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Tool
Olim Mortgage-Mix (Tamhil) Optimizer
Build a compliant Israeli mortgage mix as an oleh. It checks the two-thirds prime/variable cap, the loan-to-value cap for your buyer type, the 50% payment-to-income ceiling, and the FX risk of paying a shekel loan from foreign-currency income.
The most expensive mortgage mistake an oleh makes starts before the first bank meeting: the belief that olim get a special 90% mortgage. They do not. An oleh buying a sole home faces the same 75% loan-to-value cap as any Israeli, so a budget built on a 90% rumour is short by a huge amount of cash. This tool starts from the real caps and works forward.
It sizes the loan against the three limits the Bank of Israel actually enforces: at most two-thirds of the loan on prime or variable rates (so at least a third is fixed), a loan-to-value cap that depends on your buyer type, and a 50% payment-to-income ceiling under Directive 329. Because prime is a moving target, the tool reads the live Bank of Israel policy rate rather than a typed-in number, and it leads with your monthly payment plus a stress range, not a single frozen lifetime total.
Two things matter more for olim than for a local buyer, and the tool treats them as headline features. Foreign-currency income is grossed down by a bank haircut before the 50% test, which shrinks how much you can borrow. And a shekel mortgage serviced from dollars, euros, or pounds is a currency mismatch: if the shekel strengthens, every payment costs you more in your earning currency. Purchase tax is a separate calculation and does not change your borrowing power. This is an educational estimate, not advice or a loan offer.
The “90% mortgage for olim” is a myth
There is no special high loan-to-value for olim. An oleh buying a sole home faces the same 75% cap as any Israeli. Aliyah purchase-tax relief lowers the cash you need at closing, but it does not raise how much you can borrow, because the cap is a function of the purchase price, not of tax. Budget from the 75% cap, not from a rumour.
Your purchase
The loan-to-value cap branches on your residency and what the home is, not on apartment count alone.
Purchase price
₪2,000,000
Loan amount
₪1,400,000 · 70% LTV
Buyer type
Sole / first home (oleh with citizenship)
Term (years)
25 years
Your track mix
Prime 5.00% · as of 2026-07-19Split the loan across tracks. At most two-thirds may sit on prime or variable rates, so at least one-third must be fixed. Prime is read live from the Bank of Israel policy rate (3.50% + 1.5pp spread), not typed in.
Prime (variable)
33% · ₪462,000
Rate: 5.00% (live prime)
Fixed, unindexed
34% · ₪476,000
Rate: 5.2%
Fixed, CPI-linked
33% · ₪462,000
Rate: 3.2%
Variable, CPI-linked
0% · ₪0
Rate: 2.5%
Annual CPI assumption (for the indexed tracks)
2.5%
Your income
Banks test the payment against a 50% payment-to-income ceiling. Foreign-currency income is usually grossed down first.
Gross monthly household income (NIS)
₪25,000
My income is in foreign currency
₪7,778
Monthly payment (July 2026)
₪7,778 – ₪8,197
Range under a +1.5pp prime stress
31%
Payment-to-income (cap 50%)
70%
Loan-to-value (cap 75%)
Stress the snapshot
Prime rises by
+1.5pp
CPI rises to
4%
Composition is within the two-thirds cap
33% of the loan sits on prime or variable rates against a 67% ceiling, leaving 67% fixed. Banking Supervision requires at least one-third fixed.
Loan-to-value is within your cap
Your loan is 70% of the price against a 75% cap for this buyer type. The most you can borrow at this price is ₪1,500,000.
Payment-to-income is comfortable
The payment is 31% of your income (₪25,000). Directive 329 caps this at 50%, and loans in the 40 to 50% band are risk-weighted 100% by the bank. On these terms your capacity tops out around ₪2,249,815 of loan.
The assumptions behind this number
primetrack ratesCPIexchange rate
To show a single number, this calculation assumes the values below stay fixed for the whole period (the full loan term). In reality they will change, so treat the result as a ballpark, not a precise forecast. Amounts are shown in today’s terms, not adjusted for inflation. The lifetime cost this model can produce (illustratively around ₪2,593,667) depends entirely on those held-flat inputs and should not be read as a fixed future bill.
Why residency, not apartment count, sets your cap
The loan-to-value cap keys off what the home is and who you are. An oleh who holds Israeli citizenship and is buying a sole home gets the 75% first-home cap, exactly like any Israeli. A home-improver replacing an existing home is held to 70%, and an investment or additional apartment to 50%. A genuine non-resident foreign buyer typically faces around 50% by bank policy. Establish which box you are in before you assume a number.
Purchase tax lowers your closing cash, not your borrowing power
Oleh purchase-tax (mas rechisha) relief reduces the cash you hand over at closing, but it has no effect on how much a bank will lend, because loan-to-value is measured against the purchase price. Work the relief separately with the Olim purchase-tax calculator, then come back here to size the loan against the 75%, 70%, or 50% cap that applies to you.
Foreign-currency income cuts both ways
Earning in dollars, euros, or pounds can make a purchase feel affordable, but the bank grosses that income down before the 50% payment-to-income test and asks for heavier source-of-funds paperwork. On top of that, a shekel mortgage serviced from foreign income is a currency mismatch: if the shekel strengthens, each payment costs you more in your earning currency. Size the loan with both the haircut and the FX sensitivity in view.
- Bank of Israel, Banking Supervision: limitations on housing loans (LTV and variable-rate share) boi.org.il ↗ ↩Last verified: 2026-07-10
- Bank of Israel, Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 329 (payment-to-income limit) boi.org.il ↗ ↩Last verified: 2026-07-10
- Bank of Israel, policy interest rate (basis for the prime rate) boi.org.il ↗ ↩Last verified: 2026-07-10
- Israel Tax Authority (purchase-tax relief for olim, cross-referenced) gov.il ↗ ↩Last verified: 2026-07-10
שתפו:
Frequently asked questions
Correct, that is a myth. There is no oleh-specific high loan-to-value. An oleh with citizenship buying a sole home is held to the same 75% cap as any Israeli first-home buyer. What olim do get is purchase-tax relief, which lowers the cash needed at closing, but that relief does not raise how much a bank will lend, because the cap is measured against the purchase price, not against tax. Budgeting from a 90% assumption is the single most common and costly planning error we see.
It branches on your residency and what the home is, not just on how many apartments you own. A sole or first home is capped at 75%, a home-improver replacing an existing home at 70%, and an investment or additional apartment at 50%. A genuine non-resident foreign buyer typically faces around 50% by bank policy. An oleh who has taken up Israeli residency and is buying a sole home sits in the 75% first-home band, not the non-resident band.
Bank of Israel Banking Supervision limits the share of a housing loan that can sit on prime or other variable rates to two-thirds, so at least one-third must carry a fixed interest rate for the whole term. The rule exists so a borrower is not fully exposed to rate rises. A fixed CPI-linked track counts as fixed for this test, because its interest rate is fixed even though the principal is indexed. The tool flags any mix where the prime plus variable share climbs above two-thirds.
Banks generally gross down foreign-currency income by a haircut, commonly in the 20 to 30% range, before applying the 50% payment-to-income test, and they ask for heavier source-of-funds documentation. The haircut is a bank practice, not a statutory number, so the tool lets you adjust it. Because the test runs on the grossed-down figure, a haircut directly reduces your maximum loan. A payment between 40 and 50% of income is inside the cap but is risk-weighted 100% by the bank, meaning it is treated as high risk.
If you borrow in shekels but earn in another currency, your income and your debt are in different money. A stronger shekel means each foreign unit buys fewer shekels, so a fixed shekel payment costs you more in your earning currency. The tool shows a simple sensitivity for a plus or minus 10% and 20% move. This is a sensitivity, not a forecast: exchange rates are not predictable, and the point is to size the buffer you would need if the rate moved against you.
Because the July 2026 prime is a snapshot taken mid-easing-cycle. The policy rate under the prime moved three times in the first half of 2026 alone, so projecting today’s rate flat for 25 to 30 years would be false precision. The 1.5 percentage-point spread of prime over the policy rate is structural and durable; the policy rate is not. The tool therefore leads with the monthly payment and a stress range, and treats any lifetime total as an illustration that depends entirely on inputs held flat.
Related reading
Israeli mashkanta tracks for olim
How the prime, fixed, and CPI-linked tracks differ, and how to weight them for your situation.
Mortgage eligibility as an oleh
What banks look at, the loan-to-value caps, and the documents you will need.
Getting a mortgage approved on foreign income
How banks treat dollars, euros, and pounds, the income haircut, and source-of-funds paperwork.
Related tools
Olim Mortgage Calculator
Calculate your mortgage payments with olim benefits — government loan, reduced purchase tax, and monthly cost comparison.
Mas Rechisha (Purchase Tax) Calculator
Estimate Israeli purchase tax three ways — oleh reduced rate, resident single-home, and foreign/additional-home — and see the oleh saving.
Currency Conversion Cost Comparator
Compare the real cost of converting currency against the mid-market rate: the visible fee and the spread together.
- Banking Supervision: limitations on housing loans (loan-to-value and variable-rate share) — Bank of Israel boi.org.il ↗ ↩
- Proper Conduct of Banking Business Directive 329 (payment-to-income limit) — Bank of Israel boi.org.il ↗ ↩
- Policy interest rate (the basis for the prime rate) — Bank of Israel boi.org.il ↗ ↩
- Israel Tax Authority (purchase-tax relief for olim, cross-referenced) — Israel Tax Authority gov.il ↗ ↩
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