THE HUNT FOR THE PERFECT APARTMENT

The first question that most people in London asked us when we told people about our Aliyah was “where are you going to live?” Most people in Israel just said “you will find something once you are here.” The Zionist in us told us to be pioneers, camp out on mattresses on friend’s floors for a bit. The English side of us said “don’t be so stupid – find a flat NOW.” So we started our flat hunt straight away.

Friends recommended a couple of websites such as homeless.co.il and yad2.co.il but as you can imagine, these websites were a minefield for us. After a lot of google translate, we decided to ask our friends in Israel to help us. By the next morning, they had already set up viewings of three apartments in Modi’in to be seen later that day. Through about 50 photos of the apartment with verbal commentary over the phone about each one and a skype viewing of the apartment a few days later, one of them fit our criteria. Contracts were drawn up and signed that week (all in Ivrit so we had to call upon our trusty translator (the same friend who found us the apartment) and so we are now proud tenants of a flat in Keiser, Modi’in. Anyone who is looking for a property in Israel whilst living abroad needs one thing and one thing only…a REALLY good friend who can negotiate in Ivrit!