About Kinyan Guide
An independent publication for buying and financing property in Israel, from abroad or as a resident. No listings, no bank behind us, no face to put forward: verified, dated pages, and a referral model we stand behind.
Why this site exists
Buying an apartment in Israel from New York, London, Toronto or Sydney means facing an unfamiliar vocabulary (Tabu, mas rechisha, madad, zikaron dvarim), tax brackets that change, intermediaries who all have something to sell, and forums where everyone tells their own story. Kinyan Guide (“kinyan”, acquisition in Hebrew) lays the information flat: a straight answer at the top of every page, the current year’s figures, the official source at the bottom, and the Hebrew terms explained at their first occurrence, with the closest US or UK equivalent where one exists.
The site is written for three readers: the buyer living abroad who wants a pied-à-terre or an investment, the future oleh preparing to settle, and the resident buying for the first time who wants to understand what the bank and the lawyer are proposing.
Who writes
Pages are signed “the editorial team”. That is a choice. The site is not the shop window of an agent, a broker or a lawyer, and no page is meant to convince you that one particular person should handle your file. The editorial team relies on practising professionals (real estate lawyers, mortgage brokers, developers, agents) to review the technical pages, and on official texts for every figure. Reviews are mentioned when they took place; reviewers are not named, for the same reason.
Kinyan Guide is published by Thinkchain, an independent company based in Israel that also publishes Shekel Guide, dedicated to money and tax in Israel. The two sites share the same method and the same rule: no information depends on an advertiser.
How we work
- Answer first. Every page starts with the answer in three to five lines, figures included. The detail follows, for those who need it.
- Dated, sourced figures. Purchase tax brackets, Bank of Israel rates, Central Bureau of Statistics average prices: every amount points to its official source and carries a date. When a bracket changes, the page is updated within days.
- Worked examples. A bracket says nothing until it is applied to a ₪2.5M apartment bought by a couple from New Jersey. Every important page contains at least one complete case.
- No slogans. We do not say it is “a good time to buy”. We give prices, rates and new-build inventory, and you decide.
The full method, the sources used and what we do not do are described on the methodology page.
Five languages, one set of figures
The site is published in English and French, and will be in Spanish, Russian and Hebrew. Each edition is written for its readership (a buyer in Buenos Aires does not have the same questions as a buyer in Boston), but the figures, the brackets and the definitions come from a single reference set, updated once. The glossary gives the Hebrew, the transliteration and the English meaning for every term.
How we make money
Reading is free and will stay free. The site is funded in two ways, and two ways only.
Referrals. When you fill in a form to talk to a mortgage broker, a real estate lawyer, a developer or an agency, your request is passed to a partner professional, selected on three criteria: real estate specialisation, independence from sellers in the case of a lawyer, and experience with remote files. That professional pays us for the referral, per lead or by subscription. You pay nothing beyond their usual fees, and you remain free not to follow up.
Partner listings. Professionals who wish to can appear in the directory by city with a verified listing. It is marked as such.
What we do not do: sell properties, take a commission on a sale, run programmatic advertising, or let a partner change the content of a page. A partner who asked us to remove a paragraph on the pitfalls of new builds would stop being a partner. The terms for professionals are on the partners page.
Transparency and limits
Kinyan Guide is not a law firm, a broker or a bank. Information is general in nature: it lets you understand, compare and ask the right questions, not replace a professional’s advice on your own file. If you spot an error, an outdated figure or a missing page, write to us: corrections are made quickly and dated.
The legal notice, hosting and data handling are on the dedicated page.