Clients updates / Real Estate Transactions

The Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling contains strict determinations regarding simulated contracts whose sole purpose is to defraud the tax authorities and the banking system. Inter alia, the Supreme Court addressed an ongoing judicial debate about the classification of simulated contracts.

A recent judgment by the Hadera Magistrate’s Court holds that modifications to an apartment made at a purchaser’s request do not constitute just cause for late delivery and that the purchaser must be compensated for any delay.

Israeli’s Ministry of Construction and Housing recently imposed a NIS 6.5 million financial sanction on the developer of a TAMA 38 project in Kiryat Bialik. The developer was fined after failing to produce a guarantee to purchasers of apartments in the project for funds they had paid toward the unit price, as required by the Assurance of Investments Law.

On December 23, 2018, the Israeli ministerial committee approved a draft bill on the subject of real-estate purchasing groups. This draft bill is designed, on the one hand, to protect members of purchasing groups and, on the other hand, to enable their continued existence as a means to construct residential apartments while cutting costs.

The Law for Reducing the Use of Cash, which is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2019, will have a significant impact on the real-estate sector.

The Israel Tax Authority (ITA) recently launched an application that allows anyone who previously executed a real-estate transaction to check whether he or she has a credit balance in respect of an overpayment of betterment tax or purchase tax.

According to a ruling handed down recently by the Israeli Supreme Court, when a real estate asset is sold before the seller enters bankruptcy proceedings, and the seller has not paid the betterment tax, the local council is not obligated to grant the buyer approval for registering the property under his name. Thus, the buyer will be required to pay the betterment tax.