Beit Gibor / Beit Gaon · Tel Aviv
Nine reasons to look closer
Position, running costs, and what the same money buys elsewhere in this part of Tel Aviv.
Position, running costs, and what the same money buys elsewhere in this part of Tel Aviv.
Not near the sea. On it. The windows face the water, the promenade and the managed beachfront, with Old Jaffa along the coast to the south. In Tel Aviv the seafront line is finite and nothing new is being built on it.
Most of the building operates as a hotel — now the Play Beach Hotel, owned by Israel Canada Hotels, and currently being refurbished under that new ownership.
Corridors, lobby and public areas are kept to hotel standard, year round, by someone else. For an owner who is abroad most of the year, that is worth more than any fitting inside the flat.
The apartment is held by Maapat Israel Ltd and is now the company's remaining asset. A buyer may acquire the shares rather than the property.
For an overseas purchaser that can mean acquiring a long-established Israeli company — with its history, its registrations and its records already in place — rather than incorporating from abroad. The company also carries accumulated losses from a long period in which the owner met the running costs personally.
Whether either route suits a particular buyer depends entirely on their own circumstances. Nothing here is tax advice; purchasers should take independent Israeli advice.
Be clear about this from the start, because it is the single most important thing to understand about the property: it is registered as commercial office space, not as a residence.
That is not a drawback. It is the reason the price is what it is. Seafront square metres in Tel Aviv registered as residential cost considerably more.
The unit was converted and is set up to be lived in — kitchen, bathroom, living space, all facing the sea. For the right buyer, that is the whole opportunity: a home on the Tel Aviv seafront at office-space pricing.
Building charges are modest — unusual for a seafront address, and unusual for a building with a hotel in it.
Neve Tzedek is a few minutes' walk inland and among the most expensive addresses in the city. This apartment is expected to come in below the price of a one-bedroom flat there — while facing the sea rather than a neighbouring wall.
A parking garage nearby takes monthly contracts working out at less than five dollars a day.
Anyone who has tried to park a car in central Tel Aviv will understand what that is worth. It is one of the standard reasons people rule out this part of the city, and here it is already solved.
A two-minute walk puts you on the tayelet — the stretch that runs the length of Tel Aviv's seafront and holds most of what people come here for. The beach, the cafes, the running and cycling path, and Old Jaffa at the southern end.
You are not driving to the good part of Tel Aviv. You are already standing in it.
The unit remains registered as office space. Converting the registration to residential has not been pursued.
There is a reasonable case that it could be. The greater part of this building has already been converted away from offices — it operates as a hotel today — so the precedent for a change of use in this building is not theoretical. It has happened, at scale, in this address.
I am not doing that work, and the asking price reflects a property sold as it stands. A buyer with the time and the appetite to take it on would be acquiring seafront square metres at office pricing, with the possibility of residential registration ahead of them.
No assurance is given that any change of use would be approved. Any purchaser considering it should make their own enquiries of the Tel Aviv–Yafo municipality and take independent professional advice before relying on it.
Photographs, floor plan, the full detail, and how to reach me.