Israel Adopts New Standard for Measuring Apartment Sizes

Israel's Real Estate Appraisers Council, under the Ministry of Justice, has approved a new standard, 9.1, to unify how apartment areas are measured. This standard replaces the previous one, 9.0, which has been in effect since 2006. The new measure aims to reduce discrepancies in measurements and interpretations that have persisted in the real estate market, thereby increasing transparency for homebuyers, developers, and other industry participants.

Previously, multiple measurement methods led to inconsistencies between the area declared by developers, the area registered in the land registry, and measurements by various authorities. While the 2006 standard (9.0) was intended to mitigate these issues, ambiguities remained regarding the inclusion of structural elements and shared spaces in an apartment's total area. This included differing approaches to measuring common walls between apartments, shared areas like lobbies or stairwells, attics, and load-bearing walls in apartments on slopes.

To address these ongoing discrepancies, a professional commission was formed approximately a year ago to develop an updated standard. Standard 9.1 establishes a unified definition where apartment area is measured within a polygon formed by lines along the external surfaces of the apartment's walls and the centerline of shared walls separating the apartment from other building parts. This means a shared wall with a lobby will be measured similarly to a wall between two apartments.

The new standard also clarifies specific cases: attics accessible by a permanent, fixed staircase will be included in the apartment's area, unlike attics without such access or those reached by a temporary ladder. Similarly, storage rooms directly adjacent to an apartment and accessible only from within will be counted as part of the apartment's area, while storage rooms located in common building areas, such as a lobby, will not.