Rishpon and Arsuf.
The Honest Guide from the Tel Aviv Property Index
Rishpon is a farming moshav turned estate address; Arsuf is a small, secluded villa enclave on a cliff above the sea. Together they are among the rarest and most expensive residential markets in Israel. They are also the most legally complicated, and almost nothing about their prices is public.
Where it is
Rishpon lies just east of Route 2, north of Kfar Shmaryahu and north-east of Herzliya Pituach. It is a few minutes from the Herzliya business park and roughly 20 to 40 minutes from central Tel Aviv by car.
Arsuf sits on the coast north of Herzliya Pituach, beside Kibbutz Shefayim and near the Apollonia National Park. Its homes stand on a sandstone cliff about 35 metres above the sea.
Both fall within the Hof HaSharon Regional Council, not a city. That affects services, taxes and planning, as well as who decides what gets built.
From farms to estates
Rishpon was founded in the 1930s as an agricultural moshav. Its members received farm units, known as nachalot, which combined a house plot with agricultural land. For decades it was a working farming village.
Over the past two decades Rishpon has become a favoured address for Israeli wealth. Families buy entire nachalot to build large estates. In 2004 the moshav marketed 30 expansion plots, drawing 188 applicants at around $400,000 each, according to press reports at the time.
Arsuf is newer. It was established in the 1990s and named after the ancient fortress at nearby Tel Arshaf. A 2024 press report described two parts: an older villa neighbourhood, Arsuf Kedem, and homes along the seafront.
What it is actually like today
Rishpon still feels rural in places. Fields, greenhouses and orchards sit alongside walled estates. Some streets are rough, and the mix of farm and mansion can surprise newcomers.
Arsuf is quieter still. It has only around 40 to 50 families, by one 2024 account. Homes are custom-designed, gardens are professionally kept, and there is little street life.
Neither place has meaningful shops. There is no public transport to Arsuf, according to the same report. Both are car-only lives.
Moshav land: what you are really buying in Rishpon
This is the issue that matters most. Most land in a moshav belongs to the state and is managed by the Israel Land Authority (ILA). Residents typically hold rights as lessees or as licensees, not as freehold owners.
There are two main types of property. A nachala is a full farm unit, typically several dunams, combining a residential area with agricultural land. An expansion plot (harchava) is a residential plot added later, usually without farming rights. The two are regulated very differently.
On a nachala, the number of homes, their size and any non-farm use are governed by Israel Land Council decisions, notably decision 1523 and its successors. Owners can often pay capitalisation fees to regularise and extend their rights. Buying a nachala also usually needs the approval of the moshav's own institutions, as well as ILA consent to the transfer.
Rights are often recorded with the ILA or the settlement institutions rather than in the Land Registry. That makes title checks slower and more specialised. A 2026 report noted that nachala buyers in Rishpon are attracted mainly by the land, often eight to ten dunams.
The cliff and the coast in Arsuf
Arsuf's appeal is its setting: homes on a cliff with sweeping sea views. That cliff is sandstone and it erodes. Collapses have been reported along this stretch of coast, including at nearby Sidna Ali in Herzliya in 2024.
The coast is protected by the Coastal Environment Protection Law 2004, which restricts building near the shoreline. The area around Arsuf includes a national park, and environmental groups have raised concerns about the enclave's impact on nature. Access to the beach below is steep, and one report called it dangerous.
Arsuf once restricted public access and parking. According to press reports, those restrictions were loosened after a court ruling in 2018. Buyers should not assume complete privacy.
Who lives here
Rishpon mixes long-standing moshav families with wealthy newcomers, including senior figures from Israel's technology sector. Some original members still farm. Others have sold or divided their rights.
Arsuf's residents are a small, affluent and discreet group. A 2024 report said that around 30% of buyers were French and American. It described residents as mostly aged 40 to 60, with few young children.
There is no Anglo community to speak of in either place. English-speaking buyers here tend to be internationally mobile and socially connected elsewhere, often in Herzliya Pituach or Tel Aviv.
Prices and what you get
The public register shows no usable sales here since 2023. That is not a gap in our research; it is the nature of the market.
| Area | Median price | ₪/m² | Registered deals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rishpon | Not available | Not available | 0 |
| Arsuf | Not available | Not available | 0 |
Registered sales, Jan 2023 – Aug 2026
Press reports give some sense of the market, but they are not register data:
- Rishpon: an eight-dunam nachala sold for about ₪40 million, reported in February 2026.
- Rishpon: the same report said only one residential sale took place in 2025, at about ₪11 million.
- Arsuf: a 1.4-dunam property sold for about ₪12 million, reported in 2024.
The same Arsuf report put asking prices at ₪18 million to ₪20 million for a 700 m² vacant plot, and ₪30 million to ₪40 million for a dunam or more. It also said there was about one deal a year. The gap between the ₪12 million sale and those asking prices is itself a warning.
For comparable Rishpon nachalot, the 2026 report cited a range of ₪30 million to ₪50 million. In practice, you are paying mainly for land, rights and scarcity. The house may be rebuilt anyway.
The honest risk is twofold. First, there is no public benchmark, so price is whatever a small group agrees. Second, the legal status of what you buy, especially on a nachala, can limit what you build, how you finance it and whom you can sell to.
For purchase tax at an illustrative ₪25 million on a residential property, a single-home buyer pays about ₪1.81 million. An oleh under Regulation 12A pays about ₪1.54 million, and a foreign resident or additional-home buyer about ₪2.38 million.
At an illustrative ₪40 million, the figures are about ₪3.31 million, ₪2.74 million and ₪3.88 million. On a nachala, the agricultural element may not qualify as a dwelling, and non-residential land is generally taxed at 6%. The split needs specialist advice.
Buying here: what to check before you sign
What exactly is being sold.Establish whether the property is a nachala, an expansion plot or a private plot. Obtain written confirmation of the rights from the ILA and, for Rishpon, the moshav.
Transfer approvals.Confirm the moshav's admission process and the ILA's consent requirements before signing. Make the contract conditional on them, with a clear long-stop date.
Capitalisation and permitted use.Check whether the rights have been capitalised under Israel Land Council decisions, and what that allows. Confirm how many homes, of what size, may stand on the plot.
Permits and unauthorised use.Moshav properties often have unauthorised buildings or non-farm uses. The ILA and the planning authorities can both act, under the lease terms and the Planning and Building Law 1965.
Betterment levy and ILA charges.A levy under the Third Schedule to the Planning and Building Law may apply where a plan has raised value. ILA consent and capitalisation fees can add substantially to the cost. Get them quantified in writing.
The coastline (Arsuf).Obtain an engineering view on the cliff and check restrictions under the Coastal Environment Protection Law 2004. Ask what protection works exist and who pays for them.
Financing and exit.Directive 329 caps loan-to-value at 75% for a single dwelling, 70% for a replacement home and 50% for an additional home. Banks may lend less against moshav rights. On exit, capital gains tax is 25%, and the single-home exemption stops at ₪5,008,000, frozen until 15 January 2028.
Who it suits
Rishpon and Arsuf work well for:
- Buyers seeking land, privacy and scale that no city can offer
- Those who want sea views and near-total seclusion (Arsuf)
- Long-term owners planning to build a family estate (Rishpon)
- Buyers with strong legal support and access to private networks
They are harder to recommend for:
- Families wanting an English-speaking community and walkable services
- Buyers who need mortgage finance at high loan-to-value
- Anyone uncomfortable with state leasehold and moshav approvals
- Those who may need to sell quickly or at a predictable price
The verdict
Rishpon and Arsuf offer something no Israeli city can: space, land and, in Arsuf, a sea view few will ever match. They are genuinely exceptional places, and their buyers know it.
But these are markets built on relationships and legal detail, not on data. A nachala is not a freehold villa, and a cliff is not a permanent guarantee. The price of getting either wrong is very high.
Buy here only with specialist lawyers, patient timing and trusted introductions. In Rishpon and Arsuf, the paperwork matters as much as the view.
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