ILA | The Olam

The Israel Land Authority (ILA — Hebrew: רשות מקרקעי ישראל), formerly the Israel Lands Administration prior to 2009 restructuring, manages approximately 93% of Israeli land — either state-owned, held by the Development Authority, or held by the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet LeIsrael) under the integrated public-trust arrangement.

ILA's institutional mandate includes long-term leasehold administration (ILA does not generally sell freehold title; the standard arrangement is 49- or 98-year leases); conversion of leasehold positions to extended-term or near-freehold arrangements through structured administrative processes; coordination with municipal planning authorities on land development approvals; administration of agricultural-land arrangements with kibbutzim, moshavim, and the broader Israeli agricultural-cooperative sector; and sale of urban land for residential and commercial development under structured tender processes.

The ILA leasehold architecture is one of the more structurally distinctive features of the Israeli real-estate environment compared to most developed-market real-estate jurisdictions. For foreign buyers, understanding the leasehold-vs-freehold distinction, the conversion processes, and the broader leasehold-architecture implications is a meaningful pre-acquisition due-diligence consideration. Tabu registration of ILA leasehold positions operates parallel to Tabu registration of private freehold positions.

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