI-linked interest at the Bank of Israel housing average minus 0.5%, capped at 3%, only at 599 points or more. The s.2 shekel band is a slice.

What the Act actually names

English-language aliyah pages collapse two different loans into one sentence: the commercial Israeli mortgage mix, and a state-assisted slice they brand as a eligibility (for Ministry housing-loan assistance) (זכאות) mortgage. The Housing Loans Law, 5752-1992 (Sefer HaChukim 5752, 246) answers the second. Section 1 defines a eligible person (housing-lacking and eligible under the rules) (זכאי) as a person who is housing-lacking (מחוסר דיור) and who is eligible for housing assistance under the Ministry of Construction and Housing rules set with the Finance Ministry. A housing loan (the directed / state-assisted loan under this Act) (הלוואה לדיור) is a loan given to those eligible persons from the state budget, or with state assistance, for buying or building a dwelling — except a loan given only to eligible persons without direct state assistance. Market Hebrew also calls that slice an directed loan (market Hebrew for the state-assisted slice) (הלוואה מוכוונת).

That definition is the first correction. A typical non-resident who can buy land — the can-foreigners page — is not automatically a eligible person (housing-lacking and eligible under the rules). Buying does not create oleh status; that is the Law of Return, not a Tabu entry (see no golden visa). The oleh purchase-tax track is a different statute and a different window; it lives on oleh purchase-tax benefits. This page is the directed-loan slice only.

The 3% figure is a cap on the slice, and only at 599 points

Section 4, as amended including the 2026 Economic Plan law (Sefer HaChukim 5786, 406), is the sentence English pages flatten to “3% fixed.” The housing loan shall bear linked interest at the average interest of the banks on credit for housing purposes, as published by the Bank of Israel, minus 0.5 percentage points, but not more than 3% or the interest customary at the bank that gave the loan, whichever is lower — for an eligible person whose points (the Ministry score that gates the s.4 rate) (נקודות) total at least 599. The 3% cell is a ceiling on this directed slice. It is not a rate on the whole Tel Aviv purchase. Below 599 points, that s.4 formula does not apply.

Section 5 then links the principal to the consumer price index from the last-known index on the date the loan is given. A rise in the index lifts the balance on this slice. Our committed Bank of Israel pipeline put the CPI-linked average on new housing loans at 3.26% (February 2026). Minus 0.5 points is 2.76%, which sits under the 3% cap, so that illustration lands at 2.76%. The same file’s non-indexed average is 6.69% (February 2026); minus 0.5 points is 6.19%, so the 3% cap would bind. The Act does not name a series code. Those two figures are illustrations from the series we already publish, not the minister’s official lookup.

The shekel band is a slice of a Tel Aviv sticker, not the mortgage

Section 2(a) says the amount of a housing loan shall be between ₪46,080 and ₪227,520 (≈ $12,454– $61,492 / €11,520–€56,880 / £9,701–£47,899), according to regulations the minister makes with the Knesset Finance Committee. An eligible person may take less (s.2(b)). The minister may update the amounts from time to time (s.2(c)). We therefore publish those two shekel figures as the Act’s text, not as your 2026 personal cell, and we do not invent a typical ₪100,000–₪300,000 average or a points-to-shekel table.

The data join is why the slice matters in Tel Aviv. The citywide median asking price in July 2026 is ₪4,850,000 (≈ $1,310,811 / €1,212,500 / £1,021,053; n = 1,037 tracked active listings). The implied size — median asking divided by apartment-scale median ₪/sqm (n = 987) — is 88 sqm (950 sqft). The Act-text ceiling is 4.69% of that sticker; the Act-text floor is 0.95%. A non-resident at the Directive 329 50% cap would still be borrowing ₪2,425,000 commercially; the s.2(a) ceiling is 9.38% of that loan. A resident single-home 75% file is ₪3,637,500; the same ceiling is 6.25% of it. Methodology is on the methodology page.

What the certificate holds, and what Tel Aviv does not add

The personal figure is a eligibility certificate (תעודת זכאות). The Act does not print a citywide typical amount, a certificate fee, or a 15-year oleh (new-immigrant) certificate (תעודת עולה) clock. We will not copy those cells from brokerage pages. Section 6 says the Act does not prevent giving part of the housing loan as a standing loan (a slice that may become a grant or become repayable under the rules) (הלוואה עומדת) that becomes a grant or becomes repayable when the rules say so, or an additional loan beyond the s.2(a) regulations. Those extras are the rules, not a Tel Aviv tariff we invent.

Two geographic extras are easy to mis-file onto a city-center purchase. Section 6d is a special grant for eligible persons buying in the Be’er Sheva and Negev area as defined in Income Tax Ordinance s.11b, on a dwelling whose net area is not more than 110 sqm (1,184 sqft). Tel Aviv-Yafo is not that area. Section 7 is an additional loan in confrontation-line settlements the Home Front Command head designates, which then becomes a grant under the rules. The Act does not list Tel Aviv-Yafo there. The commercial remainder of any file is still the track mix on how Israeli mortgages work, shopped if needed by a mortgage broker, and still underwritten against an appraisal.

The 2026 tripwire drops only the half-point, not the cap

Section 4a, also touched by the 2026 Economic Plan amendment, is a budget fuse rather than a buyer’s rate card. The Finance Minister reports take-up to the Knesset Finance Committee once a year. If the cost of the s.4 half-point, multiplied by the assisted loans given that year, equals ₪170,000,000 (≈ $45,945,946 / €42,500,000 / £35,789,474), and the committee so determines, a Reshumot notice goes out. From that date until the end of that fiscal year the housing loan bears the Bank of Israel average on housing-purpose credit, still not more than 3% or the lending bank’s customary rate, and still only at 599 points or more. The 2026 amendment left the cap and the points gate in place. It does not turn the directed slice into a 3% mortgage on the apartment.

Section 3(a) lets the eligible person choose a repayment period between 10 and 30 years, or shorter on request. That term is this slice’s clock. It is not a days-to-keys figure — the handover page already refuses one — and it is not the sale contract timetable. Funds still move through the AML and trust-account gate. None of those pages invent a Zakaut shekel average.

What we still will not invent

Four things we will not put a number to. A typical ₪100,000–₪300,000 official cell: s.2(a) is a band the minister may update, and the personal amount is on the certificate. A 15-year oleh window in this Act: s.1 has no such clock. A ₪70 certificate fee or a named list of issuing banks — those are bank-tariff and Ministry-procedure facts we did not fetch into this file. A 3% rate on the whole Tel Aviv mortgage, or a Tel Aviv Negev / confrontation-line extra. The oleh purchase-tax window (one year before / seven years after aliyah, military excluded) stays on the tax page, where it is labelled. Directive 329 loan-to-value tiers stay on the non-resident mortgage page.

Frequently asked questions

Where this fits

This page sits next to how Israeli mortgages work — the commercial track mix — and next to mortgages for non-residents, which is still the file for a buyer who is not a eligible person (housing-lacking and eligible under the rules). The oleh tax track is oleh purchase-tax benefits. Timing versus renting first is rent or buy after aliyah. Timing the tax window against this mortgage file is buy before or after aliyah. A remote close uses a power of attorney. UK and US origin pages reframe the same commercial close. 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.