Zichron Devarim in Israel: The Written Undertaking, Without a Guessed Deposit

A zichron devarim (memorandum) is not a special Israeli form. Land Law section 8 requires a written document for an undertaking to transfer land. Section 7 finishes the sale only at Tabu registration. Until then a signed memo that is definite and intended can already bind you. We publish no typical deposit figure.

The statute never says zichron devarim

memorandum of the agreed terms (a written note of a deal; not a statutory form) (זיכרון דברים) is a market label, not a statutory form. The Land Law, 5729-1969 (Sefer HaChukim 5729, 259) defines a land transaction (עסקה במקרקעין) in section 6 as a grant of ownership or of another right in land according to the grantor’s will, except inheritance under a will. An apartment sale in Tel Aviv-Yafo is that grant. It is not the short-lease exception in s.79(a), which drops both registration and writing for a lease of five years or less.

Section 7 then splits the timeline. The transaction requires registration and is completed by registration (s.7(a)). Until the registrar has approved it, s.7(b) treats the same deal as an undertaking to do a (land) transaction (התחייבות לעשות עסקה). Section 8 is one sentence: that undertaking requires a written document (מסמך בכתב). The Contracts Law (General Part), 5733-1973 (Sefer HaChukim 5733, 118) s.23 says a contract may be oral, written, or otherwise unless a statute or the parties make a particular form a condition of validity. Land Law s.8 is that statute. The heading on the paper does not exempt it.

When the memo is an offer, and when it is not

Contracts Law s.1 forms a contract by offer and acceptance. Section 2 is the filter. An approach is an offer only if it shows the offeror’s intention to be bound (the offeror's made-up mind) (גמירת דעת — the statute’s phrase is גמירת דעתו) and is definiteness (specific enough that acceptance can form the contract) (מסויימת) enough that accepting it can form the contract. Acceptance under s.5 is notice that shows the same intention according to the offer. Section 6(b) then shuts a common pressure line: a clause that treats your silence as yes has no validity.

The statute does not print a checklist that says “parties, property, price.” Those three facts are how English explainers paraphrase definiteness. They are a useful test a lawyer can apply. They are not a statutory cell. A memo that names a 120 sqm (1,292 sqft) flat, a buyer, a seller, and a price with genuine intent is closer to s.2 than a one-line “we will talk later.” Whether your paper crosses the line is a question for counsel on that text, not a citywide rule we can invent. Section 12(a) still requires customary good faith in the negotiation that produced it.

What you lock if you sign at the asking price

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). Our implied median tracked apartment is 88 sqm (950 sqft) — median asking divided by apartment-scale ₪54,945/sqm ($14,850 / €13,736 / £11,567 per sqm; n = 987). That size is a ratio of two medians, the same implied size the arnona page uses. It is not a surveyed floor plan, and it is not a deposit.

A non-resident mortgage uses a 50% loan-to-value cap. On that median asking price the loan is ₪2,425,000 ($655,405) and the cash down is ₪2,425,000 ($655,405) if a later appraisal meets the contract. Signing a memo at the listing locks the price before that opinion exists. Every shekel the appraisal sits below the memo is a shekel the bank will not treat as value. We do not publish a typical haircut. We publish the formula.

Why the listing and the registry already disagree

We will not publish a citywide memorandum deposit. There is no official tariff, and the tracked listing panel has no field for it. 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, and never a paired same-flat comparison. A memo signed at asking is a bet that those two samples are close enough to live with. They are not the same number.

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 price in your memo.

The clock that makes people sign early

Citywide days from first publication to detected removal is a median 33 days (p25 16, p75 42; n = 94 dated removed listings, 59.1% dated coverage of all removals). That metric is time-on-listing until our tracker saw the row disappear. It is not a verified time-to-sell: a removal can be a sale, a relisting, a rental switch, or a withdrawal. The days-on-market page states the caveats. The only neighborhood that currently clears the n ≥ 20 gate is Old North, at a median 41 days (n = 33). A 33-day median is still a short window in which an agent can say the next viewer will take the flat. Land Law s.9 then prefers the first written undertaking unless a later buyer reaches registration in good faith. Speed is not a reason the statute waives s.8.

Section 26 fills particulars the paper left blank from the parties’ own practice, or from the practice accepted in contracts of that type. We will not invent what that practice is in Tel Aviv. The existence of the filler is why a thin memo is riskier than it looks: missing payment dates or a missing inspection line are not automatically “we will decide later.” They can be read in. That is a reason to use the formal contract on the buying-process page, not a deposit we can quote.

What we still will not invent

Five things we will not put a number or a case name to. A citywide shekel or percent deposit: no official tariff, no panel field. The 10–15% first payment on the process page is labelled there as common practice on the formal contract, not a memo tariff. That every zichron is automatically binding: s.2 still has to be met. That a memo is never binding because of its title: s.8 does not read titles. Named judgments: this file is the statutes, not a case digest. A cooling-off period: these instruments do not give one. Ask the lawyer which paper is allowed to bind you, the same way you ask which Tabu or leasehold right you are actually buying.

Frequently asked questions

Where this fits

A zichron sits on the buying-process track at the negotiate step, next to the lawyer’s contract work and before the appraisal a financed buyer will meet. Funds still move through the trust-account route. 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.