Apartment Hunting in Tel Aviv — not for the faint of heart (or light of wallet)

For the last six weeks, Mike and I have been living as though we were in an episode of House Hunter’s International Israeli style. We were hoping to find a 2 bedroom, 2 bath rental apartment, within what we hoped would be a realistic budget considering the breathtakingly expensive Tel Aviv real estate market. Apart from the budget, (which I am too embarrassed to reveal ), we began with only two other absolutely non-negotiable requirements: first, that there be a balcony; and second, that the building have an elevator, or at the least only one flight of stairs to deal with. (The astute reader will immediately sense where this is heading.)

Tel Aviv is predominantly a low-rise city with an increasing number of high rises popping up incongruously here and there. Most of the low-rise apartments were built from the thirties through the sixties as quickly and inexpensively as possible to accommodate the rapidly growing population; consequently many of them have not worn well. The city is in the midst of an extensive renovation boom, either upgrading the old stock, or knocking it down and building new. The best of the latter echo the original bauhaus style. However, this exercise still has a long way to go, and most of the buildings remain in more or less “original condition.” We stayed in one such Airbnb for several weeks, and were not sorry to leave.

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Before the search began, we had to take into consideration the peculiarities of the rental market in Israel, which can be a shock to the average Canadian renter. For one thing, there are no purpose-built rental buildings here; the market is completely fragmented with as many landlords as individual apartments. And as it turns out, the character of the landlord is just as important as the quality of the apartment, since tenants have few (if any) rights, which I always find a bit odd given the socialist underpinnings of the early Israeli state.

Apart from slew of expenses that don’t apply to renters at home, such as property taxes and condo fees, it is also common to find apartments that have no appliances, or even closets. This is for the renter to sort out, at their (our) expense. It is also a normal practice to use a real estate agent (essential for non-Israelis like us), and it is the renter (not the landlord) that pays the agent a fee equal to one month’s rent. So you can safely add costs equal to 3-4 months rent just to equip a kitchen and pay an agent — before you even think of furnishing a place.

Undaunted (okay, slightly daunted), we started the hunt. In our first few days we saw a whole slew of places including six that were more or less within budget, or at least within our “new and improved” budget. After narrowing them down to three, we eliminated a nice new one (with appliances!) on Dizengoff: a great main drag and home to at least 10 bus lines — convenient but noisy. One of the two remaining choices was an older apartment in a pretty area. While we were taken aback at the missing light fixtures (their electrical wires coming out of the wall), and several missing appliances, the size was good and there was a lovely balcony and two bathrooms; a real asset, despite the garish 80s tile-work. We were ready to make an offer, but someone had already snapped up this little gem.

The third contender was a 2 bed/2 bath flat in a new-build on a quiet street, 5 minutes from the beach and Dizengoff square, and no more than a 30 minute walk to almost anywhere in town. It had the requisite balcony and an elevator. It did strike us as odd that the faucet was missing in the kitchen sink and that the “fully equipped” kitchen was missing a fridge and oven, but we met the fast-talking owner/builder and were assured this would all get taken care of within days, so we made an offer. This was accepted in principle, and we went to the contract stage. We waited quite a while for this 9 page legal document , all in Hebrew, which our patient friend (who is also a lawyer) kindly reviewed for us.

Unfortunately this document was a one-sided catastrophe, and further it turned out that this owner was missing a critical city document permitting occupancy of the building —a bit of risk for the tenant. Clearly this was one of those landlords to avoid. We lost a week while this “balagan” unfolded, and Mike was completely fed up with the whole situation. So we resigned ourselves at that point to extending our modest “retro” Airbnb for the whole of this stay, and resuming our search in April.

Fate then intervened in the form of Liat, my friend and ever-patient Hebrew teacher, who introduced me to a rental website used by Israelis, in Hebrew naturally. Needless to say, I could not help but surreptitiously continue to look at listings. (After all, this would be very good for my language studies.) And lo and behold, I found two that looked promising, and were fully furnished and equipped — a rare feature! Then our agent also found an unfurnished option in a brand new mid-rise building that we had long admired. Mike reluctantly agreed to look at “just a few more places”, so one Sunday evening, we made a last ditch effort that had us literally running all over town. We were very taken with the modern apartment our agent had located. It met all of our wish list and was —naturally —well over our new and improved budget. It was also in need of a full suite of appliances and furniture, which would have required a huge amount of work and money. So in love were we, that somehow this did not seem to be a serious barrier. The gorgeous terrace with a hook-up for a gas barbecue — yes Mike —just might have had something to do with our immediate inclination to just go for it, and sign on the dotted line.

But there was one more place to go, and the owner’s son had come specially from work to show it to us. So off we went to see a flat in a much older “original condition” building located in an area called the Old North. The listing appealed to us because the flat was in a great neighbourhood, was furnished and within budget. Moreover the rent included all the usual extras, even internet; a rare find indeed. So it was certainly less expensive than the new building we had just seen, albeit without such amenities as a front desk, or a gym — unless of course you count the stairs. Yes, it was on the fourth floor — up 60 stairs, (Mike counted) —without an elevator. So, looking on the bright side… no gym necessary. After a long walk up the dim stairwell, we walked into a spacious, beautiful two bed/two bath apartment, renovated from top to bottom, tastefully furnished, and equipped with everything you could imagine, right down to books, interesting design touches, and original art. There was no terrace, just what is sometimes referred to as a french balcony — sliding doors that open to a railing. No matter. I was in love — for the second time in one evening! But with no elevator and no balcony…could we compromise?

You bet we could!

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We moved in two weeks ago!

And in an addendum to this otherwise happy conclusion, we subsequently travelled back to Canada for a family visit and tax season, only to find that two days later, all arrivals to Israel would have to go into a two week quarantine period. So we are not sure when we will next enjoy this beautiful space.