Furnishing Your
Home in Israel

How Buying Works in Israel

Israeli home retail runs on discretionary discounting, instalment credit and personal relationships. Understanding that before you walk into a showroom is worth several thousand shekels.

Prices

• VAT is 18% and is already included in every displayed price. Unlike the United States, the number on the tag is the number you pay.

Paying

• Instalments (tashlumim) are standard. Israeli retailers routinely split purchases across three to thirty-six interest-free monthly payments on an Israeli credit card. This is the single largest cash-flow advantage available to you — and it requires an Israeli bank account and card, which take a few weeks to arrange after landing.
• Before the card exists, large purchases are made by bank transfer (ha'avara bankait) or foreign card, usually forfeiting the instalment option. Where timing allows, waiting for the Israeli card is often worth it.
• Cash or transfer sometimes buys a further discount at smaller independent retailers. Always take a proper receipt (kabala) regardless — it is your warranty document.

Warranty and Imports

• Official importer versus parallel import. The same model is sold through the official importer — higher price, longer warranty, local service network, parts held in country — and through parallel importers, at 10–35% less with a thinner warranty and slower service. For refrigerators, ovens and washing machines, the official importer is generally worth the premium. For televisions, small appliances and electronics, parallel import is usually fine.
• Confirm the warranty length in writing, and who honours it: manufacturer, importer or retailer.
• Made-to-order items are normally non-returnable. Israeli consumer law provides a limited cancellation window on standard retail purchases, but custom upholstery, fitted closets and made-to-measure furniture are typically excluded. Confirm cancellation terms in writing before paying any deposit.

Timing the Market

• Pre-Rosh Hashana and pre-Pesach are the two heaviest promotional seasons for home goods — and the two periods when delivery slots become scarce.
• Black Friday is now fully adopted by Israeli retailers and is often the year's best pricing on electronics.
• End-of-season furniture clearances run in February and August.
• Most sites are Hebrew-only. Browser translation handles them adequately, and most chain salespeople speak workable English. WhatsApp is the normal channel for quotes and follow-up — expect a mobile number rather than an email address.

What Differs From the United States

Electricity

Israel runs on 220–230V at 50Hz; the United States runs on 120V at 60Hz. American appliances will not work here. A step-down transformer solves the voltage but not the frequency, so anything with a motor, compressor, timer or clock — refrigerators, washing machines, mixers, alarm clocks — will run incorrectly or fail. Do not ship American appliances. The exception is modern electronics with universal switching power supplies, which need only a plug adaptor.

Sockets are Israeli Type H, which also accept the round two-pin Type C plugs used across Europe. Bring a handful of adaptors for the first week, then re-plug or replace anything staying long-term.

The Apartment Itself

• Everything is measured in centimetres. Israeli furniture, appliance apertures and doorways are metric, and rounding an American dimension will cost you a return trip.
• Rooms are smaller. A "4-room" apartment means three bedrooms plus a living room, typically 90–120 sqm. American-scale sectionals, king beds and double-door refrigerators frequently do not fit — or do not fit through the stairwell.
• Bedrooms usually have no built-in closets. A wardrobe (aron bgadim) is a real purchase, one per bedroom, and among the larger line items on the list.
• The mamad — the reinforced safe room — has a steel door, a steel window shutter and blast-proof walls that cannot be drilled freely. It is usually counted as a bedroom, and its door swing eats floor space.
• Floors are tiled, not carpeted. Budget for rugs, and for felt pads under every chair and table leg.
• Windows have external rolling shutters (trisim) rather than blinds, but frequently no curtains, rails or fly screens. Easily forgotten, immediately missed.
• Kitchens are usually handed over with cabinetry but no appliances — no oven, hob, refrigerator, dishwasher or washing machine. Confirm precisely what remains, including light fittings, which outgoing occupants often take with them.
• Laundry. Front-loading machines are universal; tumble dryers are not. Most households line-dry on the service balcony. If you want a dryer, specify condenser or heat-pump — almost no apartment has an external vent.
• Hot water comes from a solar tank on the roof (dud shemesh) with an electric backup on a switch. In summer the sun suffices; in winter you will use the switch daily.

Sizing: US Versus Israeli Standards

Furniture

What to Specify, Room by Room

Beds & Mattresses

How to Buy

• Mattress and base are sold separately. This is standard, and it gives useful flexibility: a good mattress on a modest base is a better purchase than the reverse.
• Try before buying. Spend real time lying on each candidate in your actual sleeping position, on both sides. Mattresses are the one item on this list we would not buy remotely.
• Confirm base and mattress dimensions match exactly. Both 190 cm and 200 cm lengths are in wide use, and a ten-centimetre mismatch is a common and expensive error.
• Specify a storage base unless the room genuinely has surplus cupboard space.
• Warranties run from one to twenty years and typically cover manufacturing defects only, often prorated. Read what is actually covered rather than the headline number.
• Buy pillows and protectors at the same time — all three carry them, and it saves a separate delivery.
• Then buy linen, in Israel, to the mattress's exact dimensions.

Electronics, Television & Appliances

Large Appliances — What to Specify

Television and Connectivity

• Buy the television in Israel. Local units carry an Israeli warranty and the correct tuner for terrestrial and cable broadcast; the saving from shipping one is rarely worth the warranty and adaptor problems.
• Content and infrastructure are separate purchases. Television comes from HOT or Yes on cable and satellite, or increasingly from streaming providers — Cellcom TV, Partner TV, Sting TV — over the internet. Internet itself is two contracts: the physical infrastructure, Bezeq or HOT, fibre where available, and the ISP on top of it. This trips up nearly every new arrival.
• Order the internet line early. Installation appointments run one to three weeks out, and everything else in a modern home depends on it.
• Mount the television rather than standing it — Israeli walls are concrete and hold a bracket well, and floor space is scarce. Order bracket and installation together.

Small Appliances

Kitchen, Tableware & Textiles

The Working Kitchen Checklist

Textiles

• Bed linen to Israeli sizes, bought after the mattresses. Two sets per bed is the working minimum; three for children.
• Duvets in two weights. A light summer duvet is genuinely necessary here, and a warmer one for the two or three cold months.
• Towels — bath, hand and guest, four to six sets per bathroom, plus beach towels, which get more use than you would expect.
• Curtains and rails, which the apartment almost certainly lacks despite having shutters.
• Rugs for tiled floors, with non-slip underlays.
• Bathroom — mats, shower fittings, laundry basket, storage.

Delivery, Installation & Access

• Deliveries are paid in cash. This is the norm in Israel, and it surprises almost every new arrival. Even where the goods themselves were paid by card or transfer, the delivery, carrying and assembly charges are routinely settled in cash with the crew at the door. Establish the amount in advance and have it ready — the crew will not wait while you find a cash machine.
• Carrying to floor is charged, and charged more without a lift. Establish the fee at the point of order, not at the door.
• Crane hire (manof) for anything that will not fit the stairwell — arranged in advance, requiring a clear street position and sometimes a municipal permit.
• Someone must be present for every delivery, and delivery windows are wide. Consolidating suppliers reduces the number of days lost to waiting.
• Inspect before signing. Once you sign the delivery note, damage becomes an argument rather than a claim. Photograph anything questionable at the point of delivery.
• Packaging removal is not automatic. A whole-apartment delivery generates a remarkable volume of cardboard and polystyrene; agree its removal in the order.
• Assembly is a separate line item almost everywhere. Where a supplier offers delivery, assembly and installation at one price, that is usually worth paying for.

Indicative Budget

Planning ranges for a three- to four-room apartment furnished new to a mid-market standard, in shekels including VAT. A framework for allocating budget between categories — not a quotation.

Shopping Hebrew

Suggested Sequence

The governing principle is that beds and a working kitchen make an apartment habitable on the first night. Everything else can arrive across the following two to three weeks without anyone suffering for it — and sequencing that way avoids paying premium rates to compress delivery schedules.