FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ISRAELI LAW AND GEORGIA LAW
AS RELATES TO REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
By Shelly Rabinovitch, Foreign Lawyer at Arnall Golden Gregory
In America, signing the purchase and sale agreement in a real estate transaction is only one step in the process. But in Israel, that represents the final step.
In America, prospective purchasers enjoy an “inspection period” before the deal is complete. But in Israel, no such inspection period is required. Instead, a prospective purchaser signs a purchase and sale agreement, which contractually constitutes the completion of the transaction.
Other significant differences between the two nations have to do with clearing the title and paying taxes.
Knowing how U.S. and Israeli real estate law compare is crucially important to Israeli investors interested in U.S. properties. Committing to a deal, then suffering an unpleasant legal surprise, is something any investor wants to avoid.
The issue is particularly important now because of strong foreign investment interest in the U.S. More than 50 percent of respondents to the annual survey by AFIRE, the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate, said the U.S. provides the best opportunity for capital appreciation. That far outpaces the second and third finishers: the United Kingdom at 30 percent and China at 10 percent. Not since 2003 have 51 percent of AFIRE’s nearly 200 members ranked the U.S. No. 1.
Read more: Fundamental Differences Between Israel Law and Georgia Law.... | Atlanta ROI
WAS THE BUILDING BOOM JUSTIFIED?
Atlanta Business Chronicle - by Doug Sams
Date: Monday, August 30, 2010, 7:48pm EDT
Atlanta's office market is suffering its highest vacancy rate - 21 percent - since 2004.
Several office buildings, including the landmark Equitable Building downtown, have been foreclosed upon. Meanwhile, the owners of other Atlanta office buildings are negotiating to keep their towers from going back to the lender.
There is much debate over how it got this bad.
Could developers and the investors behind them have avoided, or at least lessened, the market’s current woes by paying closer attention to job trends in the past decade? It’s job growth, after all, that fuels an office building’s occupancy and keeps its cash flow stable.
Read more: Was the building boom justified? | Atlanta Business Chronicle
ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY
First Fidelity's Robert Kadoori offers some tips for Israeli real estate investors in the US.
Erez Wollberg, Globes, March 28, 2010
Three years after the US sub-prime crisis started building up towards the global economic crisis, nobody doubts the potentially explosive link between the real estate and finance sectors. The First Fidelity Companies based in the US, which provides capital market solutions for commercial real estate, straddles the two sectors. So First Fidelity director Robert Kadoori, who was in Israel for the "Globes" Real Estate Conference 2010 in Tel Aviv, is well placed to observe the relationship between finance and real estate.
Read more: On The Road to Recovery | Atlanta ROI
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