Tel Aviv Apartments Part 1: Garden Apartments, Roof-Top Apartments, Duplex-Penthouses and Penthouses  

Garden Apartments:

Underestimated, garden apartments in Tel Aviv offer the perfect combination of country living in the heart of the city. However, given the nature of these type of apartments – normally facing the back surrounded by other buildings, one’s privacy may be deprived not to mention enjoying very limited natural light. Foreigners who are considering purchasing an apartment for investment or holiday purposes, and do not intend to live in the apartment full time, are less inclined on purchasing garden apartments both for safety and infrastructural reasons and forego the pleasure of living in such apartments.

As far as safety goes, Tel Aviv is a very safe city, and one can expect a burglary like in any other major city. True, lower floor apartments especially garden apartments are more drawn to burglars, but it can happen anytime, anywhere, regardless to the floor your apartment is located on.

The major benefit, of course, to living in a garden apartment, is the larger outdoor space that you won’t normally find in a standard apartment. Newer apartment buildings with sun balconies normally offer 10 – 12 m2 of outdoor space, and if you’re looking for a larger entertaining area, and cannot afford to live on the top floor (only very few in Central Tel Aviv can…) then – don’t overlook these apartments so easily.

They’re generally bigger, and are definitely cheaper than purchasing the penthouse, and just the idea of having a nice, private garden in the heart of the city – is quite a privilege.   

Duplex-Penthouses:

With over 300 sunny days a year, when you’re living in Tel Aviv a balcony is probably the most desired feature a Tel Avivian would want. However, many of the newly built apartment buildings offer a relatively small outdoor space, not merely sufficient for entertaining. With the perks of having your own private terrace, overlooking the Tel Aviv skyline and enjoying sunlight for most hours of the day – it is no wonder that roof-top apartments and duplex-penthouses are THE MOST desired and sought after type of apartments in Tel Aviv among buyers. 

There are a maximum 2-3 roof-top apartments / duplex-penthouses for every building in Tel Aviv, and only a handful of proper penthouses to be found.

These are highly sought after apartments, expensively so, and are not easy to come by.

One of the main disadvantages of these apartments though, is that they are duplexes, and for most this means that most of the living area is at the lower floor, where your outdoor space is at the top, featuring an additional 23 m2 room that is normally used as a master bedroom.

Confused, many foreigners find this to be very disappointing, as the whole idea of having a terrace is so the entertainment zone will act as a continuation to the terrace in order to fully enjoy it, however there’s a reasonable explanation to this, and eventually it boils down to building rights.

Having, what we call a ‘reverse duplex’ where you have your entire entertaining area at the top floor, hence your living room, dining, kitchen and terrace, with your private quarters at the lower floor is very hard to find, unless these are new buildings that have been granted with additional permits.

Roof-Top Apartments:

Israeli singer Alona Daniel released her song ‘Al Gagot Tel Aviv’ (On the roof-tops of Tel Aviv) in 1989, branding living in a roof-top apartment in Tel Aviv, as the way to fully enjoy living in this city.

I guess this applies to every city; I mean who wouldn’t want to live on the top floor, while enjoying sunny days sitting out on the terrace and overlooking the urban view?

These roof-top apartments tend to be smaller in size, consisting of 1-2 bedrooms, mostly residing in older buildings and with no elevators in them (!), they are very attractive among the younger crowd.

Now, if you don’t mind climbing up 70 or 80 flight of stairs, then you’re in for a treat, however in order to fully enjoy these apartments, one must look out for the building’s regular upkeep, especially the building’s common roof making sure maintenance is kept regular as these apartments are prone to attract heat during summer and water penetrating the roof or walls during winter.

If all in all the building is in good shape and is regularly maintained, then in overall there shouldn’t be a problem.

Personally, I find them to be the true gems of Tel Aviv.  

Penthouses:

The creme de la creme. Flat, stand-alone penthouses in Tel Aviv are uncommon, mainly due to space and building rights, and also due to the fact that most entrepreneurs prefer to build two apartments rather than one, but penthouses can be found, and they are very expensive.

These apartments can come meticulously designed to fit your taste and standard and many buyers hire an interior designer as well, to have the residence be tailor made to their needs.

Duplex-Penthouses and Penthouses are normally sold with either one or two parking spaces, a private storage unit (depending on the building), and private elevator access to both floors (again depending on the building and the building rights).