How much owner consent does urban renewal in Israel take?

Picture the owners' meeting: a 1960s walk-up, 4 stories, no elevator, and every year someone brings up urban renewal — and someone else shuts it down with the same line: "Don't bother, the second floor will never sign." The assumption behind that line is simple: without everyone, there's no project.

Israeli law says otherwise, and has for several years. Consent thresholds dropped in two legislative moves — November 2021 for pinui-binui, Israel's evacuate-and-rebuild track, and July 1, 2023 for the demolish-and-rebuild route in a standalone building. Owners still counting by the old rules are demanding a majority the law no longer requires. Here it is in four numbers.

A special majority — three conditions, and you need all three. The Pinui-Binui Law (Encouragement of Evacuation-Reconstruction Projects), 5766-2006, defines a "special majority of apartment owners" in section 1, and that definition is where the statute's machinery kicks in:

"The apartment owners in a pinui-binui cluster who own at least two thirds of all the apartments in the cluster, and who also meet both of the following…" — section 1 of the Pinui-Binui Law, 5766-2006, definition of "special majority," as amended in November 2021 (unofficial translation)

Read the wording closely: "who own… of all the apartments." The law counts apartments, not people. The cluster — the group of buildings the deal covers — needs 2/3 of its apartments in consenting hands. Then two more conditions are checked inside each and every building:

Three conditions, like three locks on one door: the cluster as a whole, each building on its own, and the common property. The door opens only when the key turns in all three. A fourth condition actually vanished from the statute: until November 2021 the law also required 3/4 of the common property at the cluster level — that requirement was deleted outright, leaving only the building-level tests.

Bottom line: a pinui-binui special majority = 2/3 of the cluster's apartments, 3/5 (60%) in each building, more than half of each building's common property. And every counter runs on apartments, not people.

November 2021. The definition above comes from Israel's Economic Program Law, 5782-2021, published in the official gazette on November 18, 2021, and effective on publication. Until then, the cluster threshold stood at 4/5 of the apartments. The legislature cut it to 2/3, eased the per-building conditions, and deleted the cluster-level common-property requirement.

The date is not trivia. Developer presentations and agreement templates were drafted for years around the old numbers, and some still make the rounds among owners' committees. Anyone leaning on them is showing the neighbors a bar that is no longer the law.

Bottom line: anyone quoting 4/5 is quoting a rule that was replaced in November 2021.

The Strengthening Law, which is alive and well. Start with the fact: TAMA 38, Israel's national outline plan for earthquake retrofitting, expired on October 1, 2023. Local planning committees that met the National Planning Council's conditions got a grace period — until May 18, 2026, at the latest, or until a replacement plan was approved, whichever came first — and that date, too, is behind us. Permits issued while it was in force are unaffected, but TAMA 38 is not an open track for anyone starting now.

The consent rules, though, never lived in TAMA 38 itself. They sit in the Land Law (Strengthening of Condominiums Against Earthquakes), 5768-2008 — the Strengthening Law. Its definition of a "strengthening plan" was built to cover both plans prepared under section 23 of TAMA 38 while it was in force and any plan that applies to a "building requiring strengthening" as defined in section 70A of the Planning and Building Law — the replacement tracks created by Amendment 139, known as the Shaked Alternative. We covered the Shaked Alternative itself — which buildings qualify and how much can be built — in a separate article.

Bottom line: the outline plan is gone; the majority rules remain. For a standalone building, the consent count lives in the Strengthening Law — Shaked Alternative deals included.

Start by separating two scenarios. Building new apartments without demolition — the familiar way to fund a retrofit: section 5(a) of the Strengthening Law starts, of all things, from unanimous consent — and then comes the statute's "however":

"Work on the common property whose purpose is the construction of one or more new apartments requires the advance decision of all apartment owners… however, …" — section 5(a) of the Land Law (Strengthening of Condominiums Against Earthquakes), 5768-2008 (unofficial translation)

And let's be precise: this is not a majority that decides for everyone. It is the threshold at which the Supervisor of Land Registration may approve the work without full consent — after every owner has had the chance to be heard. The power stays with the owners: they bring the claim, they set it in motion.

Demolish and rebuild — the section 5A route: since July 1, 2023, the Supervisor may approve that work as well, upon a claim by owners of 2/3 of the apartments with 2/3 of the common property attached — "the majority required to approve the work," in the statute's words — provided the condominium has at least 4 apartments and more than 2 owners. Until July 1, 2023, that bar stood at 4/5. The cut came in Israel's Economic Program Law, 5783-2023.

Bottom line: in a standalone building the number to remember is 2/3 — of the apartments and of the common property. And for demolition: at least 4 apartments, more than 2 owners.

First, the baseline: a pinui-binui deal binds only the owners who signed it. A neighbor who has not signed is not bound by it, and absent a court order, full execution of the project ultimately takes every owner's signature. So what is the majority worth? This is where section 2 of the Pinui-Binui Law comes in:

"Where a special majority of the apartment owners in a pinui-binui cluster has agreed to enter into a pinui-binui transaction, …" — section 2(a) of the Pinui-Binui Law, 5766-2006, as amended by Amendment 6, 2018 (unofficial translation)

Alongside the approval power sits the section's first alternative: holding the refusing owner liable in damages to the consenting neighbors for the harm caused by the deal not going through (section 2(a)(1)). Both powers have been on the books since Amendment 6 in 2018.

Note the entry condition: the court must first find the refusal unreasonable, and every owner gets a full day in court. Even with a special majority in hand, the question gets full judicial scrutiny.

Bottom line: the special majority is a key to the courthouse. It unlocks damages, or approval of the deal with an appointed signatory — without it, you need everyone's signature.

A condominium of 4 apartments or more. The Pinui-Binui Law takes the trouble to define it:

"'Condominium' — any of the following, provided it contains at least four apartments: (1) as defined in Chapter F of the Land Law; (2) as 'house' is defined in Chapter F1 of the Land Law" — section 1 of the Pinui-Binui Law, 5766-2006, as originally enacted and still in force (unofficial translation)

What does that mean in practice? In a building of 2 or 3 apartments, the statute's majority mechanism does not apply at all — there, the deal rests on everyone's full consent. And at the other end, the demolition route for a standalone building has entry conditions of its own, as noted: at least 4 apartments and more than 2 owners.

Bottom line: before you count percentages, count apartments. Fewer than 4, and the whole mechanism is off the table.

1. 1Count apartments. How many in the building and in the cluster, and who is the registered owner of each — from a current Land Registry (Tabu) extract for every apartment, not from memory.
2. 2Identify the track. A pinui-binui cluster, or a standalone building on the strengthening track — addition or demolition. Each track has its own counters.
3. 3Run the majority math on paper. In a cluster: 2/3 of all apartments, and in each building — 3/5 (60%) of apartments plus more than half the common property. In a standalone building: 2/3 of the apartments and of the common property.
4. 4Check the common-property shares, not just the apartment count. The share attached to each apartment is a separate counter in the math.
5. 5Document every signature — who signed, for which apartment, and when. The majority worksheet is a living document; it changes with each new signature.
6. 6With a special majority in hand and a refusing minority — weigh going to court under section 2, with the factual record already built.